We are seeking a technical lighting artist to join Playdead and work on GAME3, an open world sci-fi adventure . We are looking for someone who has technical experience working with lighting in Unreal or other proprietary game engines and has strong problem solving skills.

As a technical lighting artist at Playdead, your responsibilities would be to support our artists and leads with the more technical aspects of the lighting pipeline. You would be collaborating closely with rendering programmers to identify and debug problems and develop workflows and pipelines using Unreal Engine 5.

This will include working with Blueprints and, depending on experience, could include Python or C++ tools. You will be responsible for managing all aspects of technical lighting which includes asset management, performance and optimisation and material development.

Generally, you would take responsibility for reviewing documentation and learning all of the latest UE5 lighting technology, taking the initiative to test this technology and assisting in educating the team with all aspects of technical lighting for a large, third-person, open-world game.

We are particularly looking for a colleague who enjoys setting their own goals and taking responsibility for their own schedule.

We are working within a highly focused and ambitious vision, which requires adapting to the existing visual style whilst contributing your own ideas to the project. More than anything, we are looking for someone who is excited about all facets of game development, with strong problem solving skills.

This is a full time position at our studio in Copenhagen, Denmark so you need to be willing to relocate (we offer full relocation support).

Depending on your experience, you could be working on -

  • Tooling with Blueprints and developing materials
  • Ensuring the game meets ambitious artistic goals
  • Solving lighting issues which limit the creative direction alongside rendering engineers
  • Supporting all technical aspects of the lighting art pipeline
  • Educating on lighting best practices for modern game development in Unreal Engine 5
  • Performance and optimisation for a modern 3D graphics pipeline

Required Skills

  • Professional working experience with 3D game production focusing on lighting
  • Technical knowledge of lighting and lighting systems
  • Experience working with major game engines - we are especially interested in people with Unreal Engine 5 or other proprietary game engine experience
  • Understanding of Physical Lighting Values and PBR
  • Exceptional communication skills
  • Strong problem solving skills which includes R&D

Desired Skills

  • Knowledge of Blueprint (Bonus: Python or C++)
  • Understanding of modern 3D graphics pipelines
  • Experience working to solve technical problems with people of all levels and from different departments


Who We Are
We are a team of more than 80 creative professionals. We experiment and collaborate with a focus on creating new experiences, and as such we are looking for people who can help us achieve them.

Our approach to development does not include crunching towards arbitrary deadlines - instead, we particularly look for talented people who enjoy managing their own schedule and thrive on working within a friendly, collaborative environment.

We carefully craft games with obsessive attention to detail and are always on the lookout for others who share that passion.