Hi everyone! I’m Tom, Creative Director at Neon Wave Studios. We’re a four-person, UK-based team looking for a 2D animator to join us on Lightless Night, a dark fantasy action game built in Unity.
The game combines colour-based combat, hordes of monsters and endearing characters, with a dark, monochrome art style and creepy-cute character designs.
From game jam to vertical slice
Lightless Night began as a game jam project, and we’re now developing it into a fuller game. Much of the gameplay is already implemented, and we’re working towards a vertical slice in March 2027.
Our overall visual direction is established, and we’re currently refining the character designs, developing the environments and building out the soundscape.
Our team
Our current team includes:
- A character artist.
- An environment artist.
- Me, handling programming, writing and direction.
- A sound engineer and composer.
Animation is the missing skill in our visual team, and we’re looking for someone who wants to help shape this part of the game.
Why we’re looking for an animator now
This is an important stage to bring an animator into the team. We want to develop how the characters move alongside how they’re drawn, so your input would help shape the designs, artwork preparation and animation workflow.
You’d help establish the animation approach, as well as create the animations. We’re considering bone-based animation in Spine or a similar tool, potentially combined with additional hand-drawn poses, but we’re open to your recommendations.
We’re looking for movement that gives our characters personality and makes combat feel responsive and satisfying.
Where we’d start
We’d begin with one character and a focused set of animations, working closely with our character artist to:
- Choose an approach that suits the artwork and the team.
- Work out how to prepare and, where appropriate, rig the character.
- Establish the animation style and workflow.
- Use what we learn to agree a realistic animation scope for the vertical slice.
You wouldn’t need to arrive with every answer—we want to develop the approach collaboratively. Experience taking a character from artwork to animation in a game would be particularly useful, especially if you’ve worked with Unity.
The initial focus would be character animation. There may also be opportunities to animate scenery, interactive objects and atmospheric details later, depending on the scope we agree together.
Revenue share and commitment
We have one animator role available, offering 10% revenue share. There is no upfront pay or guaranteed income.
The scope, revenue definition and payment terms would be agreed in writing before work begins. We’d also discuss your availability and agree an initial workload together, using the first character’s animations to help plan what’s achievable for the March vertical slice.
Interested?
Reply here or send me a message with:
- Examples of your animation work.
- Your preferred tools and any game-animation experience.
- Your general availability.
- What interests you about the project.
You can also contact me on discord at r3dpanda_
If you enjoy expressive characters, dark fantasy and helping a small team develop its animation approach, we’d love to hear from you.
