wekandu

[wekandu]

Senior Mobile 3D Game Artist

To apply: Send your portfolio, resume and a brief cover letter to careers@kandu.com

At Kandu Studios, we believe that play makes everything possible. We are a New York based startup with exceptional founders and part of the Betaworks family. Currently, we are developing a cross platform game and seeking a senior mobile 3D game artist.

You will work with passionate, talented game developers on mobile content for the game. You will be responsible for developing characters with a junior 3D artist, optimizing our game for mobile platforms and hand assets off for development. We are looking for an artist with experience specifically in the creative development of games and mobile.

If you are passionate and driven to do amazing things in the mobile game space, we’d love to hear from you!

Requirements (you should have)

A keen passion for making gorgeous, industry-leading mobile game

3+ years of mobile game industry experience with at least 1 title shipped on mobile    

Extensive knowledge and experience in exporting and implementing 3D (characters, props, and environments) assets into Unity for mobile game integration

Expert in Maya and 3DS Max, Z-Brush, Photoshop, 3D painting software

A strong foundation in the principles of art and design (color, form, light, etc.)

Strong ability to make critical artistic and process decisions to produce the best quality product quickly and efficiently

Passion for the latest mobile games, video games and game hardware

Responsibilities (what you will be doing)

Partner with a 3D artist and engineers to implement the PC game to mobile  

Model and texture hand-crafted, realistic 3D characters

Implement assets into Unity for mobile game integration

Produce high-quality 3D assets for different mobile platforms

Proactively give creative input to the team

Bonus Points

An avid mobile gamer who understands what makes mobile games and their audiences tick

Comfortable in sketching concept art

Please apply to careers@kandu.com with your resume and a brief cover letter that includes a link to your portfolio.

[wekandu]

3D Game Artist - Full Time Position

At Kandu Studios, we are on a bold mission to build awesome digital tools, toys, and games for kids and families. We are hiring a full-time 3D Game Artist to join one of our game-development teams in our NYC office in building a new kind of open world sandbox game.

We are looking for a highly motivated 3D game artist to create creatures that have emotions, humor and personality. You will be working closely with the team to follow our vision for the game, model, texturize the characters, and hand assets off for development.

Responsibilities (what you will be doing)

Model and texture hand-crafted, realistic 3D characters

Create high frequency details and mimic animal patterns

Create assets for in-game implementation

Work closely with engineers and designers to ensure that there is a clear understanding of tasks and the visual tone of the project is kept cohesive

Proactively give creative input to the team

Wear many hats as a game artist for a small studio

Requirements (you should have)

At least 2-3 years of experience in game industry

Expert in Maya and 3DS Max, Z-Brush, Photoshop, 3D painting software

Ability to turn high-res assets to low-res game playable models in Unity

Excellent sensibility in color, space and scale

Good understanding of anatomy

Be comfortable and flexible in a fast, agile environment

Strong organizational and communication skills

Bonus Points:

If you are a concept artist who is fluent in ZBrush and texturing, we welcome you!

Project experience with Unity3D

Experience in character animation

Experience with PBR workflow

Experience/interest in developing media for kids

Please apply to careers@kandu.com with your resume and a brief cover letter that includes a link to your portfolio.

[wekandu]

We are excited to announce a new community project: Kandu IDEAS! On the 15th of every month we’ll put a topic out into the universe here and you’ll respond with original drawings, photographs, gifs, videos, LEGO creations, and more. We’ll publish everything we get to the IDEAS page, for all to see, resulting in a stream of ideas from people all over the world. Cool, right? 

Participate in our inaugural topic and express your #innerselfie. We want to get to know you and in return we’ll tell you everything about us. Need some inspiration? We have a few sparks to get you started OR check out our staff’s creations here.

The quickest way to participate is by submitting your work here or by email. Make sure to include your first name and a brief description of what you created so we can post it in the caption. And most importantly, have fun with it!

Happy creating!

Team Kandu

[wekandu]

Come see what we've been up to!

At Kandu, we're building apps that enable kids to make awesome stuff together. And we need your help to do it right.

