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#MeetIronGalaxy - Marina Suarez
Making a video game involves many multi-layered disciplines. One of these disciplines is Art. Among the layers of art you’ll find in a game, the first thing you’ll see is the User Interface.
In this interview series, you will meet the people who help make games you love to play! Today, we are speaking with Marina Suarez a UI Artist who started at Iron Galaxy in August 2021. She’ll take us on a tour of her role and the work that she does with her team to make a game playable.
Iron Galaxy: Who are you and what would you say you do here at Iron Galaxy?
Marina Suarez: My name is Marina Suarez! I’ve been working in the game industry as a UI Artist for almost 10 years now. And here, at Iron Galaxy Studios, I worked on Rumbleverse as a UI Lead Artist!
IG: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. How is your specific job unique when compared to the other roles in our company?
MS: My role oversees the visual presentation of the user interface in the game. We make sure that the UI graphics have a level of quality that not only matches the core art direction/style of the game but also makes the user navigation as approachable and intuitive as possible.
IG: Interesting, what is the most challenging aspect of your job?
MS: As a UI artist you need to adapt your UI assets and animation to various styles to fit the needs of different games. We often try to cultivate a diverse library of art styles and make sure that the visuals align with the goals of our target demographic. Also, we need to consider all the different languages and regions where the game is going to be released.
IG: Considering all those different aspects does seem challenging. Do you have a skill you learned growing up that you use the most in your role?
MS: Hands down, communication. It has been a key skill for me to learn and improve over the years. One of the things that I love the most is that UI game development gets done by an incredible combination of disciplines that have to sync and coordinate perfectly to seek a common goal. Facilitating pipelines that give enough direction to a multidisciplinary group, and yet give more room for iteration is extremely necessary to our development processes.
I think it’s important to understand how creative and complex game development can be. That was one of the first things I learned when I started working in the industry.
IG: You mean that it’s not just popping in some code to get the game on the screen? Do you have a proudest moment as a member of the Iron Galaxy team?
MS: To me, the launch day of Rumbleverse felt very special. It was a huge milestone for me to celebrate the game with my coworkers but also to see how much great work our team did since I joined the project. I've always been very grateful for the opportunity to work on this title.
IG: That day was super exciting and fun celebrating with everyone in the office. Besides hitting milestones like launch what is the best thing about working in video game development?
MS: Making a product that goes beyond and can be enjoyed by a huge amount of people.
I love to see diversity growing in every discipline and better cultural representation in our storytelling. The industry is improving in terms of inclusivity and accessibility, but there is a lot of work to be done. There's always room to improve the way we produce and consume media and I have no doubt we will get there soon.
With Rumbleverse, I love how inclusive and culturally diverse we were. It was great to see that the game had a big roster of colorful cosmetics and accessories to be equipped to many different body types and still feel connected.
IG: The cosmetics were endless and it was great to see representation take a front seat in Rumbleverse. What is your favorite perk associated with your job?
MS: Adaptability and quick asset iterations are useful perks for UI Artists. As developers, we are constantly collecting feedback and iterating our UI to improve our overall user experience. For example, the use of color theory is one of our main tools we used to develop areas in the UI that players could interact with while considering additional options and solutions for players that experience types of color blindness. It is nice to adapt a bit to our players' needs when it comes to accessibility. For me, making sure that content is accessible to everyone is an amazing goal that we should keep pursuing in the industry.
IG: There was a lot of chatter online how the game was super accessible for color blind folks. Does the complexity of game development lead to collaborative moments with different teams?
MS: Collaboration is an important part of our daily routine. I work very closely with UI Engineers and UX/UI Designers to come up with UI features that can improve the players' play time. As an artist, I highly recommend to everyone to take your time to understand other disciplines like design, engineering, user experience, and quality assurance. Then remember you all have common goals. That is truly how you learn, not only how to develop, but how to work with other developers. Which is almost as important as mastering your own craft.
IG: Sound advice for someone looking to press start on their career in games. Do you have any other advice for someone that is interested in starting a career in video game development?
MS: I would recommend trying to get experience from working with teams just as much as learning tools. Take some time to understand the disciplines that work with you. If you are just starting your career, Game Jams and small projects are a great way to begin developing team skills. Don’t hesitate to check out new engines and branch out to learn something new outside your comfort zone. If you decide to go technical in UI, try to spend time getting familiar with scripting knowledge like Blueprints, C#, or C++. Don’t be afraid to study some game engine’s basics, and fundamentals. If you want to be involved in usability and gameplay, spend time studying UX and how gameplay affects UI. If you decide to go for a UI art creative career path, surround yourself with a great collection of games and dedicate some time to analyze UI art styles. Understand why their direction works or doesn’t work with the overall design.
IG: You have your assignments, class. Go out and learn! What’s the most rewarding aspect for you in creating games other people experience?
MS: One of the most satisfying things that I seek while developing a game is establishing a connection with the players. Creating a piece of media that is meaningful to them and inspires them to keep playing games or even developing games in the future.
IG: Creating something that changes the world for an individual. How can you go about achieving that level of impact on someone’s life?
