#MeetIronGalaxy – Gabe Gonzalez

Producers help the people who make video games work together. Without them, we’d all be lost on our own paths. To give you a sense of how that works, and the people who do the work, we’d like to introduce you to someone who interacts with different teams, internally and externally, on a daily basis. It’s no coincidence that his initials can also be translated as gamer shorthand for “Good game!”


Iron Galaxy: What do you do at Iron Galaxy? Oh, and please share your name!

Gabe Gonzalez: My name’s Gabe and I’m a Senior Producer at Iron Galaxy. That title can mean a lot of things. In this case, that’s project management and team communication.


IG: Thanks for the explanation. What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?

GG: Keeping track of both short term and long-term initiatives. It’s a constant internal pressure to not let either challenge occupy too much of your brain space. It’s thinking about what the team will be doing today, tomorrow, next week, next month, three months, and so on. Just as often as it can be too late to change, there’s such a thing as being too soon to know the right choice. When’s the right time to decide? How long do you wait to make sure you have all the information?

There’s proactive and reactive responses. A lot of times, production feels reactive. If you keep that short vs. long-term focus, and find the right balance between them, you start to feel more proactive. And that’s a great feeling.


IG: Maintaining that balance must be tough but also rewarding. What is one skill you learned growing up that you use in your role?

GG: Patience – If you want something done right, it almost always takes time. Looking at a 3 or 6-month schedule can be daunting. All the little hidden bumps and shake ups along the way. But patience and trust in a process can result in something great. I’m not exactly sure if this is something I picked up exactly from growing up, but it’s a skill that’s stuck with me for as long as I can remember. Calmness under pressure and never overreacting all stem from patience and not clinging so much to the present. Give things time, usually deserved time, and the results will follow.


IG: Time management, especially when evaluating a whole team’s schedule, seems essential for success. What has been your proudest moment as a member of the Iron Galaxy team?

GG: Producing and shipping Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves for PC was an absolute top industry experience for me. I came to Iron Galaxy with more of a creative and design leadership background, but to put my focus toward leading a healthy team from start to finish confirmed my feelings on why I wanted to be a Producer. I put years of PC game experience and project management experience into practice and the result was a great new way to play a beloved game.


IG: A career highlight for us all. How is your job as a Producer unique, compared to other roles in our company.

GG: Both as a Producer and in my role as the lead of a specific group, what’s unique is the people you get to interact with. I’m the voice of a team and keep a running internal rolodex of the “who’s who” across each of the organizations we often work closely with. It’s great to engage with and work with people across Localization, QA, Audio, IT, Studio Operations, Biz Dev, I could go on.

You never know who you’ll meet next!


IG: That variety must be refreshing. If you could give someone who wanted to follow in your career’s footsteps advice, what would it be?

GG: Look into job shadowing, especially project managers across multiple industries. Take a stab at leading a game jam project or be the go getter in a student group project. Real “If you build it, they will come” Field of Dreams type stuff. You’ll be surprised when you first step in to trying a new thing or building from the ground up just how quickly you’ll either love it or hate it. Find out what you like by trying new things, and then start to dig deeper into the things you liked doing most.


IG: No surprise here that project management experience also applies in game development. What is your favorite perk associated with working at Iron Galaxy?

GG: With our primary focus on “work for hire,”, I get a ton of learning experiences from engaging with everyone else’s processes. While a lot of the core concepts are similar (planning and execution), how you get from A to Z can vary wildly for each studio.


IG: It’s great that we get to learn from our partners. You’re the voice of a variety of teams here at Iron Galaxy, but how collaborative are you with each of them?

GG: On a scale of 1 (Least) to 5 (Most) I’d say Production trends in the 4s and 5s. We act as “glue” between the different teams at Iron Galaxy, and more broadly the various studios we work with. Beyond normal project duties I’ve gotten more involved with DEIA initiatives and leading one of our employee resource groups. Those two things in combination put me in constant contact with folks from across the company.

IG: it’s great to see you doing good work and exploring your personal passions here. What’s the most rewarding aspect of creating things that other people experience?

GG: I often think back to being a class clown in school and remember what I liked most was seeing everyone else laugh. Moving on from pure comedy to this day, one of my biggest rewards is seeing how people engage and react to the things we create.


IG: Entertainment is your aim and gamers have plenty to gain. What is a game where you’ve seen it have a significant impact on someone’s life?

GG: Animal Crossing just kept folks together during the pandemic. We were able to escape a harsh reality and be closer to others. And if it wasn’t Animal Crossing specifically, it was probably a Discord server with a community built around similar interests or connective experiences. Discord may not be a game, but it was created to fill a need manifested from social games. So, it counts!


IG: Both definitely count. We might be biased, but community is one of the best aspects of gaming. You mentioned taking part in our DEIA initiatives. As the lead of the Latinx ERG, now named Unidos @ IGS, what prompted you to lead the group and what are you hoping to accomplish with other DEI leads?

