40 SOULS is a battle racing roguelite set in a post apocalyptic future where megacorps and cults run deadly tournaments under the watch of brutal gods. The player fights across a ruined country in a combat vehicle, hunts rare resources, and makes choices that shape the flow of the tournament and future runs.

We are currently building the demo and preparing an investor pitch. At this stage the project is not funded, so collaboration is unpaid for now. After the demo we plan to secure financing and move to paid development.

Responsibilities:

1. Performance ownership and release stability:

• Define and maintain performance budgets: CPU ms, GPU ms, VRAM, RAM, level size, load times, hitching
• Set target metrics for key scenarios: combat, hubs, exploration, cutscenes, heavy VFX moments
• Establish a performance baseline and track regressions across builds
• Profile heavy scenes and identify bottlenecks: geometry, lighting, materials, VFX, streaming, loading
• Diagnose and fix FPS drops, hitches, memory spikes, long loads
• Work with Unreal Insights, Stat tools, GPU Visualizer, render and loading profiling
• Prepare the project for milestone ready performance and produce final quality and scalability recommendations

2. Levels, streaming, and loading:

• Own streaming budgets: chunk sizing, priorities, streaming distances, preloading for transitions and cutscenes
• Reduce hitching caused by streaming textures, meshes, animations, VFX, audio
• Review and optimize scene composition: asset density, decals, reflective surfaces, translucency
• Reduce build size and improve load times by cleaning unused assets, dependencies, duplicates

3. Rendering, lighting, and scalability:

• Optimize cost of shadows, lights, post process, volumetrics, SSR and reflections, fog
• Define lighting quality rules per scene type: interior, exterior, night, cutscenes
• Configure scalability and platform profiles: LOD distance, shadow distance, VFX quality levels
• Balance visuals and cost, propose artist friendly alternatives to expensive solutions

4. Content optimization: materials, textures, geometry, VFX:

• Create and maintain master materials and custom material solutions for environments, characters, and VFX
• Make materials parameter driven and team friendly, while controlling cost and ensuring consistent results
• Design master materials with performance in mind: predictable features, safe parameters, minimal complexity
• Optimize materials: shader complexity, overdraw, translucency, texture sampling, texture settings and compression
• Run audits, remove duplicates, do reviews and propose quality and performance improvements
• Define texture set standards per location and content type
• Build LOD strategies for environments, props, and set dressing with smooth transitions
• Implement HLOD, merged meshes, and instancing (ISM, HISM) to reduce draw calls, especially for repeats and foliage
• Control collision complexity and cost
• Optimize Niagara and VFX performance, including translucency and overdraw management
• Create templates and guidelines for VFX artists

5. Pipeline, standards, and team tools:

• Establish clear engine side standards for assets and level building
• Define import and content requirements for textures, materials, geometry, and VFX based on performance goals
• Build tools and automated checks that catch problematic assets and violations early
• Create checklists and a clear review workflow for the art team
• Review levels and assets, assign tasks with measurable outcomes
• Mentor the team and ensure pipeline compliance so content stays stable and predictable in quality and FPS

What we are looking for:

• Strong Unreal Engine experience with profiling and optimization on real projects
• Ability to set budgets, enforce standards, and communicate clearly across art and engineering
• Confident with Unreal Insights, Stat tools, GPU Visualizer, and practical optimization workflows
• Experience building scalable materials, LOD and HLOD setups, instancing, and VFX performance approaches
• A mindset of ownership and measurable results

Benefits

• Portfolio cases – We create and publish joint portfolio cases together with contributors.
• Work format – The project is currently non-commercial, so we understand that contributors may have other jobs or projects
• We consider different collaboration formats: full-time or a few hours per week
• Fully remote, flexible schedule
• Clear tasks, healthy communication, regular feedback without toxicity
• After the demo, we plan to secure funding, expand the team, and move to paid development

About the company

The team already includes people with AA/AAA experience and currently consists of around 25 members.

The visual side is mostly assembled and continues to grow. Our current goal is to structure game design and technical implementation so the demo is cohesive, readable, and fun to play.