#MeetIronGalaxy – Steve Burton

Every player of games wants to play a quality game. That can mean a lot of things. The game is fun. The game is stable. The game looks awesome. The game makes you feel like a hero imbued with amazing powers and showered with treasured rewards! Sometimes, when players don’t like a game, to really drive their point home, they’ll say it’s “Literally unplayable!” At Iron Galaxy, we pride ourselves on making high-quality games are quite literally playable. We like our communities happy and our bug counts low. That’s how we define quality. To make sure the software that drives the dream is stable, we test it at every phase of development. One of Iron Galaxy’s leaders in this space, assuring quality, is Steve Burton. Let’s see what he has to say about all this… 

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Iron Galaxy: Greetings Steve. Please tell us about who you are and what you do at Iron Galaxy?  

Steve Burton: Hey all! I’m Steve Burton, I’ve been at Iron Galaxy Studios for 5 years now and support the team as a Quality Assurance Lead. At each point of the game development life cycle, I strategize and execute test activities. QA itself reaches into most disciplines at some level. Engineering, Art, Design, you name it. As a QA Lead, I’m reaching out to others to better understand the feature work, the expectations, the possible risks, so then I can develop corresponding test approaches. At the same time, QA is working hand in hand with production to ensure that feature work in a milestone meets the acceptance criteria.  

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IG: Concise explanation. If you could give someone who wanted to follow in your career’s footsteps one piece of advice, what would it be? Feel free to share an original story about how you entered the industry while you are at it. 

SB: The piece of advice I’d give is, give yourself a chance to: 

• Learn skills that you find exciting,  

• Be yourself and let others get to know you.  

Prior to working in the video game industry, I was a pastor for several years until 2016. Long story short, I came to understand that I was not aligned with the faith or organization I was with. So, I stepped away and started a journey to accept my authentic self as a gay person, and to grow both personally and professionally.  

Walking away from that path I was once on, I knew that if I did anything else in life, it would be related to video games. I played games competitively, I worked in video game retail, I just really loved games. I just didn’t know what a career in games for me looked like. 

One day, at my part-time job, I was listening to Giant Bomb coverage of E3 2016, and I was inspired by Adam Boyes, Dave Lang, and John Vignocci talking about how they entered the video game industry. For some reason, that moment acted as the permission I needed to start making games. I didn’t know what to do next, so I tried everything. From learning to code to project management, I kept trying anything and everything until I got my first industry job.  

All this to say, in my experience, I found just giving yourself a chance to learn skills that you find exciting can change your life. Sometimes that may mean stepping away from a routine or something that’s familiar, but you may find something great in that process. For me it was worth it, but even if it doesn’t stick, at the very least you learned something! 

I’ve found that it takes all kinds of people to make video games, so give yourself a chance to be yourself and let others get to know you. From a QA perspective, having different approaches to interacting with feature work is incredibly valuable for finding bugs, but also finding “the fun” in a game!  

I’ve worked with so many incredible colleagues who let me get to know them and have inadvertently inspired me to become better in my craft and better as a person. I owe it to them for doing so and have learned to repay in kind. You have something to offer too. 

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IG: That’s a fresh and brave answer on a familiar theme of following our passions as our most authentic selves. What’s been your most “full circle moment” while working at Iron Galaxy?  

SB: When I was a kid, I had a notebook where I drew all my “amazing ideas for video games. They were usually Mega Man Master Robots, but I would also draw Tony Hawk skate parks. I have had a lot of amazing opportunities at Iron Galaxy, but one of my proudest moments was being able to contribute as a QA Lead on Tony Hawk Pro Skater’s 3+4. I think Kid Me would be proud too.
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IG: Kid you and us both, what a unique answer. What’s the best impact you’ve seen a video game have on someone’s life?  

SB: Speaking for myself, I think video games provided an outlet for me to embark on a journey to mastery when I played Pokémon VGC and Super Smash Bros Melee. And I believe that journey created opportunities for me to grow as a person.  

Learning and playing a game competitively can be daunting, so I learned how to turn inspiration into action. I learned how to objectively move forward from my past performance. I learned how to have a healthy relationship with ego and competition. The list goes on, but they also gave me an opportunity to cultivate a local community. The video games and travel are cool, but there’s something very special about having a local place to regularly meet up with friends (and rivals) and grow together.  
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IG: Aside from playing video games, what are your other hobbies?  

SB: Right now, I’ve been spending a lot of time journaling and scrapbooking. I started taking all the event badges/memorabilia from tournaments or events I’ve gone to and cataloguing those. Since making games is a multimedia art, I’ve picked up a lot of different hobbies like playing guitar and drawing. 

IG: Fun spread. What’s something you’ve always wanted to create?  

