Senior Gameplay Animator

About the role

Scape is a compact Swedish game studio of approximately thirty people, and our primary focus is the development of Scape, a multiplayer climbing experience designed for one hundred players on a single server and tower. The position you are viewing is for a Senior Gameplay Animator who will take ownership of the entire animation pipeline that defines the tactile feel of the game. You will be the main animator responsible for crafting the movement, interactions, and feedback that players experience directly. This role is centered on hand-keyed animation in Blender, meaning you will not be handling cinematics or motion capture data. Success in this position depends on your ability to translate design intent into responsive, readable, and polished gameplay animation through close collaboration with designers and engineers.

Key facts

What you'll do

Create high-quality keyframed gameplay animations using Blender as the mandatory daily tool, working within the studio rig and pipeline.

Implement and refine animation controllers, blend trees, and state machines inside Unity to integrate movement, traversal, and combat actions.

Own player movement, traversal mechanics, and interactive world elements to ensure every action communicates clearly to the player.

Collaborate closely with game designers to refine gameplay feel, responsiveness, timing, and overall player feedback during iterative development.

Work directly with engineers to integrate animations, debug issues, and optimize animation assets for real-time performance across platforms.

Establish and maintain animation standards and workflows that support a wide variety of gameplay needs, from character motion to interactive objects.

Ensure animation serves as a form of player communication, making actions readable and supporting immediate player feedback in fast-paced scenarios.

Balance creative animation decisions with technical constraints to maintain optimized performance on both PC and mobile targets.

Contribute to a small, fast-moving team by owning a significant scope of animation work with minimal supervision and bureaucracy.

Adapt to a remote, asynchronous workflow while remaining available during CET business hours to support collaboration and timely decision-making.

Requirements

You can start immediately or on short notice, which is essential for this long-term B2B contract role.

You are willing and able to use Blender as your primary animation tool on a daily basis.

You have experience implementing and iterating on gameplay animations in Unity, including controllers, blend trees, and state machines.

You possess five or more years of professional game animation experience and have at least two shipped titles to your name.

Your portfolio demonstrates strong gameplay animation work, with clear examples of movement, interaction, and player feedback.

You have an excellent grasp of core animation principles such as timing, weight, readability, and responsiveness.

You have a proven track record of creating keyframed gameplay animations rather than relying solely to motion capture or cinematic techniques.

You have some coding or scripting knowledge, with C# being preferred though not strictly required.

You have a history of collaborating effectively with gameplay programmers and designers in a production environment.

You are comfortable operating independently within a small team and owning animation across a substantial scope of the project.

You communicate fluently in English, both in writing and during discussions with technical and design colleagues.

Nice to have

Experience with motion design tools such as After Effects, Spine, or similar software.

Familiarity with IK-driven animation setups and workflows.

Experience working with humanoid rigging and related rigging challenges.

A background in realistic or semi-realistic animation styles that suit the tone of Scape.

Experience supporting development for both PC and mobile platforms.

Exposure to technical animation or tech art responsibilities within previous projects.

Practical notes

This role is a long-term B2B contract position with an immediate start. The work is fully remote, but the team operates in alignment with CET business hours, so availability during those hours is required. No information regarding compensation is provided in this listing.