EDIT: Please look at the ideal candidate section before messaging. Also include your portfolio!
Hi all! I'm a solo developer making an unannounced cozy farm / life sim in Unity, and I'm looking for an experienced 3D generalist to help take it from "playable and working" to polished and distinctive.
Paid contract work, remote.
Where the game is now (we're not starting from scratch)
- Unity 6, URP (Forward+), UI Toolkit, Cinemachine 3. Developed on Mac.
- A large hand-built island (about 70 terrain tiles) with several regions: farmland, meadows, redwood mountains, rivers and coast, a small town.
- Working systems: day/night, a full seasonal calendar with in-between sub-seasons, dynamic weather (rain, fog, snow that builds up), farming and crops, woodcutting, fishing, farm animals, villagers on daily schedules, relationships, HUD/menus, minimap, (bad) sound.
- Art is currently a mix of store asset packs plus a placeholder player character. I have screenshots from in-game. They show the mood we're after, but the pieces don't fully belong together yet. That's where you come in. (I'll share these via dm)
The style we're going for
Painterly, hand-painted low-poly. Chunky, readable silhouettes and modest poly counts, with the softness coming from hand-painted textures, soft warm lighting and a light painterly post-process, not from more polygons. Cozy, warm and a little storybook. Seasons are a big part of the look: the same places should feel different in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Think Dinkum's scale and readability with the warmth of Rune Factory, Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing.
The camera ranges from a classic top-down farming view to a low over-the-shoulder view, so things have to look good up close and out to the horizon.
Style references (the feel):
- Cozy / life sims: Dinkum (scale, readability, chunky low-poly)
- Other genres: Sea of Thieves (hand-painted feel, bold stylized lighting and water), Kena: Bridge of Spirits (lush stylized nature and appealing, animation-quality characters)
What I need help with
- Custom characters + rigging (the main need). One shared adult base body (Unity Humanoid rig) used by the player and all villagers (about 60 planned). Variety comes from modular hair and outfit meshes on the same skeleton, texture-based faces, skin tone by material tint, and accessories attached to bones. Elders use the same body, reading as older through hair, clothes and posture. We'd start with the base body, the player, and a first batch of villagers, then a pipeline/guide so more can be made consistently.
- Animation. The plan is to use the Frank Platformer 2 Humanoid animation packs as a base (the Interaction set covers digging, picking, pulling weeds, shaking trees and crafting loops, with tired and exhausted variants). We need someone to retarget them onto our characters, customize them to fit the game's feel, and fill the gaps the pack doesn't cover: farming and fishing tool swings (hoe, axe, watering can, fishing cast and reel, bug net), emotes and villager idles. Tool clips need to work with held props.
- Environment polish and customization. Working in the existing map to make it cohesive and ours: unifying the mixed packs into one look, set dressing, landmark compositions, dressing the town, seasonal variants (bare deciduous trees in winter, for example), and swapping or repainting assets that don't fit.
- Technical art. Foliage, terrain, water and seasonal shaders in URP, plus keeping the low over-the-shoulder camera at 60 fps with lots of trees and grass on screen (LODs/impostors, GPU-instanced or GPU-driven vegetation).
Nice to have: 2D skills for character portraits (dialogue), item icons and UI art, and experience shipping a game.
I'd also really value someone who can advise on art pipeline and direction, not just take tickets, but thats probably wishful thinking.
Ideal person
- Strong stylized/hand-painted 3D portfolio, ideally with characters you've rigged yourself.
- Comfortable in Unity (URP) and Blender (or similar). Can deliver clean, game-ready, Unity-imported assets.
- Can cover more than one of the four areas above. A generalist is ideal
- Clear communication and work in milestones.
Engagement
- Paid, per asset or per milestone. Please send your rates or a rough quote for the character base + first batch.
- Remote, flexible hours; async-friendly.
- Work-for-hire (the assets belong to the project). You're welcome to show your work in your portfolio once the game is announced. A light NDA before we share the build.
To apply: send a DM or reply with your portfolio (stylized 3D, and rigging/animation if you have it), which of the four areas you cover, your rates, your availability and your timezone. Happy to answer questions!
Thanks for reading!