SB: I don’t think I have any clearly defined at this time, but I do know something I personally want to explore is AR.  

IG: What’s your favorite travel destination?  

SB: I went to Japan and visited a friend who was living around Yamanishi. I had a wonderful time driving through the country and exploring.
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IG: When considering every Pokémon found in each version of the game, which six would you bring out to dominate a tournament and which six would you like to befriend IRL?  

SB: In tournament, I suppose the composition depends on the format and metagame. So, I’ll list some of the most influential Pokémon that I’ve enjoyed using over the years (I started in 2009). 

1. Hitmontop 

2. Cloyster 

3. Smeargle (Sorry) 

4. Mega Kangaskan (Sorry again) 

5. Nidorino 

6. Farigiraf 

Six Pokémon I’d want to befriend IRL is the most difficult question I’ve ever been asked. I feel like I could pick real good ones based on Pokédex descriptions, but I’ll just choose with my heart as fast as I can. 

1. Wartortle 

2. Pikachu 

3. Porygon 

4. Seel 

5. Ho-Oh 

6. Slowking 
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IG: Thoughtful answers. We’ll let the Pokémon players appreciate your competitive apologies. What are your favorite indie games and why?  

SB: Here are a handful of games that I love that are accessible on multiple platforms. I could talk at length about each of these, so I’ll try and keep it short. 

• Frog Detective Series ‍
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  • This might be my most purchased game because I’m often buying it as gift for friends. It’s incredibly charming and hilarious and it brings me so much joy.  

• Button City
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  • You play as the new kid on the block and band together with new friends to try and save the local arcade from shutting down. It’s a game about growing up, finding community, and standing up for what you believe in. 

• Ooblets
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  • ‍It’s often described as a mix of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Pokémon wrapped in one. I was already a believer, but what really sold it for me was a change from monster battles to dance battles. I really appreciate the effort in aligning the gameplay with the narrative.  

• Undertale
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  • ‍I only regret that it sat in my backlog for as long as it did. Really don’t know what to say about this one that hasn’t already been said. Love it. 

• Night in the Woods
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  • This might be the only game I’ve played where the protagonist visits their local pastor, asks big questions, expresses dissatisfaction, and the clergy says that uncertainty is okay.  

IG: Our wish lists grow longer. Appreciate the recommendations. What are your career aspirations?  

SB: Despite making my own games, I want to keep growing in Production. Simply put, I like figuring out how we get from here to there and supporting the team along the way. I’m my team’s biggest fan, and if there’s anything I can do to make their workflow easier I’ll do it.  

IG: Spoken like a team player and someone with deep knowledge of how games are made. Tell us about your personal game creations!  
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‍SB: I like making my games as a means of self-expression. What I’ve actually published are some of the more “feature complete” projects I felt comfortable putting out there.  
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Nothing I make is polished and each game usually includes something I just learned how to do. I started playing guitar and piano because I wanted to start writing my own music. I started pixel art, doodling, and 3D modeling so I could start using them in my personal projects.  

Often, the games I make are either inspired by games I love with a new mechanic or about something I’m feeling that I want a video game to evoke. It’s an incredibly rewarding experience and I’m always working on something.  

IG: Your curiosity has led you down creative paths! What game have you spent the most time playing?  

SB: Probably Melee, sometimes the game is just running on character select screen while my friends and I just talk. 

IG: Quality time spent. Name a scene from a movie that makes you cry, every time…  

SB: I choke up at the end of Cool Runnings… and intermittently throughout the entire movie. 

IG: What has been your favorite series to binge?  

SB: I rewatch Home Movies all the time. My friends and I would have it on in the background while we were deckbuilding for Pokémon TCG and it brings back a lot of good memories. 

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

SB: I wish I could read QR codes without using a phone. Like, when I go to the restaurant, and I’m told to scan the QR code, I wish I could just know the contents by looking at it. 

IG: Ha, you’d save so much time. You get one wish. You can’t wish for more wishes. What do you wish for?  

SB: Maybe I don’t need a superpower to read QR codes, I just wish I could have a menu. 

Shoot, I think I might have just wasted this opportunity… 

IG: You might just be hungry. If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, menu in hand, who would you invite?  

SB: Now I’m thinking a lot about Night in the Woods, so I’ll say Scott Benson, or anyone who’s worked on the indie games I listed earlier. All of those people made something that inspired me and it would be neat to get to know them. 

Thanks for kicking off a new year of #MeetIronGalaxy interviews on our blog, Steve. It’s always great to have a member of the studio that’s intertwined with so many teams. We can read about your journey and see how your mind not only lends itself to your job, but also your hobbies. Best of luck on your current projects and on the road of growing in production.