MS: How we create videogames has an impact on the way people connect with game characters and stories. That is why inclusivity and faithful cultural representation is a big part of our approach to game development. I love to dig into specific localization solutions to ensure that we are bringing faithful translations to other regions that enjoy our game. To me, making sure that my games are approachable in my first language (Spanish) is very important. I feel proud of being able to bring ideas that I consider as part of my cultural background to the projects we develop and work hard to have a diverse representation in our games too.
IG: Inclusivity is a huge part of our values at Iron Galaxy. With Spanish being your first language, may I ask where is your hometown?
MS: My hometown is called León, located in the northern west side of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. A small town that was founded as a Roman military encampment and consolidated as a city with the definitive settlement, named Legio VII Gemina from 74 AD. León has a great historical and architectural heritage. It is one of the key stops on the French Way of the Camino de Santiago. Its Cathedral is one of the most relevant buildings of the Gothic style in Spain. Interesting fact: it has one of the most extensive and best-preserved collections of medieval stained glass in Europe.
IG: Were you inspired by all this art and history while deciding your path in life?
MS: León is where I started my earliest formal art education at the School of Art, Conservation, and Restoration of Cultural Assets of León. There, I learned the basics of traditional painting, sculpting, carving and printmaking techniques. Growing up in this town had a huge impact on the way I approach my UI work by blending different art techniques, influences, and cultures to the games I develop.
IG: León sounds like a wonderful place. And on the subject of home, what is your favorite pro-tip for working from home?
MS: I would recommend keeping your working and entertainment spaces separated. That helped me a lot to create some breathing room between tasks, meetings, and the business of work. Also, being able to pet my cat between meetings so I can recharge has been the best that WFH has to offer!
IG: Keeping your work and play separate is essential, especially when developing games! Aside from playing video games, do you have any favorite hobbies?
MS: I am a massive enthusiast of traditional animation, both watching and making. I love hiking, riding my bike, and watching competitive cycling. I play the drums and have been trying to learn bass recently. I really enjoy the techniques behind brewing your own cider. Growing up, I helped my grandfather to press and brew his own cider in the countryside in Spain. It is a common local tradition to press/brew your own cider at home where I’m from. If you’d like to know more, I would love to share it with everyone!
IG: Looks like we will be having a cider brewing class in the studio this year! Besides brewing cider, what is something you feel everyone must do once in their life?
MS: I highly recommend everyone to spend some time living abroad. The level of growth that someone experiences traveling on their own in a distant land is truly unique and full of discoveries.
In my case, I started my gaming career almost a decade ago back in Spain. I used to work on small projects and at game startups as an art generalist, covering modeling, texturing, and UI work (since they were small projects with not a lot of developers). I slowly decided to focus on UI Design/Animation, game accessibility and navigation. An opportunity brought me to the New York state area, another led me to west coast Nevada, and eventually that one brought me to Chicago in 2017. I can't stress enough how much these experiences have given me in terms of dev learning.
IG: Let’s talk personal preferences! What is one genre of games that you think is underrated?
MS: For me, both Point and Click adventures and Rhythm games were a huge part of my gaming experiences growing up, and I believe they deserved more credit. There is a huge demographic of fans that love to see more game companies giving these genres a chance.
That said, I was delighted to see how some modern studios have been incorporating some point and click mechanics in amazing titles such as The Darkside Detective, Broken Age, Machinarium, and Oxenfree. Not to mention the remasters of titles like Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle are still pretty fun to play! Same goes for Rhythm games! If you like this genre, you should check Sayonara Wild Hearts, Beat Saber and Crypt of the Necrodancer! They are fantastic, head-bobbing, fun as heck titles!
IG: There are some bops in that list for sure! Speaking of head-bobbing fun, if you could pick a song to play every time you entered the room, what would it be?
MS: This is extremely hard to answer! But I would probably pick Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. Nothing gets you more energized than that intro. It’s featured in Back to the Future for a reason!
IG: The power of a great video game is a curious thing too! What game have you spent the most time playing?
MS: Stardew Valley and Terraria! If the game has fishing and farming you lost me forever!
IG: Don’t get lost yet. We have a couple more questions! Name a scene from a movie that makes you cry every time…
MS: Graveyard of Fireflies. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. Like the WHOLE movie makes me cry all the time. And I keep coming back to it because the animation is just amazing, and it is considered a key pillar in the history of Japanese animation. I still haven’t met a human that doesn’t cry with this one.
IG: Challenge excepted. We will let you know if we make it all the way through dry-eyed. What movie have you seen the most times?
MS: It may sound silly and bizarre, but I believe it’s a tie between Con Air and Austin Powers 2. My brother and cousins can confirm, we spent our entire time growing up together quoting the heck out of those movies.
IG: Not bizarre at all, those movies are modern, highly quotable, classics! What was your favorite movie that bombed?
MS: I’m a massive fan of The Iron Giant (1999) and I’m happy to see this movie getting a revival wave of people that grew up loving this movie just as much. It’s a unique movie with impressive animation made in a complicated era for animation studios.
IG: Iron Giant and an Iron Galaxian that loves animation definitely go hand in hand. What is the one superpower that you would like to have?
MS: No doubt, speak every human language and the ability to verbally communicate with all living creatures.
IG: Obrigado, gracias, merci, and danke for taking the time to speak with us in any language! If you had that superpower, you’ll know what I just said. That concludes our talk, now let’s go play some relaxing fishing games!
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