About Us
Chuhai Labs is an independent game studio and publisher based in the birthplace of Nintendo – Kyoto, Japan! We founded Chuhai Labs in 2020 as a brand of VITEI Backroom. Started by industry and Nintendo veteran Giles Goddard, our studio innovates through unique game design, embracing technical advances, and ultimately via relentlessly pursuing fun.
We develop games on a huge variety of platforms, from home consoles and PC to the extraordinary Playdate, Meta Quest, and even location-based VR. We’re always hungry for great new adventures!
Jobs: Work with Us!
We’re looking for like-minded innovators for Chuhai Labs’ next projects! We develop for a huge variety of platforms and like to keep things interesting. Are you someone with great skills looking for a new adventure? Take a look at our open positions and embark on your career with us today!
Chuhai Labs is seeking a Freelance Gameplay & Systems Programmer to help evolve a pitchable prototype into a polished, shippable game.
Founded in 2020 by Nintendo veteran Giles Goddard (Star Fox, 1080° Snowboarding, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), Chuhai Labs is an indie developer and publisher based in beautiful Kyoto, Japan.
What We Offer
- Remote work from anywhere in the world
- A fair, respectful, and professional work environment
- Talented and experienced teammates who love pushing boundaries
- A collaborative studio where every voice matters
- The opportunity to make a real impact on original and experimental IPs
- A short-term contract with the potential for long-term collaboration
What You’ll Do
- Collaborate closely with the Lead Designer to refine game mechanics and increase overall fun factor
- Integrate additional game assets (animations, SFX, UI, etc.)
- Polish UI, transitions, and UX to match the gameplay quality
- Evaluate and support porting the game from PC to console platforms
- Assist and coordinate with porting partners when needed
Required Experience
- 3+ years of professional game development experience
- At least one shipped commercial game
- Strong proficiency with Unreal Engine 5
- Solid grasp of 3D math and linear algebra (vectors, matrices, etc.)
- Comfortable with version control systems (e.g. Git, Perforce)
- Self-driven, organized, and eager to keep learning
Bonus Points
- 5+ years of experience in game development
- Multiple shipped titles, especially on consoles
- Strong C++ skills and familiarity with other languages
- Residing in Japan
How to Apply
Send your resume and portfolio to jobs@chuhailabs.com
Successful candidates will be invited to a video interview.
Let’s make something awesome together!
Chuhai Labs is looking for a Gameplay & Systems Programmer to join our team.
Founded in 2020 by Nintendo veteran Giles Goddard (Star Fox, 1080° Snowboarding, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), Chuhai Labs is an indie developer and publisher based in beautiful Kyoto, Japan.
What We Offer:
- Remote work from anywhere in the world
- A fair, respectful, and professional work environment
- Talented and experienced teammates who love pushing boundaries
- A collaborative studio where every voice matters
- The opportunity to make a real impact on original and experimental IPs
What You’ll Do
- Work directly with the Lead Programmer and Game Director to build and expand upon gameplay systems for a real-time action title for PC and consoles.
- Design, build, and maintain gameplay and supporting systems that are extensible and composable, emphasizing runtime performance.
- Assist in integrating game assets (e.g., animations, SFX, UI elements, etc.).
- Adhere to existing coding styles and guidelines to write easily readable and maintainable code
- Participate in regular code reviews to improve the quality of your code and share your knowledge and insights with other team members.
Required Experience
- 3+ years of professional game development experience
- At least one shipped commercial game
- Strongly proficient in Unity and C#
- Solid grasp of 3D math and linear algebra (vectors, matrices, etc.)
- Comfortable with learning and using Unreal Engine 5
- Comfortable with version control systems (e.g., Git, Perforce)
- Self-driven, organized, and eager to keep learning
Bonus Points
- 5+ years of experience in game development
- Multiple shipped titles, especially on consoles
- Experience developing tools for designers and artists to create and edit game content
- Experience with performance-oriented packages in Unity, such as Addressables, URP, etc.
