Cinematic Technical Animator

About the role

Ghost Story Games is a self-publishing game development studio founded by Ken Levine (Creative Director of System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Bioshock Infinite) and former Irrational Games developers. The studio’s mission is to create narrative-driven experiences rooted in immersive world building and gameplay. Ghost Story Games is seeking a talented Cinematic Animator to join us on Judas, the highly anticipated game led by Ken Levine (System Shock 2, BioShock series). Judas is built upon novel technology by which the visual world, gameplay, and story unfold in meaningful, dynamic ways, offering a significant and personal journey adapted to each player’s experience and a new approach to the art and storytelling of video games.

Responsibilities

• Design extensible pipelines and tooling for cinematic and narrative content, enabling cross-disciplinary teams to deliver high-quality experiences with minimal engineering support.
• Lead efforts involving animation blueprints, animation montages, level sequences, and blueprint scripting to support both gameplay and cinematic goals.
• Provide technical direction for character animation integration and runtime control, focusing on improving emotional fidelity and storytelling impact.
• Collaborate closely with audio, lighting, animation, and narrative design teams to build systems that unify presentation layers and enhance dramatic storytelling.
• Drive performance optimization, reliability, and scalability of all cinematic systems to support long-term project goals and creative iteration.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of development experience in the game industry with recent hands-on implementation experience.
• Strong understanding of timing and pacing of narrative delivery.
• Contributed to at least one shipped title recognized for its strong narrative and/or mission design.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and organizational skills.
• Excellent visual scripting and/or programming skills.
• Strong investigative and debugging skills.
• Passion for narrative first-person shooters.
• Ability to work independently to diagnose and proactively resolve problems, while collaborating effectively with the animation team and cross-functional partners.
• Ability to receive feedback and not only apply it but learn from it.
• Ability to work within a schedule and deliver effectively to deadlines.
• Experience with task/bug-tracking software and pipelines.
• Experience with Perforce or similar version control software.

Pay

The pay range for this position in Massachusetts at the start of employment is expected to be between $71,000 and $123,000 per year. Base pay offered is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. The total compensation package may also include bonus and/or equity awards, in addition to a full range of medical, financial,