#MeetIronGalaxy – Nate Mefford

At Iron Galaxy, our engineering leaders are guiding the next generation of programmers. We’re putting them to the question so they can share their personal experiences making our games. Today, we’re talking to Nate Mefford, one of our Chicago teammates. Nate started with us in May 2009, making him one of the very first employees at the studio. Let’s learn about how Nate found his way into this industry.

Iron Galaxy: Who are you and what would you say you do here at Iron Galaxy?

Nate Mefford: I’m Nathan Mefford, but almost everyone just calls me Nate. I’m the Rendering Technical Director at Iron Galaxy. This is an interesting role here because we typically have four or more projects that need rendering support at any one time. On one of those projects, I’ll be personally leading the day-to-day rendering tasks. I also have a responsibility to make sure the other projects have what they need to be successful with their rendering work. That means ensuring each project has the right mix of rendering personnel, helping to hire new graphics programmers, and supporting the career development of our existing rendering engineers.


IG: Your leadership is appreciated! What would you say is most challenging aspect of your job?

NM: Modern rendering engines are large, complex beasts and the algorithms and techniques they employ are constantly evolving. Staying current with advances in the state of the art while continuing to complete day-to-day project tasks can be hard to balance. I love learning about new technologies though, so it’s harder to find the time than the motivation to keep up.


IG: What is the one skill you learned growing up that helps you stay motivated in your role?

NM: Always be curious! Growing up I always wanted to understand why things worked the way they did. This led me to study physics in college, which felt like the ultimate field for someone obsessed with the question “Why?”. While I didn’t pursue a career in physics, that same curiosity helps me get to the root cause of the challenges I come across in game development.


IG: What has been your proudest moment as a member of the Iron Galaxy team and “Why”?

NM: This may seem crazy given all the projects I’ve worked on throughout 13 years at Iron Galaxy, but I have to say it was shipping Borderlands 2 on PlayStation Vita. I spent a lot of time optimizing that project and to this day I'm proud of the solid Borderlands experience we delivered.

IG: If someone who wanted to follow in your career footsteps and they asked you for one piece of advice, what would it be?

NM: I don’t really have a magic formula here. For me, it started with what I said above--being curious about how games are made--but you need to back that curiosity up with plenty of elbow grease and hard work. It’s a cliché, but there’s no shortcut to success that avoids hard work.


IG: Hard work leads to amazing things. What is the best thing about working at a company that makes video games?

NM: The people in the video game industry are such an amazing peer group to be part of. I’m a very analytical person by nature, but being in the industry means I'm surrounded by fascinating creative people who are so much fun to be around. They show me new perspectives on the world. If my career had been in a purely technical industry, I would have missed out on so many wonderful friendships with the amazing and unique people found in game development.


IG: Besides the people, what would be another favorite perk of yours associated with your job?

NM: I love having the opportunity to interact with all the different partner studios we work with. I always enjoy meeting new developers. I also love that it gives me a chance to see how different teams approach the challenges of video game development. I feel like I always learn so much from every partner I work with.


IG: How does a Graphics Programmer help an artist or designer realize their vision?

NM: I learned on my very first project (Gunship! -- and yes, the exclamation point is part of the name) that great art is more important than great tech. That was a bit of a disappointing realization for a young Graphics Programmer, but that knowledge and experience has guided me throughout the rest of my career. Through that lens, I view my primary role as enabling the artists to achieve their vision. That means constantly communicating with the art team and working with them to figure out what technical support I can provide to solve their most pressing artistic challenges. Sometimes that might involve implementing some new rendering technology to enable a new capability or specific look. Other times, the highest priority need of the art department may be to improve their tools workflow or optimize the existing engine to allow them to push their current vision just a little bit further.


IG: How has Iron Galaxy’s culture evolved during your time at the company?

NM: Mike O’Connor and I were the first two employees at Iron Galaxy and our first day was spent in Dave Lang’s basement, finishing the assembly of our computers from parts. It’s safe to say that there have been a lot of changes at Iron Galaxy since that day! However, our core culture has remained largely unchanged over those 13 years. Of course, we strive to be the best at what we do—helping clients make great games while making a few of our own games along the way-- but at the end of the day, Iron Galaxy has always been a people-first company. Part of Dave’s original founding vision was to create a company where friends could come and work together for as long as they wanted—even to retirement. More than a decade later, it looks like we might have succeeded at achieving this vision.


IG: While we’ve been work from home, the quantity of interactions between people have changed. With that in mind, how do cats play a role in your work from home set-up?

NM: As a certified Cat Person, I’m so glad you asked this question! My fuzzy buddies (Yeti and Larry) have been such a boost to my spirit through the pandemic. The three of us always start our mornings out with a little bit of play and breakfast together. After that Yeti and Larry mostly respect my office hours. They prefer to spend the day chasing each other around the house, watching squirrels in the backyard, and sleeping near heat sources. When my day gets hectic, though, nothing clears my head more quickly than a visit with the fluffy monsters. I will warn you that cats do not give good advice on specific programming problems. It turns out all they ever want to do is chase pointers :P

IG: Where are you originally from?

