When we formed Nordeus in 2010, with a football management game in development and an initial team of just three engineers, we were acutely aware that it was impossible to make a good game without amazing artists. Harnessing the evocative power of some of the best artists’ abilities, we were able to create Top Eleven.
Fast forward five years and Nordeus has grown to a global company with nearly 170 employees from all around the world. Top Eleven continues to be phenomenally popular the world over and, although it has become the most played online sports game in the world, we are busy working on brand new titles.
Art remains at the very core of everything we do. Over a quarter of our staff are artists with varying areas of interest ranging from concept artists and illustrators, to 3D, 2D, animators and VFX artists.
Most importantly of all, we believe artists are essential to the entire game development process, not just the final stages. Together with developers, game designers and testers, artists at Nordeus contribute to initial conceptual discussions equally. Entire game concepts can and have been shaped around ideas generated by artists.
We call this the Art of Games, because artists are much more than that – they create with their souls and feel with their hearts, they make magic by only touching the pen while being swept away by their own creations. The results that come out from an artist’s office are what’s keeping any product in the big league.
At Nordeus the art of games is everything from dynamic and creative environment to fun people to high caliber products – something we are incredibly proud of.
Creative freedom is one of the founding principles behind Nordeus and no constraints are placed on art team. Anything is possible. With this ethos comes a culture of learning and, yes, failure. With strong teams in place, we are not afraid of making mistakes and strive to move onto the next project wiser, more skillful and more determined than ever to reach our goals. It’s an incredible fun adventure for those of us lucky to be a part of Nordeus, but for some the adventure is yet to begin.
We may be mavericks, but all roads to Nordeus still start with a traditional job application. As it’s our first contact with new people, we carefully go through resumes and cover letters, paying most attention to previous experience and, of course, artist’s portfolios. The main things we look out for when examining portfolios is a high quality level, diversity and creativity.
When interviewing candidates, we try to get a good sense of people’s interests, values and goals before thinking about our needs and future plans. The best way to prepare for an interview at Nordeus is to simply consider what you’ve accomplished so far and find a good way to communicate that to us, while having a clear picture of where you’re heading.
Above all else, we firmly believe that people perform at their best when they love what they are doing. Quite simply, we are looking for people who share our passion for games and technology. Experience in the industry is considered an advantage, but not always a requirement – we recruit according to a project’s needs and phase of game development cycle.
Nordeus is a dynamic environment where things can change in the blink of an eye, so being able to adjust, keep an open mind and accomplish what is required is just as important asset as previous experience. Daily challenges often make us step out of our comfort zone, where we learn new skills and level up!
Included in the interview process is an art assignment designed by members of art team already on staff to help assess the most relevant skills that the team are looking for. It may seem like there are a lot of stage to the process but this ensures we match candidates to the perfect open position for them.
Since the very beginning we have sought to recruit the best talent available, advertising open positions all over the world from CG Society and VFX, to Behance, Artstation and designed.rs. As Nordeus has a well established global presence, and continues to grow, a certain level of English is required in order to be able to communicate across the various teams, but we maintain that creativeness is the lingua franca of our company. All of our open positions are available to view at nordeus.com/careers.htm.
Each and every new member of the Nordeus family receives one-to-one mentoring by a senior member of the team for their first few months. However, this is by no means the end of learning. Nordeus encourages everyone in the organisation to constantly improve their skills and allows unlimited opportunities to attend workshops, conferences, competitions or online courses. A short while ago we organised our own set of workshops including Zbrush with Justin Fields.
To ensure art team is up to date with global trends, Nordeus takes part in numerous conferences such as THU, Adobe Max and many, many others. We believe that self-improvement is hugely important to artists and love it when our teams organise their own speed painting sessions, drawing lessons or use e-learning materials like those from Gnomon workshop trainings.
We can shout about ourselves as much as we like, but we know that our values are best presented by artists themselves.
At Nordeus, the success of the team is valued far above personal success. We maintain a culture that allows for a helping hand to be extended to each other, and nothing delights us more than when one family member asks another for help. Each and every person at Nordeus can make a huge impact on the company as knowledge and information is openly and widely shared among teams and offices around the world.
Our singular goal is to create globally engaging games that are fun to play and make – every team member is vitally important and an irreplaceable part of that mission.
If you’re excited about the possibilities at Nordeus and want to be a part of our team, don’t be shy and let us know! Show us your best work and help us become even better. It will certainly be an interesting and useful experience, but also the beginning of a new and amazing adventure.
