Game Art Intern (Technical)
Nex is on a mission to help families rediscover the joy of movement. Created by parents for parents, Nex combines technology and play to deliver fun, social, and interactive experiences powered by natural body motion, encouraging kids and adults to move more, play more, and have fun together. Nex Playground, the company’s award-winning active play system, is purpose-built to get families moving year-round, with safety and privacy as core considerations in its intentional design. It is certified kidSAFE+ COPPA compliant and built to support healthy, active play for all ages and abilities.
Nex Playground features a growing library of 50+ experiences, including motion and dance games, fitness and educational experiences, and Nex Originals. Content includes collaborations with partners like Hasbro, Sesame Workshop, and NBCUniversal. Nex has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, TIME’s Best Inventions, and Parents’ Best Entertainment System for Families, and has earned Red Dot, IDEA, and Core77 international design awards. We encourage you to explore Have Fun and Is Motion Gaming Back?, as they offer a deeper look into our culture, values, and explain how our approach to motion gaming differs from previous generations.
Location: Hong Kong
Type: Internship
The Role
As a Game Art Intern (Technical) at Nex. inc, you will sit at the exciting intersection of art and engineering. You are the bridge builder who empowers our artists to achieve their creative vision while ensuring our games run smoothly on every device. In this role, you won’t just be making assets; you will be solving complex visual problems, optimizing pipelines, and diving under the hood of our game engine. If you love computer graphics, enjoy cracking difficult technical puzzles, and want to understand the "how" behind the "wow" in video games, this is the perfect place to start your career.
What You'll Do
- Act as a bridge between the art and engineering teams, helping to solve complex visual implementation challenges.
- Assist in creating, maintaining, and debugging materials and shaders for characters, environments, and special effects.
- Support the art pipeline by writing scripts to automate repetitive tasks or validate asset integrity before implementation.
- Troubleshoot technical issues related to 3D models, UV maps, and lighting within the game engine.
- Collaborate on documentation to help artists understand technical constraints and best practices.
What You'll Learn
- Deepen your understanding of the real-time rendering pipeline and how assets are processed by the GPU.
- Learn to write and optimize shaders to achieve specific visual effects while adhering to performance budgets.
- Gain experience building custom tools and scripts that automate workflows and improve efficiency for the wider art team.
- Learn techniques for profiling game performance and optimizing assets (meshes, textures, lighting) for target platforms.
- Understand how to effectively translate artistic vision into technical reality by bridging the gap between creative artists and software engineers.
Requirements
- You love the "how" behind the "wow." You’re naturally curious about how games create beautiful lighting, water, or characters.
- You have a foundational understanding of math (like vectors and angles) and are excited to see those concepts come to life in 3D.
- You’ve spent some time writing code and enjoy the logic of programming. You don't need to be an expert, but you aren't afraid of a script editor.
- You’ve opened a tool like Blender, Maya, or Unity and understand the basics of how 3D objects are built (vertices, UVs, etc.).
- You are currently studying (or just finished) a degree in a technical or creative field and are looking for a place to combine those two worlds.
Nice to Have
- Practical experience with coding languages such as C# or Python.
- Exposure to shader programming languages like HLSL, GLSL, or node-based shader graphs.
- Familiarity with commercial game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine.
- Basic knowledge of 3D software like Maya, Blender, or 3ds Max.
- Experience using version control systems like Git or Perforce in a team environment.
We Offer
- Competitive compensation package.
- Flexible working hours and vacation policy.
- Product-driven culture that treasures talents and individual growth.
- Front-row seat and hands-on experience with cutting edge technologies in the evolving gaming field
Nex is located in San Jose, California, USA and Hong Kong. Learn more about us at nex.inc/who-we-are.
We encourage applications even if you don’t meet more than 50% of the requirements — we believe that experience comes in many forms!
Nex is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all individuals at every stage of the employment relationship, including all current and prospective employees, and covers all employment decisions including recruitment, hiring, job assignment, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and termination.
We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.