Join Chai Time Games

Engagement

Freelance / Contract / Milestone-based (open and flexible depending on the candidate)

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to full-game production

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Mid to Senior (able to own the concept and illustration pipeline end to end)

Role Overview

We are looking for a Concept Artist & Illustrator to shape the visual identity of Project Trinity - a top-down 3D co-op action RPG set in Veetbharat, our reimagined 4th-century Ancient India where Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions share the world.

Our visual direction is stylized and painterly / hand-painted, built for the instant readability of games like Hades and Windblown from a top-down camera angle.

What You Will Do

• Characters, Creatures & Gear: Design the playable cast, bosses, enemies, class-specific weapons, and class-specific armour sets.
• Environments, Architecture & Props: Design 4th-century Indian spaces and landmarks - forests, ancient ruins, islands, palace roads and courtyards, and underground shrine quarters - along with interactive gameplay and puzzle props.
• Cutscene Illustrations: Paint the illustrated cutscene slides used by our in-game sequence system to deliver story and character beats.
• Top-Down Readability: Design clear silhouettes, color hierarchy, and material callouts that read cleanly at a 30-45° top-down camera angle during fast co-op combat.
• 3D Handoff: Produce clean turnarounds, orthographic callout sheets, and material/lighting notes for our 3D Character and Environment Artists.

What We Are Looking For

• A strong portfolio demonstrating stylized, painterly / hand-painted concept work across both characters and environments.
• Comfort researching and drawing from historical 4th-century Indian art, architecture, textiles, arms, and iconography across Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions - treating historical grounding as the default and mythological twists as deliberate choices.
• Strong understanding of silhouette, value grouping, and color coding for top-down action games.
• Ability to work independently, communicate clearly in a small team, and iterate from rough thumbnails to production-ready sheets.

Engagement

Freelance / Contract / Milestone-based (open and flexible depending on the candidate)

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to full-game production

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Mid to Senior (able to own real-time VFX and combat VFX shaders in Unity)

Role Overview

We are looking for a Technical VFX Artist to build our combat, ability, and environmental effects and shaders directly in Unity. Project Trinity is a fast, top-down co-op action RPG where up to 4 players and 20 enemies can share the screen - so every effect has to feel punchy while keeping the battlefield readable.

Our visual target is stylized and painterly / hand-painted, taking readability cues from Hades and Windblown.

What You Will Do

• Combat & Class Ability VFX: Author effects for weapon combos, Class Abilities, and Super Abilities across our playable heroes - projectile trails, area impacts, ground quakes, and ability telegraphs.
• Boss, Enemy & Puzzle VFX: Create effects for enemy telegraphs, boss attacks, glowing enemy states, shrine buffs, and co-op puzzle conduits.
• Custom Shaders: Build and maintain custom shaders in Unity for combat readability, status-effect feedback, interactable highlights, and foreground circular punch-through when the camera view of a player is obstructed.
• In-Engine Integration: Work directly in Unity to assemble particle systems, meshes, trails, materials, and prefabs that hook cleanly into gameplay timings and multiplayer state.

What We Are Looking For

• Proven experience authoring stylized real-time VFX and custom shaders in Unity (VFX Graph, Particle System / Shuriken, Shader Graph, and/or HLSL).
• Strong sense of timing, anticipation, impact frames, and dissipation for snappy top-down combat.
• Discipline around co-op visual clarity: making player attacks, teammate buffs, and enemy danger zones immediately distinguishable without cluttering the screen.
• Comfort profiling and keeping overdraw and shader cost within budget for up to 4 players and 20 active enemies.

Engagement

Freelance / Contract / Milestone-based (open and flexible depending on the candidate)

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to full-game production

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Mid to Senior (able to own UX flows and 2D UI art)

Role Overview

We are looking for a UI/UX Artist to design both the UX flows and the stylized 2D UI art for Project Trinity. The game blends snappy top-down co-op combat with tactile grid-based build-crafting and Sanskrit ruin puzzles set in 4th-century Ancient India.

What You Will Do

• UX Flows & Wireframing: Design clear, low-friction layouts for both keyboard & mouse and controllers, keeping combat HUD elements readable during 2-player and 4-player co-op encounters.
• Combat HUD & Co-op Feedback: Create HUD frames, health and boss bars, ability cooldown indicators, combat timing feedback, status-effect icons, and co-op puzzle buff indicators.
• Progression & Inventory Screens: Design the visual language and iconography for our core systems - class progression grids, weapon socket grids, armour sets, and trinket slots.
• Narrative & Puzzle Overlays: Design dialogue boxes, cutscene subtitle frames, and environmental inspection overlays for deciphering riddles on ancient ruins.
• Typography & Motifs: Shape a cohesive typographic and ornamental system inspired by Devanagari / Sanskrit calligraphy and 4th-century Indian temple, manuscript, and metalwork motifs, while keeping every screen sharp and legible.