NM: Until I was 12, my family lived in a very small town in Michigan called Three Oaks. If you draw a line on a map straight east from Chicago across Lake Michigan it will go right through Three Oaks. When I was growing up, we spent a lot of summer days at the many beautiful beaches nearby. If you climbed a sand dune on a truly clear day, you could just make out 3 tiny grey dots across the lake. These were the 3 tallest skyscrapers in Chicago. I think it’s fun that, two decades later, I would be living on the other side of that lake looking back in the other direction.

Three Oaks was an amazing, Norman Rockwell kind of place to be a young kid, but I’m glad my parents moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia for my high school years. It was nice to have more scholastic opportunities and a larger, more diverse group of kids to interact with as I got older.


IG: Let’s get more personal and talk about the grown-up version of you. Aside from playing video games, what is a favorite hobby of yours?

NM: Recently I have rekindled an old love of Ping Pong. It’s one of those rare things that I enjoy almost as much whether I win or lose. Thanks so much to fellow Iron Galaxian Everardo Acosta for donating his old table to the Chicago studio several years back—it has brought me so much happiness!


IG: We’ll need to queue up a Table Tennis Tournament once we’re all back in the studio. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

NM: I enjoy such a wide variety of food that I’m not sure there is any single food that I would be happy eating for the rest of my life. However, if I had to choose one last food to experience in my life, it would be raw chocolate chip cookie dough.


IG: What is your favorite travel destination that you have visited?

NM: I love traveling to locations full of wildlife and natural beauty! In that regard, nothing compares to the safari experience I had in South Africa a few years back. I’m hoping to get back there soon actually. My visit to the Antarctic peninsula is a close second favorite. Our planet is truly full of wonders.


IG: Let’s keep that globe spinning, then. What is one place that you hope to see one day?

NM: I was supposed to go on a trip to the North Pole in the summer of 2020, but then COVID-19 struck. I’ve continued to roll that reservation forward for two years now. Hopefully this is the year I finally get to the top of the world!


IG: Make sure to stay warm! What is one genre of games that you think is underrated?

NM: Turn Based Strategy. The original 1994 X-COM: UFO Defense was a huge influence on me and a big part of why I was so excited to work at Microprose right after college. The recent remakes by Firaxis were amazing, and I’d love to see more games like those.


IG: What was the last concert you saw?

NM: I saw 21 Pilots not long before the lockdowns. I’m fairly sure I was the oldest person there who wasn’t going with their kids, but I had a blast!


IG: We work in video games. We’re always youthful… right? If you could pick a song to play every time you entered the room, what would it be?

NM: The Final Countdown by Europe for sure! If it was good enough to be the intro song used by the Detroit Pistons, Bad Boys, and Gob Bluth, then I’d be honored to use it myself.


IG: You’ve now entered the room, The Final Countdown is playing, you are tasked with picking a game you have you’ve put an exorbitant amount of time in. What game is it?

NM: Early in college I got NHL 94 for SNES. Up to five people could play local multiplayer with the multi-tap, and NHL 94 became a dangerous obsession for me and my friends over the next 3 years.


IG: What has been your favorite series to binge?

NM: It’s so hard to choose just one. The Wire and Breaking Bad are definitely on my all-time favorites list. More recently, I couldn’t get enough of Last Chance U or Cobra Kai. Honorable Mention to the shows I go back to for an umpteenth viewing when there’s nothing new to binge—Peep Show and 30 Rock.


IG: Given a time machine, which historical period would you like to experience first-hand?

NM: I’ll be honest, I’m pretty attached to the modern era with our internet and smart phones and not dying of dysentery and what not. For a brief visit though, I’d probably choose to see what Rome was like at the height of the Roman empire. Although if I could dial it back far enough, I’d be tempted to skip past humanity and check out the dinosaurs. Either way I’d be happy to return to modern times after a short visit.


IG: With the historical limitation take away, it sounds like you would just peek into the future. What fictional universe would you choose over our own? What if there was no coming back?

NM: Star Trek for sure. I’d love to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!


IG: Yup, the future and technology suits you well. If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would you invite?

This is an obscure choice, but my first thought is Sean Carrol, who is my current favorite science communicator. I might also choose Tim Sweeney because I have enormous respect for what he’s accomplished in game development. The problem with these choices is that I think I’d feel too intimidated by either of them to have a coherent dinner conversation, so maybe I should just invite my best friends over since then I’m guaranteed to have a great time.


Those were some thoughtful responses and an awesome look back at some IG history Nate. Thanks for taking us on the adventure of your career. Your time spent as an employee and friend of IG is much appreciated.

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