We've been hard at work getting ready for our U.S. launch and we are excited for the opportunity to welcome you into our creative process. Over the next month, we are looking for kids (between the ages of 8 and 14) to visit our NYC office to get a first look at what we've been working on and to tell us what they think. Participating kids will get the unique experience of seeing what goes into the making of an app, plus a Visa gift card as our way of saying thanks. Want in? Fill out this quick survey and we'll be in touch with all of the details.

[wekandu]

We wish everyone out there a happy, treat-filled Halloween! Play our card and then make your own to share with friends.

xo, Team Kandu

[wekandu]

Help Gumdrop reach new heights!

Looking for something new to try in Kandu? Add more cloud platforms to this Kandu to keep Gumdrop hopping higher and higher, then personalize it by adding to the scenery (birds, planes, rocket ships!). REMIX and then EDIT to get started. Happy Making!

Need help? Reach out by email or tweet #AskKandu. We're here for you.

[wekandu]

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars

We're currently mesmerized by this campsite Kandu and its twinkling stars (you'll have to play it to see them blink). Stay posted and we'll teach you how to set-up that cool effect next week. Happy Friday!

[wekandu]

Hi + Welcome! We're here for you.

For all of you newbies, we know how tricky it can be to make your first Kandu (we've been there). But guess what. We are real, live humans on the other side of this screen. And we can help!

(Ok so that's not a human... but it's cute, right?)

Always feel free to reach out to us directly. We do our best to answer emails and tweets (#AskKandu) as quickly as we can (unless we're sleeping!) so you can keep on making cool stuff.

Feeling shy? We get it. Browse our FAQs, watch our tutorial videos, and/or head over to the Forum to post a question. These areas are all a work-in-progress, so please bear with us. We're new, too, and we always welcome suggestions and feedback that will help make Kandu a place where anyone can have fun.

Thanks again for being here and happy creating!

-Team Kandu

[wekandu]

A Daily To-Do List

We love the way this Kandu gently reminds us of all the things we should be doing every day (ahem, don't forget to floss!). Play it here! And for those of you who have Kandu, remix and edit to make it yours.

[wekandu]

We're hiring a Product Designer. Join us!

Kandu Studios is where kids make stuff together.

We've built a powerful operating system that allows kids to have new kinds of conversations and collaborations with each other. We are hiring a full-time Product Designer to lead a data-driven design initiative on a bold mission to empower kids to build and create using technology in an exciting, interactive, and fun mobile environment.

As the Product Designer, you will be responsible for exploring, defining, and executing Kandu's visual language and experience. It helps if you can think like a kid! You will be expected to break down complex problems into simple, intuitive, and delightful solutions using your full range of product design, interaction design, and visual design skills. You think holistically about your design decisions and thrive in a fast-paced, iterative, and collaborative environment.

Responsibilities:

Take broad, conceptual ideas and turn them into something usable, effective, and fun.

Develop visual assets for products from doodles to wireframes to pixel-perfect graphics and specs.

Design flows and experiences that are simple and intuitive.

Partner with PMs, engineers, researchers, and other team members to guide the user experience of a product or feature from conception through launch.

Work to extend and expand the visual language of our products.

Continually improve design team best practices.

Develop and document design standards, style guides, and build design kits to enable the team to design at scale.

About You:

You relish the idea of creating a place that gives kids the power to make stuff together and believe kid-centric design isn’t just about bright colors and big buttons.

You love digging into the details of visual design and crafting clear interactions while always infusing a bit of personality.

Your visual style has a clear point of view and you can’t help but create cool/quirky characters.

You think of design in terms of systems and can clearly and effectively articulate your design decisions.

You integrate data from research, feedback, and testing into your designs.

You have experience building mobile apps and a passion for taking advantage of the unique affordances mobile devices provide.

You understand the technical limitations and liberties behind your decisions and have enough chops to communicate your ideas to engineers.

You look for opportunities to solve problems in unique and innovative ways.