What We Are Looking For

• A strong portfolio of stylized / hand-painted 2D game UI, iconography, and HUD/menu systems, alongside practical UX wireframing experience for action or RPG titles.
• Appreciation and eye for Indian typographic forms (Devanagari / Sanskrit-inspired lettering) paired with clean, modern game-UI legibility and accessibility.
• Experience designing for both controller navigation and mouse/keyboard interaction.
• Clean, well-organized asset delivery (sliced 9-patches, sprite atlases, states, and layout specs) ready for engineering handoff.

Engagement

Freelance / Contract / Milestone-based (open and flexible depending on the candidate)

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to full-game production

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Mid to Senior (able to own modular environment asset creation)

Role Overview

We are looking for a 3D Environment Artist to create modular 3D architecture, ruins, natural assets, and props for Project Trinity. The game is viewed from a top-down 30-45° perspective camera and follows a stylized, painterly / hand-painted art direction set in 4th-century Ancient India (Veetbharat). The references for the intended art style will be shared. 4th-century India was dominated by the Gupta Empire, in its golden days, with lots of colour, strong sunlight, etc.

This role focuses on delivering clean, game-ready 3D assets and textures; scene assembly and engine hookup are handled in-house.

What You Will Do

• Modular Architecture & Ruins: Model, sculpt, and texture modular environment kits grounded in 4th-century Indian architecture across Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions - including ancient forest ruins, islands, palace approach roads, fortified courtyards, and hidden underground shrine quarters.
• Foliage, Terrain & Natural Elements: Create stylized trees, canopy foliage, rocks, cliffs, and water/lava edges that frame play spaces clearly from a top-down camera angle.
• Interactive & Puzzle Props: Build distinct, readable 3D props for gameplay and co-op puzzles - shrines, rope mechanisms, courtyard gates, secret passages, fire conduits, chests, and destructibles.
• Stylized Texturing: Author painterly / hand-painted textures and trim sheets that hold up at our top-down camera distance and keep ground planes uncluttered during combat.
• Work with LODs: Author up to 4 LOD levels for the assets, ready to be used by Unity for optimised integration.

What We Are Looking For

• A strong portfolio of stylized / hand-painted 3D environments and props (Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter/Designer, 3DCoat, or equivalent).
• Some knowledge of Photoshop or similar software will greatly help.
• Ability to translate 2D concepts and historical 4th-century Indian architectural references into modular, reusable 3D pieces.
• Understanding of top-down readability: clean silhouettes, clear separation between walkable ground and walls/obstacles, and sensible polycounts and UV/texel density.
• Reliable delivery of clean meshes, pivots, naming conventions, and texture maps ready to drop into Unity.

Engagement

Freelance / Contract / Milestone-based (open and flexible depending on the candidate)

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to full-game production

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Mid to Senior (able to own character, creature, and gear modeling/texturing)

Role Overview

We are looking for a 3D Character Artist to sculpt, retopologize, and texture the heroes, enemies, bosses, armour sets, and weapons of Project Trinity. Our style is stylized and painterly / hand-painted, designed so every character and enemy silhouette reads immediately from a top-down 30-45° camera angle.

Rigging and skinning are handled by our 3D Animator - your focus is producing deformation-ready 3D models and expressive hand-painted textures.

What You Will Do

• Playable Heroes: Create 3D character models for our fixed, authored protagonists across the demo slice and the full game.
• Bosses, Enemies & Creatures: Model and texture bosses, enemy units, and creatures, giving each archetype a distinct silhouette for combat clarity.
• Armour Sets & Weapons: Build class-specific weapons and interchangeable class-specific armour sets and cosmetic variations.
• Clean Topology for Animation: Deliver clean, animation-friendly topology and edge loops around joints, drapery, and armour pieces so our 3D Animator can rig and skin them smoothly.

What We Are Looking For

• A strong portfolio of stylized / hand-painted 3D characters, creatures, and weapons for games.
• Eye for bold proportions, color blocking, and silhouette readability from a top-down perspective (think Hades or Windblown).
• Sensitivity to 4th-century Indian attire, drapery, jewelry, armour, and weaponry across Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu cultural traditions.
• Solid technical fundamentals in high-to-low poly baking, UV packing, hand-painted/stylized texturing, and deformation-ready topology.

Engagement

Freelance / Contract / Milestone-based (open and flexible depending on the candidate)

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to full-game production

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Mid to Senior (owns rigging, combat animation, and Unity Animator setup)

Role Overview

We are looking for a 3D Gameplay Animator & Rigger who loves snappy, responsive action-combat feel. In Project Trinity, class identity comes from weapon feel, animation, and timing rather than traditional MMO roles - Dhanur is nimble and rhythmic; Kshatriya is heavy, deliberate, and explosive.

You will own rigging and skinning, hand-keyed gameplay animation, and setting up animations in Unity.

