The Aberrant Raven is a small indie studio building Contentment, a two-world narrative game in Unreal Engine 5: by day, a warm life-sim in Fairbanks — a floating city of lantern-lit wooden docks where our protagonist works at a gleaming medical research facility; by night, a turn-based JRPG in a strange, beautiful dreamworld. Two diaries, two worlds, one system. Where we actually are (because rev-share posts should prove they're real): playable vertical slice in active development — custom camera system, dialogue system with per-line cinematic shots, MetaHuman character pipeline, a full battle-system design doc, and a working level with simulated ocean water. Solo founder working full-time, plus a battle-system engineer, a composer, and an accessibility lead. Source control (Diversion), structured onboarding, written collaborator agreements. Target: public demo at Steam Next Fest June 2027. Our AI policy, up front: AI-assisted process, human-authored content. All story, art, music, and voice are 100% human-original — no generative-AI assets ship, ever. If that matters to you as much as it does to us, we'll get along. Open roles (all remote, rev-share via written agreement): - Level/Dungeon Designer (core, ongoing role — our biggest need) - 3D Character/Creature Artist — own our whole dreamworld companion cast, concept through game-ready - Character Clothing/Costume Artist — three wardrobe worlds; MetaHuman experience a big plus - Character/Machine Animator — medical machines + creature battle sets - UI/UX Designer (UMG) — diegetic vitals monitors; accessibility is a day-one requirement - VFX Artist (Niagara) — battle effects and dreamworld atmosphere - Gameplay Coder — dockside mini-games (Blueprint) - Assistant Dialogue Writer — short two-round trial; strong character-voice writers wanted - Props/Set-Dressing Artist — small game-ready objects that tell story without dialogue What we want most: genre-fit and enthusiasm. If "cozy-but-something's-off narrative drama wrapped around a JRPG heart" is the game you've been waiting to help make, tell us that — it matters more than your year count. To apply: theaberrantraven@gmail.com or Discord theaberrantraven_53269 with the role, a portfolio/reel or samples, and 2–3 sentences on why this project specifically. We reply to everyone.