Blacktop Hoop is the world’s first competitive VR streetball game. We are pioneering a new era of immersive gaming, chaining together flashy dribble tricks, shots, and high-flying dunks to finish off opponents in epic games of 1-on-1 arcade basketball. As we expand both our single player and multiplayer systems, we are seeking a talented and experienced Senior Visual Effects (VFX) Artist to join our team on a full-time contract basis.

As a Senior VFX Artist, you will be responsible for conceptualizing, designing, and creating stunning, dynamic, and optimized visual effects that will enhance the immersive experience of Blacktop Hoops VR. You will work closely with our design, art, and engineering teams to create and implement VFX that elevate the game's aesthetic and gameplay experience.

Examples of things you could work on:

• Creating dynamic visual effects for various gameplay elements like dribbling, shooting, and dunking.
• Developing and optimizing VFX for different game environments and character actions.
• Collaborating with the design team to create VFX that enhances the player's immersion and interaction with the game world.
• Profiling and optimizing shader code to ensure the best performance across different platforms.

Responsibilities:

• Conceptualize, design, and create stunning in-game visual effects (including modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, shaders, etc.) using available tools in Unity.
• Work collaboratively with game designers and engineers to understand gameplay requirements and to effectively communicate gameplay mechanics to the player within the constraints of the engine.
• Work with the art team to define a consistent style for VFX and to ensure the quality of the assets for all aspects of the project.
• Ensure that VFX assets are built efficiently and within game constraints and given timelines.
• Profile and analyze the performance of your shaders and visual effects to ensure and maintain performance on the target platform.
• Assist in the profiling of existing shaders within Blacktop Hoops.
• Provide creative and innovative solutions to technical art problems and/or restrictions.
• Create shaders and visual effects that integrate with the URP pipeline and unity batching systems.

• Strong understanding and proficiency in creating and optimizing VFX for mobile gaming platforms, including the Meta Quest 2 and mobile VR HMDs.
• Strong understanding of rendering on the Quest 2, mobile platforms, and the Unity URP rendering pipeline.
• Understanding of shader optimization, shader math operations, and expense,
• Basic proficiency in shader languages such as CG, HLSL, GLSL.
• Working knowledge of Amplify Shader Editor (and Unity Shader Graph as a plus).
• Ability to replicate the look of concept visuals from the art department as closely as possible, but also take initiative and conceptualize independently when required.
• 5+ years of experience as a VFX artist in the gaming industry.
• 3 years’ experience creating real-time special VFX for video games.
• Extensive experience prototyping and building VFX in Unity.
• Advanced knowledge of most game development tools and ability to master proprietary tools and development processes.
• Experience with traditional 2D animated VFX.
• Experience or knowledge of repository tools Github with clean and organized working practices.
  

Bonus Points:

• Previous experience working on VR games.
• Knowledge of streetball or basketball in general.
• Experience with mobile game development and optimization.
• Proficiency in using RenderDoc for debugging and optimization.