We’re looking for an experienced Animator with a penchant for creatures to join our new studio, Last Arrow Games, founded by industry veterans. This is a rare opportunity to help shape a new Game IP from the ground up in a collaborative, creatively driven environment. While the role is initially for 4 months, there is scope for the role to become permanent for the right candidate.

Our studio was founded on the belief that some parts of games industry have lost sight of what matters: making fun games that put the player first. We’re building a team of passionate developers who want to get back to what makes game development exciting.

The Role

As an Animator, you will be responsible for bringing the 3rd person player character and a diverse range of creatures (both grounded natural wildlife and twisted, unnatural horror entities) to life in Unreal Engine 5. Your animations will give these creatures personality, weight, and threat, shaping how players experience the world both emotionally and mechanically.

You’ll work closely with designers, artists, and engineers to ensure all animations, from subtle behavioural loops to intense combat encounters, are cohesive, responsive, and deeply integrated into gameplay. You’ll help define the visual language of creature movement and contribute to building our animation pipeline as the studio grows.

Key Responsibilities

· Create high-quality animations for the player character and mutated creatures

· Develop movement that conveys believability, weight, and physicality, even for unnatural forms or behaviours

· Animate a wide range of creature states: locomotion, traversal, attacks, reactions, behavioural loops, and cinematic moments

· Collaborate with designers to prototype and refine creature mechanics and behavioural systems

· Work with modellers to ensure rigs and assets support the gameplay and animation needs

· Contribute to improving animation workflows, tools, and pipelines

· Participate in animation reviews, giving and receiving feedback to maintain a high bar for quality

· Communicate and estimate work with production to ensure deadlines and scope remain realistic

Required Skills & Experience

· Proven experience animating creatures and characters for realistically styled games

· Experience of rigging non-humanoid creatures

· At least 3 years of experience in game development, with 1 shipped title (preferably Unreal Engine 5)

· Strong understanding of real-world animal locomotion and the ability to push beyond realism for mutated motion

· Ability to create movement that communicates threat, unpredictability, and mood

· Proficiency with Maya, Blender, or equivalent software

· Experience integrating animations into Unreal Engine

· Excellent communication and collaboration skills

· Strong time-management and organisational abilities

· A portfolio demonstrating creature animation, especially work showing both realistic and imaginative motion

Bonus Skills

· Technical animation or rigging experience

· Familiarity with Motion Matching, Control Rig, or procedural animation

· Experience creating animation for cinematics

· Creature design, concepting, or sculpting fundamentals

· Experience of Implementing animations and ABPs in Unreal Engine 5

Education

· Professional animation training is desirable but not essential

· A strong portfolio and practical experience are what matter most

What We're Looking For

We’re building a team of passionate, grounded, and collaborative developers. You should bring creativity, curiosity, and a desire to push your craft further.

We value confidence without ego and believe deeply in a healthy work-life balance.

Join us in creating something special from the ground up.

Note: MUST BE ELIGIBLE TO WORK IN THE UK, NO OUTSOURCE STUDIOS