Senior Animation Engineer MAINFRAME INDUSTRIES / Helsinki/Reykjavik/Paris/remote

PUBLISHED: February 1, 2024

We are looking for a Senior Animation Engineer for our team to develop Pax Dei, a social sandbox MMO. As a Senior Animation Engineer you will be one of the stakeholders in animation tech and implementation of new animation systems. You will be responsible for technical designs and development of animation pipelines supporting both gameplay and animation teams delivering state of the art character animation in Pax Dei.

Do you want to take part in creating the game of a lifetime?

At Mainframe, we are building Pax Dei: a social sandbox MMO, a living world where myths are real, ghosts exist, and magic is unquestioned. A world that players worldwide will call their home and where they will craft their stories for years to come.  

Your mission:

You will be one of the stakeholders in animation tech and implementation of new animation systems, working closely with gameplay and animation teams delivering state of the art character animations, responsible for technical designs and development of animation pipelines.

Your responsibilities:

You will implement systems for AI behaviors and PvE encounters, PVP and gameplay interaction, working closely with the design team to create a robust and scalable foundation for PvE gameplay and future content.

  • You will help maintain and expand the animation systems for core gameplay features and work on feature modularization animation support
  • You will implement and maintain scaling and network optimized player character animation solutions and take the ownership of character animation tech
  • You will design and implement animation solutions for large scale entities with complex physics requirements
  • You will work with AI and assist gameplay and Animation teams in creating seamless natural looking character interactions. 
  • You will evaluate and prototype motion matching as a solution for player character locomotion animations

Prerequisites:

  • You are familiar with the evolution of animation techniques such as motion matching.
  • Strong C++ programming and debugging skills.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • You feel comfortable working with multiple stakeholders and teams, understanding their needs as well as communicating your solutions.
  • Unreal Engine and multiplayer experience.

Good to have but not a requirement:

  • Knowledge of character animation tech in unreal such as: Warping, Layering, Pose matching, Facial animation, Blend Trees, IK systems
  • Motion Matching experience
  • Creating/Extending or working directly with animation systems within a game engine
  • Experience working with Physical, facial, gestures and dialogue mechanics.

What is in it for you:

The Animation team is spread out among core gameplay disciplines organized into various teams. Facilitating character work, NPC, PC gameplay, and ambient animations. We maintain a high level overview of gameplay mechanics and facilitate various solutions for planned and unplanned requirements, as anticipated by the rollout of upcoming Early Access. 

You will join in on exciting times as our MMO starts to breathe life!  During Pax Dei Early Access – planned for Spring 2024 – we are also learning from our players and developing new features. Working on a live game implies that you won’t have to keep everything you are working on secret and, most importantly, that you’ll have data and feedback about the features you work on shortly after their implementation.

Our team members are ambitious, approachable, kind, caring, and always ready to improve our ways of working together to bring life to Pax Dei and make our community’s satisfaction our priority. We are a small team working on a challenging project, and, for us, every team member counts; as such, we value transparency in our communication and decision-making processes.

Location and work:

Your role is based preferably in Finland, Iceland or France, where we have our offices. We are open to discussing remote work but, we prefer to stay in the time zones between Helsinki and Reykjavik. We believe in good work-life balance and working where you are most productive.

How to apply: 

We are happy to hear from you ASAP! Please feel free to reach out to us and tell us about yourself and about your experiences by submitting your application directly to our recruitment tool. We will get back to you as soon as we can. 

About Mainframe:

We are a pan-Nordic start-up founded in 2019 by gaming industry veterans. We are working on a project we love – Pax Dei – an ambitious social sandbox MMO, accessible on any screen and offering new ways of playing with our friends.

We have a human-friendly, equal-opportunity workplace that values collaboration, independence, and empathy.

We have offices in Helsinki, Reykjavik, and Paris, but we work where we are most productive, and for many of us, that means remotely from home. All our offices are centrally located, and we offer you top-of-the-line work conditions wherever you work.

You can find more info on Mainframe Industries on our website 

https://themainframe.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScId93OotXM 

Information on Pax Dei  

https://playpaxdei.com/