You love making things beautiful, obsess over details, and are excited to polish until your work is pixel-perfect.

You are comfortable and flexible in a fast-changing, collaborative, agile environment.

Bonus Points:

Experience with 3D, motion, and/or sound design.

Prior mobile game design work.

Development skills to prototype front-end applications in Unity and/or web.

Interest or experience in working on youth-focused products.

If you're interested in joining the team, please send your résumé and a link to your portfolio to jenn@kandu.com.

[wekandu]

New Web Player and a Tribute to Summer

Yes, we know that we still have one week left of summer, but with schools back in session and the days starting to get just a teeny bit chillier, we can't help but feel as though fall has arrived. As a tribute to these final days of one of our favorite seasons, we made this interactive firefly jar that you can play with on our (new!) web player. Play it here.

[wekandu]

Worth Sharing: Video Game History Timeline

Did you know that video games were being developed as early as 1940? In that year Edward U. Condon designed a game for the World's Fair that pitted players against a computer in a traditional game called Nim (and the computer won 90% of the time). That's thirty-two years before Pong came out (and forty years before Pac-Man, pictured above). Learn fun facts like this and more in the Strong Museum of Play's Video Game History Timeline. 

[wekandu]

Link love! A Roundup

Our periodic round up of news + cool things found on the internet. Starting with the awesomely subtle gif art of Iain Acton. More links below!

This past week the celeb world has been all abuzz over an iCloud hack which has caused us all to wonder if our passwords are secure enough. We found this guide to protecting your Apple ID with two-step verification useful.

General Assembly has wowed us again with their new Dash system, which allows any user to learn code in a series of quick 10-min lessons.

Do you favorite tweets and then forget about them? Sign up for Hubble and you'll get those gems delivered directly to your inbox.

Miranda July continues to push the boundaries of digital and social art with her latest app that sends strangers to deliver messages. 

We love this roundup of the 13 best Hyperlapses, especially this SpongeBob one posted by Nickelodeon.

Fashion Week is here and with it comes a wearable tech collaboration between Opening Ceremony and Intel.

We felt validated in what we do here at Kandu after reading this feature on how middle schoolers will impact the future of business.

Last, a few words to live by to start your weekend off right:

"Find something you enjoy doing and then keep doing it." ~advice from Philip Guo's 1,000 hour rule. Add to that Tattly's new Practice temporary tattoo and you'll be golden!

Happy Weekend!

#TeamKandu

[wekandu]

Skill Up! Introducing Tips & Tricks

We are excited to introduce Tips & Tricks, a new series that will make building Kandus even easier. Just look for the mouse in Planet Kandu, then play and remix to learn how it's done. We'll share these on the blog, too, so keep a lookout here for more ways to become a Kandu master.

Need more help or have an idea for a Tip or Trick? Let us know by sending us an email, a tweet (tag it #AskKandu), or a comment on this post ... We'll reply as quickly as we can so you can keep on creating. 

[wekandu]

Meet Ballooney

As our most happy-go-lucky character, Ballooney tends to go with the flow. Often found with his head in the clouds, no dream is too big for this guy and he spends most of his spare time working to innovate air transportation while humming Pharrell's "Happy". Zodiac sign: Libra. Favorite color: Green. Favorite movie: Gravity.

Do you have a different interpretation of this Kandu character's bio? Share your version in the comments! 

[wekandu]

Lead UI/UX Designer

If you're an awesome designer, we want to hear from you! Check out our updated job posting here.

Kandu is hiring a full-time UI/UX Product Designer to lead a data-driven design initiative enabling anyone to express themselves by creating native interactive media without writing a single line of code. We are a diverse team of media and technology leaders on a bold mission to create a vibrant maker community around an intuitive, fun tool that creates an endless array of user-generated experiences.

 Our ideal candidate is an open collaborator that can narrow a broader company vision into specific user-driven product narratives. You will work in a fast-paced, nimble environment to ideate, test, and implement designs of user stories. We strive for agility, incorporating historical findings from product data, user testing, and stakeholder feedback into a cohesive feature set that delivers on the promise of Kandu.

