Creature Concept Artist

Remote

Seedbound is a turn-based roguelike strategy game with JRPG-style cel-shaded visuals, targeting a 2028 Steam release. I'm the developer running a funded, one-person studio (me!). I have a clear visual direction and tech specs, and have designed, modeled, and animated a few creatures myself, but I'm not a pro. I'm looking to invest in an artist who loves creating creatures/monsters in this art style. You would be the first artist on a small contractor team, and your creature designs would be handed off to a 3D modeler / animator to bring them to life in-game.

Screenshots & design reference

What I'm looking for

• 50 creature/monster designs, delivered in waves of 5-10 creatures each, roughly one wave every 4-8 weeks. I'm happy to go faster if you have the capacity.
• The general style is: "full"/rounded appearance, colorful, quirky/cute-ish (but not surprising that they might attack you!), and made up of simple shapes. These creatures are not menacing or overly detailed. In-game, these monsters will mostly be seen at a distance from an angled top-down view, but they will be seen front-on or from other angles during cutscenes or detail screens. Each creature will be an enemy during gameplay, though sometimes they can be recruited as allies. If you want a game reference, the monster designs in Dragon Quest XI are my favorite.
• For the concept art output of each creature, I'm looking for: explorations → one chosen direction → front/side/back turnaround in a neutral resting pose → one posed action/personality sketch.
• Designs work within an "archetype" system. Each creature belongs to one of six archetypes (biped, quadruped, flyer, floater, serpentine, blob) with some proportion guidelines I'll share per archetype family.
• I also have some specific color guidelines I'll provide. For example, each creature is limited to a max of 4 colors, which allows me to re-color creatures in-game to create variants.
• Likely follow-on work: weapon and equipment design sheets (swords, armor, hats, gloves, amulets, etc.) for the human player character, in the same visual style as the creatures. The creature work takes priority here, so if you aren't comfortable with this, just let me know and I can hand this part off to a separate artist if needed.

What I'll provide

• A detailed style guide (color system, references, high-level guidelines).
• For some monsters, I'll provide some idea of what I'd like (like "a 'boss' spellcasting biped creature that deals long-range poison damage, maybe frog- or lizard-inspired"), and for others, I might give you more creative freedom (like "design a quadruped, up to you what it looks like"). I'll always provide at least the creature's archetype.
• Fast feedback, usually within 24 hours on weekdays. I'll also give regular batched reviews. We'll work mostly async over email or Discord, no regular scheduled meetings. We can have an optional kickoff call at the very start, if you'd like.

Terms

• $150-275 per creature (thumbnails + turnaround + action sketch). Let me know your rate! I don't want to underpay, so if needed I can always reduce the game's number of monsters to fit your rate and my budget. Whatever we agree on will apply flat to every creature. I'll try to strike a balance between easier and more difficult monsters in each wave so it averages out.
• Paid pilot: one creature with the full process for $275 flat (50% upfront, 50% upon completion). The pilot is paid at the top of the range to account for time spent onboarding, reading the style guide, and so on. If we are both happy with the pilot, then we can proceed with the larger batched commitment in waves. The paid pilot will likely run early-to-mid October.
• After the pilot, payment is per approved creature at our agreed rate. You can invoice me as each creature is approved or batch them monthly, whichever you prefer. If for any reason you cancel partway through a wave, I'll pay for each completed creature. If I cancel partway through a wave, I'll pay for every completed creature and let you finish anything already in progress.
• Work-for-hire with full IP assignment.
• 2 revision rounds per creature included.
• Payment within 15 days of invoice, usually faster.
• Creature designs and other project details are confidential. I'll grant portfolio display rights when I publicly reveal each creature or 18 months after delivery, whichever comes first.

AI policy

No AI-generated content please! This includes tracing over AI-generated images or related techniques. It is important to me to keep all art in my game 100% human-created. If you do use AI for any part of your working process, please describe how you use it in the application form.

As safeguards:

• For all final art, I will request the finished file format of your tool of choice (.psd, .procreate, or photo of drawings, or similar) in addition to the export .png.
• I may also request a work-in-progress file (both in your tool's native format and a .png export) for each piece of art.

How to apply

To apply, please fill out this short form. It should take 5-10 minutes. I'll review applications as they come in, and choose a candidate for the paid pilot by October 1st.

Thanks for reading!