GG: I’m excited to help lead Unidos @ IGS and work with the rest of the DEI team at Iron Galaxy! I joined to help bridge the minority gap in games, especially for experienced roles. I came from a family with zero understanding of how the game industry worked. I stumbled into a school program with an established pipeline. The rest is my own history, but I often think about all the others in my position with no clue where to start. And if they have started, what next? If they’re already in the industry and looking to grow, what do they do now?

I want to see more people like me in the role I’m in now, and that starts with showing them a pathway and cheering them on along the way.

IG: It’s great to have a strong leader like you to help us make IG an awesome place to work. Tell us more about you and your hometown.

GG: I’m from Jacksonville, Florida! Home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, coastal beach town vibes, and a small city with a big heart.

IG: That certainly checks out! What’s a favorite hobby of yours, aside from playing video games?

GG: Golf. I found my retirement hobby many years ahead of schedule! My hobbies have usually revolved around sports, and I’ve played a lot of them casually growing up. Choosing golf from all the rest simply because it’s the one I can keep playing the longest.

IG: Foreward thinking! If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

GG: 100% it would be burgers if that also means they can be highly customizable. Cheeseburger, burger wraps, burger bowls over greens, burger bowls over rice. Just give me that good ground beef, cheese, and some fresh veggies (bun optional) and I’m in heaven.


IG: You’ve broken the last question, in the tastiest way. What is your favorite travel destination that you have visited?

GG: My favorite has been my most traveled, Puerto Rico. It’s a very short flight from Florida and there’s a ton of diversity packed in a small island. Mountains, beaches, rain forests, food, and other smaller islands. I have a lot of family history there, with a lot of my extended family having lived.

IG: Highlighting food two questions in a row. We’re hungry now! What’s one place that you hope to see one day?

GG: Sticking with the Carribean theme I would say Cuba, mainly for two reasons. The first being it would be incredible to see where my mother initially grew up and the home she left behind. The second is harder to explain -- My mother has put a travel ban in place effectively until she feels the island is free of Castro’s regime, oppression, and the people are truly cared for. If I were ever to go to Cuba, it would be with her, and the fact that we’re both there together must mean the island has come a long way.

We’re not there now and I don’t know if we’ll be there soon. But I really want to believe that level of change is real, and I look forward to the day we visit together.

IG: A bittersweet answer. We’re hoping you and your family can see home on your terms soon. What is one genre of games that you think is underrated?

GG: Management sims! Or I should say the strategy genre as whole. Games like Crusader Kings, for fantasy fans. Dwarf Fortress, for builders. Football Manger for.... football managers. It’s a niche of a genre in the grand scheme of things, but when you look at them there’s a lot to appreciate. Emergent storytelling, indirect control, and seeing how a game reacts to your choices with surprise and delight. That’s what they’re all about!


IG: The Project Manager in you is gaming loud and clear! What is one song most likely to earn you a speeding ticket?

GG: “Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)” by Run the Jewels has probably put me at risk of a speeding ticket before. Seriously, it’s hard to listen to sitting still.


IG: As long as you keep your eyes open while driving, that speeding ticket won’t be so bad. If you could pick a song to play every time you entered the room, what would it be?

GG: I can only think of this question in terms of wrestling entrance themes. I would most likely portray a heel who's full of himself, very confident but never taking myself too seriously. So, something big, loud, and orchestral would fit. So how about O Fortuna?

For a similar vibe but less orchestral, “He’s a Rebel” by the Crystals is a classic banger. Great for a cool guy with villain vibes.


IG: Diverse choices. Next time, we’ll have to ask what your wrestler attire would be, for each song. What game have you played the most?

GG: Football Manager and nothing else comes close by a mile. It’s hard to put a final number of hours played on it but, it’s definitely larger than 3 digits. I’ve left the game running overnight and accumulated hours playing across several releases.


IG: And what movie have you re-watched more times than you can count?

GG: Young Frankenstein – It's one of my dad and I’s favorite movies to watch... and then re-watch whenever our family wants to watch a movie but don’t know what to pick. “Wait Master, it might be dangerous… you go, first.”


IG: What’s one superpower that you’d like to have?

GG: I was always fascinated by super speed and the ability to nearly teleport from one location to another. Just finding ways to do more with my time by being faster at the things I already do.

It would also help my ever-growing backlogs of home projects, books, and the like.


IG: A gamer having a backlog? Pfft. Can’t believe it. What fictional universe would you choose over our own? What if there was no coming back?

GG: Growing up I used to think of all the sci-fi universes and how wonderful it would be to live among the stars. The older I got the more I realized those stories were typically dystopian or cruel to the people who lived within their stories. And add on the fact there is no escape clause, no coming back? Forget about it.

My answer is Pokémon, nothing catastrophic ever happens (I think), and you get a cool companion like Squirtle to hang out with.


Classic answer Gabe. Knowing the fine communication skills you have and knack for organization, you might as well be known as Professor Gabe of Jacksonville Town. Thanks for etching out the time in your calendar, as you handle many!

We have openings spanning five departments at this very moment. Stop by our Careers page to see if there’s a match for you. If nothing matches right now, no worries, we have a General Application that accepts applicants throughout the year.

‍