- Strongly proficient in Unreal Engine 5
- Strong C++ skills and familiarity with other languages
- Residing in Japan
How to Apply
Send your resume and portfolio to jobs@chuhailabs.com
Successful candidates will be invited to a video interview.
Let’s make something awesome together!
Welcome to the hunt for the Chuhai Lab’s next Art Director — a creative powerhouse who doesn’t just lead from the sidelines but gets their hands dirty in the pixel playground. This is a role for someone who lives and breathes stylized art, thrives on teamwork, and is all-in on our mission to make weirdly fun games for the whole damn world.
Founded in 2020 by Nintendo veteran Giles Goddard (Star Fox, 1080° Snowboarding, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), Chuhai Labs is an indie developer and publisher based in beautiful Kyoto, Japan.
What We Offer:
- A fair, respectful, and professional work environment
- Talented and experienced teammates who love pushing boundaries
- A collaborative studio where every voice matters
- The opportunity to make a real impact on original and experimental IPs
ESSENTIAL Traits & Skills
- Hands-on Art Skills: You don’t just talk the talk — you regularly create reference assets – and when the time calls for it, even some final ones. Unless the project is a tiny one, you will always have art support, but we need someone who can effectively be a lead artist as well as a director, able to concept, model, texture, and animate when necessary. You’re able to adapt to stylized or photo-real art styles as needed per project.
- Thick Skin, Big Laugh: A sense of humor is a must. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and our games reflect that. We laugh with each other–never at each other.
- Zero Ego: You’re not here to build your empire — you’re here to build the team’s. That means putting the vision first.
- True Director Energy: You can take a wild idea and shape it into a clear, compelling vision. You can communicate that vision effectively and appropriately delegate responsibility to others to achieve it with the best results (within inevitable constraints).
- Champion Creative Excellence: Push yourself and, more importantly, others to create high-quality art that feels unique to us and challenges the industry standard.
- Balance Innovation & Execution: Make sure ideas are both ambitious and shippable, working within production realities.
- Local Talent: You live and work in Japan’s time zone (UTC+9), and can give 6+ hours of overlap with our core work hours between 09:00-19:00 JST every day. We’re a tight crew, and communication matters.
ESSENTIAL Responsibilities
- Tune into the company vision and translate that into rock-solid, clearly communicated direction.
- Build unshakable documentation that says: “This is the look, the feel, and the vibe.”
- Break down and scope art tasks as needed.
- Give concise and actionable feedback for artists based on a project’s needs.
- Take on technical art direction where needed.
- Manage multiple teams on different projects, with different art styles, needs, schedules, and skillsets among the artists.
- Lead by example — concept, and even make foundational art assets to set the quality bar yourself. When needed, jump into the trenches and make final-quality art.
- Communicate with other departments to keep production in motion. Partner with producers and artists to balance vision, scope, and schedule.
- Build up your team: teach, guide, and mentor artists to level up and keep it all on-brand.
- Keep art direction clear and flexible: room to create, but never drift.
- Design smooth, efficient art pipelines that help us hit both project and studio goals.
- Help scope new ideas to ensure they nail the company vibe, look great, and hit the marks for funding and strategic goals.
PREFERRED Traits & Skills
- You’ve got some wins under your belt — shipped successful commercial games.
- You game. A lot. Especially on console.
- You can shift from 2D pixel art to 3D mayhem without blinking.
- You’ve got big-picture Creative Director chops — can shape visions from scratch, especially when the vision holder is busy elsewhere.
- You live in Kansai and can swing by the Kyoto office in person at least once a week.
- You are proficient in Unity, Maya, Substance, Photoshop, and other industry-standard tools.
If you’re someone who can make people feel a game’s art direction — and help others make it real — we want to hear from you. Let’s make magic.
How to Apply
Send your resume and portfolio to jobs@chuhailabs.com
Successful candidates will be invited to a video interview.
Let’s make something awesome together!
Weirdly Fun for the Whole Damn World™
Contact us
Drop us a line! For general inquiries, business opportunities, media or review code requests please fill out the adjacent form. For support on any of our titles it’s best to reach out via our Discord in the games channel. Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you – YOU are Legally the Best!
