In the fast-growing, visually driven gaming industry, a stellar in-house art team can make or break your studio’s ability to thrive. With global revenue from game development projected to reach $300 billion by 2027, competition for once-in-a-generation artistic talent is fierce. So, how do you convince gifted animators, illustrators, and modelers to bet their careers on your studio above the rest? Use these proven talent attraction tactics to build an artistic dream team.
Showcase Your Creative Cred
Top artists want reassurance they’ll have opportunities to do their most inspired work. When recruiting, flaunt achievements demonstrating your studio’s commitment to innovation and artistic expression. Show awards won for technical art advancements or creative stylistic risk-taking. Feature stunning concept art or assets highlighting techniques unique to your team. Explain technical breakthroughs, like proprietary engines, expanding artistic possibilities. This shows prospects their imagination won’t be limited by corporate constraints or technical challenges. With art directions increasingly driving games’ commercial success, this priority should take center stage in your employer brand. Before hiring artists, you have to write a complete job post to get more coverage.
Pay Competitive Salaries
Compensation remains one of the foremost considerations for in-demand creatives assessing roles. Research the latest industry salary benchmarks for each art specialization, like character modeling, environment production or visual effect simulation. Develop competitive salary ranges surpassing middling rates, so artists recognize your determination to procure top-notch talent, even with rising labor costs. Consider bonus structures allowing standout artists to increase earnings for each game’s ratings or sales success. While pay isn’t everything, underestimating its importance risks losing candidates to a game art studio that acknowledges its market value.
Shape a Collaborative Culture
Game art necessitates tight collaboration between concept artists, 3D modelers, animators and technical directors to bring ideas to life. Foster a culture that removes friction from that cooperative creative process. Are 3D sculptors constantly waiting on concept direction or reference? Are animators struggling with poorly optimized models cratering frame rates? Identify and eliminate workflow bottlenecks so artists can shine. Set objectives focused on team cohesion over individual output. Share creative accomplishments collectively, not by specific roles. Demonstrate how you empower art teams to create magic together. Top talent wants environments that inspire their colleagues, not competition.
Invest in Professional Growth
Like any creative field, game art innovation moves swiftly. The tools, techniques and expectations shaping visual aesthetics evolve continuously. Top artists have an intrinsic drive to continuously expand their skills and stay ahead of the curve. Ensure your talent development programs match that hunger for growth through funded conference participation, online learning stipends for tutorials or masterclasses and in-house training on emerging techniques using VR, motion capture, and more. Bring in guest artists to conduct workshops on stylized texturing, optimized animation rigging, or other specializations. By actively investing in talent, you demonstrate rich opportunities for artists to reach new career heights without changing studios.
Prioritize Avoiding Crunch
The gaming industry’s notorious crunch time periods leading up to major releases can spur burnout, health impacts, and high attrition among artists pressured to sacrifice nights and weekends just as projects near the finish line. Emphasize your studio’s commitment to maintaining reasonable hours and avoiding extreme overtime demands, especially given research shows crunch doesn’t improve overall productivity or quality. Set realistic milestones, scale back overly ambitious scope if needed, and stick to original deadlines without overextending teams. Workers staying late to polish personal contributions out of passion is far different than mandated unpaid overtime decreed by management. Clarify you won’t sacrifice employees’ well-being to ship games.
Incentivize Referrals
Hiring managers across industries agree employee referrals are the top source of high-quality talent. Who better to identify candidates likely to excel at and appreciate your studio’s unique creative environment than team members already thriving there? Offer enticing bonuses for artists who refer new hires, like extra vacation days, gift cards or credits toward learning events. Train artists on best practices for social recruiting via their networks. Enable easy tools for submitting referrals through an internal portal transparently tracking bonuses earned. Nothing sells a studio’s culture as authentically as insiders informally advocating your teams.
Seed Campus Talent Pipelines
New artistic recruits often trace back to specialized art and design schools focused wholly on nurturing tomorrow’s creative innovators across gaming and entertainment. Partner with renowned schools through portfolio reviews, classroom critiques, work experience programs or even syllabus co-design. Guest lecture to share your studio’s guiding design principles. Sponsor campus gaming jams where you can observe emerging talent in action. Identify promising students for internships, allowing organic evaluation prior to full-time offers. Getting visibility with tomorrow’s artistic stars early in their journeys pays recruiting dividends for years.
Immerse in Artistic Communities
While job boards and campus pipelines will surface strong applicants, hidden gems may be undiscovered. Proactively support broader artistic communities through event or contest sponsorships, nonprofit donations, judging opportunities, or volunteering for advisory boards. Keep a pulse on regional happenings across digital and traditional art forms, like figure drawing clubs, development meetups, demo reel screenings, or indie game showcases. Not only are such community connections ripe for spotting dazzling artistic talent lacking formal industry experience, but they also spread positive brand impressions for your studio to the circles needing the most reassurance during hiring processes.
Conclusion
Standing out to artistic superstars takes more than touting competitive pay and great benefits. You need a stellar reputation for empowering talented teams to create their best work without unnecessary workplace friction. While project demands will always require extra effort as release dates are near, avoid normalizing excessive overtime that can silently derail retention. Show prospects continuous opportunities for artistic growth and community both inside and outside studio walls. By taking an authentic interest in the complete creative journey, you become so much more than just another potential employer. Follow these tips to attract truly exceptional, career-accelerating talent poised to transform your studio’s artistic legacy.