What You Will Do

• Rigging & Skinning: Build clean, animator-friendly rigs and skin weights for playable heroes, enemies, creatures, bosses, and weapons received from our 3D Character Artist.
• Hero Movement & Combat Kits: Animate locomotion, sprints, directional dashes, light/heavy weapon combo chains, Class Abilities, and Super Abilities.
• Class Input Mechanics: Support our signature class input systems - rhythm-timed ranged attacks and button-mash scaling melee attacks - through clear visual poses and timing.
• Enemies & Bosses: Animate unmistakable attack telegraphs, hit reactions, knockbacks, and multi-phase boss movesets that read clearly from a 30-45° top-down camera.
• Unity Integration: Hook animations up directly in Unity - configuring Animator Controllers, blend trees, state transitions, and animation events for attack commits, projectile releases, and hitbox windows.

What We Are Looking For

• A strong reel showcasing snappy, weight-driven 3D combat and gameplay animation (anticipation, snappy active frames, and clear follow-through).
• Proven proficiency in rigging and skinning humanoid and creature characters, including cloth/armour secondary motion.
• Hands-on experience setting up Animator Controllers, blend trees, and animation events in Unity.
• Bonus: familiarity with Indian martial movement traditions (such as Kalaripayattu, Gatka, Mardani Khel, or Shastar Vidya) as inspiration for grounded weapon handling.

Engagement

Internship

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to a longer-term role

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Intern (working closely with the founders on lore/puzzle writing and community management)

Role Overview

We are looking for a Narrative & Community Intern who is deeply curious about Ancient Indian history, philosophy, and literature, and who is excited to help build an engaged player community around a world worth exploring.

In Project Trinity, the world of Veetbharat (4th-century CE India across Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions) is built out both inside the game - through ancient ruins and riddles - and outside the game through our ongoing VeetBharat lore series and community channels.

What You Will Do

• The VeetBharat Lore Series: Research and write chapters of the VeetBharat blog series - first-person travelogues and historical-mythological narratives set in 4th-century India that lay the foundation for the game's world.
• Ruin Riddles & Environmental Lore: Author inscriptions and cooperative riddles found on ancient ruins in the game, drawing on Sanskrit and Prakrit literary traditions, epigraphy, and Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu thought without religious favoritism.
• Discord & Community Management: Help run and grow the Chai Time Games Discord server - welcoming players, sharing lore drops and studio updates, running community riddles/events, and keeping conversations thoughtful and constructive.
• Studio Announcements: Draft clear, engaging announcements and community updates as we move from prototype through our vertical slice and beyond.

What We Are Looking For

• Strong English creative and narrative writing samples, with a natural voice for historical fiction, travelogues, and poetic riddles.
• Grounded knowledge of (or strong research fluency in) Ancient Indian history (especially the Gupta / 4th-century era), Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions, and Sanskrit/Indology references.
• Familiarity with Discord and online game or fandom communities, and enthusiasm for building one from the ground up.
• Care for historical and cultural nuance: treating history as the ground of the setting and approaching all traditions with respect and curiosity.

Engagement

Internship

Scope

Starting with the vertical slice / demo, with a path to a longer-term role

Location

Remote (with India / IST timezone overlap)

Level

Intern (Unity C# generalist focused on gameplay and combat systems)

Role Overview

We are looking for a Gameplay Programming Intern with a strong foundation in Unity (C#) and a focus on gameplay and combat systems to help build Project Trinity. You will work closely with the founders on snappy top-down action combat, class-specific input mechanics, co-op puzzle encounters, enemy and boss behaviours, and our grid-based progression systems.

The game uses FishNet for co-op networking; prior multiplayer experience is a welcome bonus, not a requirement, provided your C# fundamentals and gameplay math are solid.

What You Will Do

• Combat & Class Systems: Build and iterate on responsive player movement, branching light/heavy weapon combo graphs, Class and Super Abilities, and class-specific input mechanics.
• Enemies, Bosses & Status Effects: Implement enemy AI behaviours, multi-phase boss encounters, and our multiplayer-compatible status effect and buff system.
• Co-op Puzzle & Encounter Mechanics: Build interactive world and puzzle systems - enemy-dropped offerings, shrine buffs, cooperative ropeset puzzles, and buff-swapping conduits across split rooms.
• Progression & Gear Systems: Help build our grid-based character progression system, directional and conditional socketables, weapon socket grids, and gear/trinket modifiers.
• Clean, Network-Aware Code: Write modular, maintainable C# in Unity that plays cleanly with our FishNet co-op architecture and designer-facing data/prefabs.

What We Are Looking For

• Strong projects or coursework in Unity (C#) building real-time gameplay, combat, character controllers, or AI systems - ideally in action, hack-and-slash, or RPG genres.
• Solid 3D vector math, state-machine design, input buffering/timing feel, and clean data-driven architecture (ScriptableObjects, events, and modular components).
• Comfort working in a small, fast-moving team directly alongside the founders, profiling your code, and iterating on game feel.
• Bonus: Experience with FishNet (or Mirror/Netcode for GameObjects), Shader Graph/HLSL, or custom Unity Editor tooling.