#MeetIronGalaxy – Sloan Battle

When it comes to making a game, engineers bring the entire development team together on a technical level. The better their capabilities, the better we work together as a team. Meet Sloan, one of those programmers who can dive into a codebase solo and equip a team for success.

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Iron Galaxy: Hiya Sloan. What’s your full name? What would you say you do here?

Sloan Battle: I’m Sloan Battle, and I’m an Engineer. I’ve worked at Iron Galaxy for four years and, so far, my work has mostly been related to UI and Gameplay logic. I do like to consider myself a generalist, though. I’m willing to learn and work on just about anything!

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IG: Curious and adaptable: Crucial traits for a member of our team. What has been your proudest moment at IG?

SB: Helping Riot ship VALORANT on console! This was my first ever shipped game in my professional career. Riot was an amazing partner to work with, and VALORANT was a great project to work on. I grew so much both as an engineer and as a person on that project. Our team felt so special, and it felt amazing to see the great reception players gave us. That’s a high I’m still riding today!

IG: What an impressive career start! What would you say is the best thing about working in game dev?

SB: Collaboration! There are so many different disciplines in game development. I work with so many people that are really good at things that I am very bad at (like anything art related). I admire all my coworkers, and I learn something new every day from them. It’s a great atmosphere to be in and it makes work fun.

IG: Being able to watch a project come together from all angles is indeed very fun. Aside from playing video games, what’s your favorite hobby?

SB: There are two hobbies that are kind of tied. For a long time, I was super into Paint By Numbers. My living room wall is literally covered in them. I really enjoy these because it’s kind of a meditative experience and lets me make cool paintings without having any kind of art skill at all. I can barely draw a stick figure. Here’s one of my favorites, the Meowna Lisa.
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More recently, I’ve put down the paint and started making papercraft figures! These guys are super cool, the ones I buy come in full kits and they basically just ‘fold and glue by numbers.’ I love how cool the end product looks.
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IG: It’s true that engineers can make anything using numbers. What’s your favorite travel destination that you have visited?

SB: I unfortunately haven’t been able to travel much yet in my life, but somewhere I do love to go is the mountains in North Carolina. We used to go up near Boone to camp almost yearly when I was a kid. Last year, I got married at a waterfall in Dupont State Forest (near Asheville) and it was truly magical. The mountains are so beautiful, and I feel so at peace when we’re up there.

IG: Sounds like a gorgeous place. Congratulations on your recent marriage! What’s one place that you hope to see one day?

SB: Literally everywhere haha! I haven’t been able to travel outside of the US yet and that’s something I want to do sooo badly. I think my top picks would be a scenic train ride somewhere in Europe or visiting Japan.

IG: You’ve been commended for diving into the code on a recent project. What’s it like being a valuable resource like that, to both Iron Galaxy and our partners?

SB: It’s fun! I ended up really lucking out, getting my computer first and being one of the first people onboarded. We ended up in a bit of a pre-prod limbo while we got everyone else onboarded and hardware sent out. So, during that time, I took a few dives through the codebase in some of the areas we’d be working. I wrote up some docs and also held a few impromptu meetings to share what I learned. I wasn’t sure how helpful it would be because it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, mostly just pointing out where logic lives and what debug tools we had. I got lots of positive feedback later that it helped jumpstart people and save them some time.

That felt great! I love helping people, so it’s awesome to work a job where I can learn things and share that knowledge with others.

IG: What are your favorite spots to eat lunch in Orlando?

SB: I am very much a creature of habit and don’t usually explore downtown to get food often. I usually just bring something from home. But recently, we had some coworkers visiting from Chicago, and we went to The Neighborhood Eatery. They have this sandwich called the ‘Koagie.’ It’s basically a Philly cheesesteak, but bulgogi instead of cheesesteak. It was amazing.

IG: Yum. If you still have room after lunch, where would you then grab dessert?

SB: That’s easy, Insomniac Cookies! Their cookies are soooo bad for you but taste soooo good.

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IG: You are a tattoo enthusiast! Tell us about 3 (or more) of your choosing.

SB: The first one I have to show is Wingman from Valorant! I got this guy to commemorate the console launch, and he’s one of my favorite tattoos. The artist, @plushieink, is so insanely talented. I’ve been getting tattooed by him since he was an apprentice and it’s so awesome to see his art style and tattoo skills evolve.

The second one is actually a matching tattoo I got with my friend and fellow IGer, Belanna Marconi. We went to the same grad program, and the tattoo is concept art from our capstone game, Flicker of Hope. The words underneath are some nicknames we picked up while on the project (I’m scrappy, she’s oddball). Tattoo artist was @belenatattoos.
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 The next one is Wooper! This guy’s special to me because my best friend drew him. He’s got the perfect placement on my shoulder too, always smiling at everyone. Just a little guy. I unfortunately don’t remember the tattoo artist for this one. I was 19 when I got him.
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Ok one more, this is one of my latest ones. No special meaning, it was an available design the artist, @canada_tattoos, posted and I LOVED it, so I had to get it. 
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IG: How have you gone about finding tattoo artist(s) to ink your video game tattoos?

SB: Instagram! That’s where most tattoo artists market themselves. Once you find a few, you’ll usually get recommended more. If you’re in Orlando some of the best video game/anime artists I can recommend are @plushieink, @jptronwalker, and @beeryetattoos. There are so many more too. Orlando is full of insanely talented tattoo artists.

IG: What’s the one song most likely to earn you a speeding ticket?

SB: Be Your Girl – Kaytranada Remix

This song slaps so hard, especially in a car with good bass.

IG: Teedra Moses FTW. What game(s) have you spent the most hours on?

SB: Oh gosh, it’s probably tied between Apex Legends and Overwatch. I’ve played both on and off since their launches and have around 2000 hours in each of them. Overwatch has been my main jam lately, I am a die-hard Mercy main and I haven’t found any game that has a character that feels as good to play.

IG: Fitting that you got to work on VALORANT as an FPS player. What has been your favorite series to binge?

SB: This is kind of embarrassing, but I will binge basically any reality TV show. I’ve watched all of the housewives franchises, all the different 90-day fiancé series, all of Below Deck, etc. It’s hard to choose a favorite, they’re all easily bingeable.

IG: Take pride in your show choices! What’s the one superpower that you would like to have?

SB: Laser Eyes (presumably this also fixes my terrible vision and I no longer have to wear glasses).

IG: Multipurpose, smart. You get one wish. You can’t wish for more wishes. What do you wish for?

SB: Semi-Serious answer: healthcare for all.

Silly answer: I’d wish to stop all my pets from aging and prevent them from getting any illnesses. They are perfect the way they are and I wish they could be around forever.

IG: Great answers, maybe we should rephrase the question to call for serious and silly, moving forward. What fictional universe would you choose over our own? What if there was no coming back?

SB: Pokémon. I don’t need to come back. I will happily work at a Pokémon daycare for the rest of my life.

IG: Pokémon, the classic. That sounds like a peaceful life and another reason to book that trip to Japan!

Thanks for taking us on a journey of your last few years. From game launches to marriage, life’s been quite exciting as of late! We’re excited to see what else is in store in the near future. We appreciate you sharing your experience as an engineer at Iron Galaxy!