Technical Artist

Sago Mini is an award-winning publisher of preschool apps and toys worldwide. We are supported by a team of artists, designers, developers, product managers, thinkers, and doers devoted to play. With over 100 million downloads and three subscription services featuring 45+ apps,  Sago Mini brings thoughtful design to life for kids and parents worldwide. Along with Toca Boca and Originator, we’re part of the Piknik family – a collection of top-rated apps for kids in one subscription. 

About You

You are an energized and enthusiastic go-getter who thrives in a team environment. With an attentive eye for the details, you are a creative at heart and possess a flair for visual design and technical precision. You are eager to learn new things and solve complex problems while contributing your talents to a successful, growing, world-class organization. You thrive working in an agile environment and enjoy juggling multiple projects at once. You’re happy and willing to put your head down and focus on the tasks at hand, but as a clear and confident communicator, you gladly speak up and share valuable thoughts and insights. You have a few years of experience, can communicate design needs to both programmers and artists, and bring creative solutions to solve challenging problems.

About the Role 

Sago Mini is hiring a Technical Artist to join our team of developers, designers, artists, builders and thought leaders who make apps that delight both children and parents around the world. As a Technical Artist you will be responsible for bridging the gap between programming, art, game design and sound to bring about creative, inviting and playful motion, interactions, and visual effects inside our games. Your understanding of a project's artistic vision, technical constraints and gameplay needs make you the perfect person to integrate art assets into our Unity projects while pushing the interactive and visual quality in our games.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Collaborating with developers, artists, animators and sound designers to improve workflow, optimization and integration of game assets, code, tools, mechanics and functionality in the success of our games, ensuring design and technical standards meet game requirements.  
• Responsible for configuring and bringing all the various game elements in a Unity scene together, making sure that they meet the highest standards for a project’s artistic vision and are fun for kids to play with.
• Refining every detail of a game to its highest level, from art, physics, and motion to interactions, sound design, performance and overall player experience.
• Organizing assets and rigs in Unity, maintaining a logical project hierarchy and ensuring cleanliness across shared files.
• Rapid prototyping gameplay features with our developers and play designers to build gameplay functionality that “feels” world-class.
• Applying problem-solving skills and creative troubleshooting to address quality assurance issues and exceptional game quality.
• Supporting the creation of custom tools for artists, technical artists and developers to work with in-game assets efficiently, while adhering to Sago Mini’s programming standards and development methodologies.
• Maintaining both Art and Tech Art pipelines while resolving cross-functional technical challenges.
• Support workflow improvements that enhance production processes.
• Engaging in brainstorming sessions, actively contributing innovative ideas, and identifying areas for improvement.
• Contributing to guides and technical documentation to streamline workflow for internal teams.
• Participate in user testing sessions, incorporating feedback to fine-tune gameplay.

Qualifications and Skills

• Highly proficient in Adobe Illustrator and Animate to edit, organize and export art assets.
• Experience importing and integrating assets into Unity projects, with a strong focus on optimization, performance, shared file structure and organization.
• Proficiency troubleshooting inside Unity projects and hierarchies.  
• Experience with Unity Animations, optimizing motion and interactivity within games.
• Experience with version control systems like Git for seamless project collaboration.
• Effective problem-solver with artistic flair and technical expertise in game development.
• Excited to explore our past projects for inspiration and methodically peel back the layers until you understand how something is built.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• An ability to clearly convey technical design to both developers and artists.
• Able to analyze a game element and articulate why it "feels" good or bad.
• A strong eye for visual design paired with an insistence on pixel-perfect accuracy.
• Eagerness and drive to learn and grow technical and artistic skill set.
• Highly motivated with ability to thrive in a growing team-oriented environment.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and projects simultaneously.
• Familiarity with foundational game programming concepts and logic inside Unity.
• A degree in game design, game programming, or a portfolio of relevant experience.
• This role is an excellent opportunity for someone with 3+ years of professional experience creating content with Unity, ideally but not limited to 2D game development.

Nice to Haves

• While this is not a game developer role basic proficiency in Unity/C# and game programming is considered a strong asset.
• Previous experience in designing for children and/or families.

About the Process

• You’ll get an email response confirming we’ve received your application, and we’ll let you know within a few weeks if we’d like to schedule a follow-up.
• If you’re moving ahead, we’ll book a call to learn more about your experience. Then we’ll send you a short homework assignment to get a better feel for your skillset.
• If the assignment goes well, we’ll book a technical interview to discuss your homework assignment and other technical questions.
• If the technical interview goes well, we have a last interview with potential colleagues to dive deeper prior to making a decision.

Based in Toronto, Sago Sago Toys of Spin Master Limited a leading global children’s entertainment company that creates, designs and manufactures a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games, products and entertainment properties. We hire humble and  collaborative people who care about doing great work. Sago Mini is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company.