I was fully prepared to draw a ton of ire for this, but I genuinely think that among most of the trashy AI garbage that exists out there, our studio is trying to change that narrative and create something that feels magical. Genuinely. And finding someone who was passionate about fire emblem as much as us is worth it even if it means pissing off some others
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I think a job posting shouldn’t be on FEU. Mod’s decision, though, ultimately.
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I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and discussions! I’m super happy to answer any questions you guys might have in general about the title as well. Feel free to shoot me an email or send me a discord fr at ok_ikaros, although it will help to send an email too because I get a lot of random friend requests
I hope you can find the right person for the job. It’s unfortunate you stirred the wasps nest that is FEU.
Many of the people who would be qualified or a good fit for this position may have gotten their start on FEU (or serenes forest) but have since gone on to do their own projects.
Vesley for example (Eevee profile) is more than capable but as he said already has a stable position. Another FEU user (can’t remember their name atm) went on to begin development of an indie game. Markyjoe is an old fire emblem modder who is active in the SRPG Studio community. He is another person who has a breadth of knowledge on fire emblem design and possesses general programming knowledge (he also loves anime). I have no clue what he’s up to atm.
I myself would consider the position except I detest anime, mobile games, and I’m currently working on a number of other projects. (I like ai art though 
)
All that’s to say, there are people out there who would be a good fit, they just may be hard to find(or already busy).
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This isn’t my first rodeo that’s for sure. I really appreciate it! But you pretty much nailed it. The aforementioned folks are exactly who I am hoping to get the attention of
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Gameplay programmer position? Looking for ROMHackers and/or people enthusiastic about game development? Substantial programming experience? Needing a job?
Aw man, this sounds like a dream come true! Too bad I’m quite a ways away from San Francisco. Besides, no one would believe me if I told them “hey, this random company posted on a Fire Emblem forum looking to hire people making ROMhacks!”. Oh well. And I’m even not against AI art like a lot of people here too…
Don’t know how much I could offer but I might be able to help out a bit for free depending on what it is you need. I’ve got some 2d game development experience and a python FE1 compiling tool. 
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This thread ain’t gonna end well…
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Agreed.
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Still down to chat with you though! Mind sending in an application / email? But full disclosure Any work that you do will be compensated, we don’t do unpaid work
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Thanks for sharing this. It’s cool that you found FEU and think folks here would be worth interviewing for a role. It’s rad that our hobby is seen by employers as valuable – I know quite a few folks here used their hacking experience to get paid jobs in tech and game dev.
I did a bit of research and it seems like your company is a real entity based on what I could find on LinkedIn and Crunchbase, beyond your website. Looking at the team, it looks like you’re all fairly young entrepreneurs. Know this isn’t an easy journey so I want to be constructive and share how this post, your company, and the opportunity comes across to me. There are a few things that made me raise my eyebrows.
I’m kind of shocked that a company that’s backed by VCs (included seed money from Y Combinator, according to Crunchbase) would need to come to FEU and engage the community in this way to find talent.
My assumption, especially since none of your job descriptions list a salary range, is that these roles pay below market rates given the talent and location requirements in SF. Is there equity involved? Would love to understand more about the comp philosophy of the company and if you’d be offering fair compensation to people here on FEU (and in general).
A lot of the language used on the site and job descriptions also rubs me the wrong way.
Language like “making anime real” and job descriptions requesting “waifu” preferences feels incredibly juvenile and you’re turning away candidates who aren’t as “into” the world of anime as you and the founders are.
This language is going to turn away any candidate that is serious about game development or AI research. I do think your Y Combinator page reads much better than your website, but I still think anyone remotely serious is going to be skeptical of the team given the language you’re using. The lack of clarity around “AI research”, “anime”, and “game development studio” also feels like you’re throwing out keywords to attract people desperate to break into these spaces, but for me it comes across as unfocused. What are the products you work on and what is the relationship between the two besides both being anime themed? The way the company presents itself feels unclear across the different pillars of your business.
The other thing that is off to me is that you mention Midjourney. I do not see your names on the page as “being the team behind Midjourney”. Is this false? Or are you leveraging their model in some way for your own anime-specific purposes? The Y Combinator page calls out niji-journey, which I’m guessing is an off-shoot.
For this community in particular, you’re likely going to get backlash regarding AI used for art specifically, since this community has a lot of artists. If you’re using AI to make more interaction types with NPCs, that may be more tolerable (and from what I read, what it sounds like you’re doing with the LLM engineer you’re hiring). I’d be clearer on what you’re using AI for and how the research will inform your game design – this will help you handle objections from skeptics and detractors.
To help you find someone, I’d adjust a lot of your employer branding to focus more on the serious aspect of what you’re doing versus how much you all like anime. The latter will be obvious based on the products you’re developing.
I would assume speaking more to the technical aspect of your work vs. leaning into “AI generated waifus” will help you find people that can help you build things versus those only interested in consuming the output. Not showing salary or equity is also a red flag, but how the company presents itself raises more questions than answers.
My initial thought reading this post is that it was a scam – this is not the reaction that you want to get from potential candidates. The emphasis in the top post on “passion over experience” feels predatory to attract 18-24 year old weebs who are underemployed and desperate to get into this industry.
Based on what I read, your company does look legit, but it took me longer to get to this conclusion than I would’ve liked. There are a few things I think you and the team should re-evaluate to help attract the right candidates for the roles you posted.
I hope this was helpful feedback and you can find who you need. Good luck.
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Thanks for the feedback! Just to make sure there’s no more doubts https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/s/WSK1yhpa67
Spellbrush and Midjourney train the same foundational models and niji・journey is an anime fine tune off of that foundational model.
And, this is great feedback. I totally appreciate it
Lastly, just to make sure we’re on the same page, this wasn’t a role targeted towards new grads. we actually don’t hire new grads, but I understand why this post comes off this way. There were lots of things I needed to consider as I crafted a post for this forum but clearly I missed the mark so thank you all for telling me
At the end of the day, we at Spellbrush find our best hires in niche hobby communities. One of our engineers was found because he made a popular 3D tracking app for anime VR.
Actually we DO get applicants all the time from traditional game devs like riot and blizzard. We just choose not to, because honestly, big triple A studios kill passion. And that’s not something you can learn just from observation
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No problem, thanks for clarifying.
Yeah just be careful. You and the team are doing some cutting edge stuff that should attract qualified people, but how the company presents itself probably isn’t helping.
For example, I lack the skills and experience for the roles required, but even if you were hiring for something I was qualified for, I’d be filtered by the waifu question – I am married in the real world and don’t really “get” waifu culture.
I question how much the candidate having a “waifu” would actually help you filter for the right candidate and how many qualified people you’re losing because of it.
In general, I wouldn’t overindex on this kind of subject matter expertise. But I also think anyone smart can learn a customer + industry if they care enough about the problem.
For sure. It makes sense given what you’re working on to target more senior people at this stage. My gut is that the company would have more success carrying itself more seriously to appeal to this group. For me, as someone with 10+ years in tech, I’d be hesitant to stake my career on it given how the company presents itself. I’m not saying you need to present like a law firm, but there’s a level of seriousness that you’ll need that will def help the team find more qualified applicants.
And yeah totally get that – startups require different skillset from big corpos, and I would assume the median employee at a large game dev studio would lack the generalist’s skillset needed to work with the team you have and where you’re at. Startups will always attract “pirates and romantics” interested in ideas and doing new things in a way big corporate does not. I’ve done both so I get it.
Good luck!
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