Environment Artist / Level Designer (Unreal Engine 5)

Environment Artist / Level Designer (Unreal Engine 5)

ABOUT KRAFTRAUM

Founded in 2025 by a group of tech and gaming industry veterans, KRAFTRAUM is a development studio working on co-development and full cycle product and game development.

Our team brings decades of shipped projects to the table, which is why we get up to speed and productive fast, with a clear focus on delivering. We have deep expertise in Unreal and Unity, MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) technology and game UI/UX, with multiple shipped AAA titles behind us.

ABOUT THE TEAM

We work in small, focused teams on co-development projects for premium PC/Console. Our approach: keep teams lean, communicate directly, and ship. We value a solutions-first mindset, a hands-on attitude, and clear communication over endless meetings and process overhead.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're looking for an Environment Artist / Level Designer to own game environments from first blockout through final lighting pass. You'll work across modeling, sculpting, materials, lighting and in-engine assembly, shaping both how a space plays and how it looks.

Our pipeline is Blender, Substance and Unreal Engine 5.x on Perforce, using the engine's native tools wherever they do the job. The role suits someone comfortable moving between art craft and gameplay layout rather than staying strictly on one side of that line.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build environments from greybox to final art: layout, blockout, modeling, sculpting, texturing, lighting and set dressing

• Design playable spaces with clear navigation, sightlines and pacing, and iterate on them based on playtest feedback

• Author materials in Substance Designer and Substance Painter, and build the corresponding shader networks in Unreal

• Light scenes for mood and readability while staying within performance budget

• Work natively in Unreal's tools, including Modeling Mode, Landscape, World Partition, Material Editor and Blueprint

• Maintain modular kits, naming conventions and asset standards that the wider team can build against

• Keep environments within budget for draw calls, texture memory, LODs and lightmaps/GI, profiling and fixing issues as they appear

• Collaborate closely with game designers, engineers and artists on what each space needs to support mechanically

QUALIFICATIONS

• Profound working knowledge of Unreal Engine 5.x, including Modeling Mode, Landscape, World Partition, level streaming, Material Editor, Nanite and Lumen

• Extensive production experience in Blender: hard-surface and organic modeling, clean topology, sensible UVs, reliable bakes

• Strong sculpting skills in Blender or ZBrush, with the ability to take a high-poly sculpt through to a game-ready asset

• Strong proficiency with Substance Designer and Substance Painter, including procedural material authoring

• Working knowledge of Perforce, including exclusive checkout on binary assets

• Solid command of lighting: composition, color, exposure, and the tradeoffs between baked and dynamic solutions

• Experience with modular and trim-sheet workflows

• 3 years of professional experience in game environment art or level design

• A portfolio showing complete environments rather than collections of individual assets

• Fluent English proficiency (written and spoken)

BONUS QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with Unreal PCG for large-scale scatter and procedural layout

• Shipped title credit on PC or console

• Technical art skills: custom shaders, HLSL, Blender or Unreal Python tooling

• Houdini experience feeding an Unreal pipeline

• Photogrammetry or scan data cleanup

• Experience defining an art bible or style guide

SPECIFICATIONS, COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

This is a fully remote role targeting candidates based in the EU. We offer both permanent employment (for candidates located in Germany) and freelance/contractor arrangements.

Salary is 3.5k EUR/m. Flexible working hours -- we care about results, not clocking hours.

KRAFTRAUM is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all genders, backgrounds, and identities.

Hope to hear from you soon!