 Responsibilities 

Working with product team members to conduct user research and analyze product KPIs

Conducting competitive analysis on feature sets of products that compete for our customers’ time

Collaborating with engineering team to translate research findings into creative, executable design solutions capable of achieving measurable company goals

Creating strategic product alignment between community, product, and engineering teams by communicating insights and rationale behind design decisions

Regularly delivering user interaction flows, wireframes, high fidelity mockups/ prototypes, and visual designs

Drafting fully-baked specifications and UI designs for engineering to implement

Continually improving design team best practices while successfully managing projects

  Nice to haves 

Prior mobile game design work

Front-end development skills to prototype front-end applications in Unity and/or web

Experience designing applications for tablets

Prior experience working on agile development teams

Interest or experience in working on youth-focused products

[wekandu]

Team Kandu: Notes on the Unite 2014 Conference

Last week, I attended the Unity3d annual conference-- Unite 2014.  I went with our CTO, Chris, and John and Roman, our lead Unity developers. Kandu is built using Unity, so we were eager to meet other people using Unity3d, and show folks what we’ve been working on.

We had an awesome time.  The conference was in Seattle, which is a great city. (We asked ourselves-- should we move from New York to Seattle!?)

Here’s a pic of the four of us in front of the Space Needle during one of the breaks. In order: John, Chris, me, Roman. Don’t ask about the T-shirt thing: the color choices were truly un-planned. Then weirdly it happened the next day (me: gray Kandu t-shirt, everyone else: blue). You can now compute what might have happened on a third day… (hint: me burgundy, everyone else gray).

Coming out of the conference, here are a few things that I’m excited about:

Everyplay: Unity announced they acquired this company. It lets people record their game session, or in our case, their Kandu session, and share the result online. Everyplay’s a great tool for creating walkthroughs, and getting help from other people. We think that in the long term, Kandu will create a community around people teaching each others how to build awesome stuff. Everyplay makes that a lot easier for everyone-- our developers to build, and Kanduers to enjoy.

The new GUI system in Unity 4.6: One of the hardest parts of making Kandu is implementing the “graphical user interface” or GUI. This is the stuff we take for granted, like buttons, scroll bars, tabs, and other visual designs that help you navigate through software. As a game engine, Unity is optimized for making game-like experiences. But wrangling Unity to make GUI elements has been hard. This new update promises to make it easier, which means that John and Roman can spend more time building new functionality, and less time building buttons.

I also discovered that Unity has an education effort, geared to teaching people in high school and college how to program in their environment. We had a chance to exchange ideas with Michael and David from Unity-- we showed them Kandu, and it seems there may be some opportunities to collaborate in our shared interest of learning how to code. We’re looking forward to seeing how this discussion evolves.

Oculus VR and Unity: like peanut butter and jelly, two great tastes that get even better together. I spent about 30 minutes playing Lucky’s Tail in VR mode. It was pretty astounding-- I even got motion sickness after a while it was so immersive, from looking up and down.

Speaking of Oculus-- Leap Motion demonstrated what happens when you connect a leap to an Oculus-- I’ll upgrade the PB&J metaphor to smores. I put the Oculus on and saw an orb in front of me along with a pair of VR hands that corresponded to my actual hands. I grabbed the orb, and on contact it spouted rays of light. Then my hands got… hot! As if it were really happening. This demonstrated how powerfully visual cues can affect sensory perception-- after all, my hands were touching nothing more than air. Chris also reported having the same sensory experience. It’ll be fascinating to see how this combo progresses.

Ultimately, we came away really impressed by how generous and smart the Unity community is-- it made us feel really good about some fundamental choices we made at the start, such as what to build Kandu in. We’re excited to deepen our relationship with the Unity community, and contribute as we can over time to making it even more awesome.

David

P.S. Another awesome moment: showing Lucas Meijer, who leads engineering at Unity, what we’re up to. He made a kandu on the spot!

David is Kandu’s CEO.  You can follow @dbennahum or check out his LinkedIn profile.