Meet Squanch Presents: Sam Gonzalez!

IT'S MEET SQUANCH BABY.

Wow, how lucky are you to be here on this fine evening? Checking out the Squanch Blog, kicking back on your devices scrolling through this page, perhaps with a fine beverage? This is your "me time." And you deserve it. Shoutout to the people reading this on the toilet. We see you. Nothin' more personal than some bathroom reading.

May we dare to make your day even better? Let our QA Lead, Sam Gonzalez, tingle your brain!  ________________________________________________________________________________

Samuel Gonzalez, QA Manager

What do you do at Squanch?

My role is to be the champion of the people! The protector of the consumer! The harbinger of quality! In all seriousness, part of my responsibility includes working with Production, Art, Animation, and Tech to help establish the quality bar for our games. This involves creating processes and procedures with my team to help track and reach the target quality bar throughout every stage of development. 

What got you into the industry?

Passion for all things gaming. My goal was always to carve out a career doing something that I am passionate about. For me, this was either going to be something in gaming or the music industry. In the end, my passion for video games won out. 

What’s the best part about being in QA?

Problem solving! QA is like an always evolving puzzle. Nailing the right balance of process, tools, and manpower to maintain the most lean and efficient department is key to a small studio doing big things. Figuring out which strategies work best to accomplish each goal, implementing them, and seeing the successful outcome is very rewarding. 

What’s the funniest bug you’ve ever seen in a game?

Oh man, they are too many! Well, there was a recent one in Trover Saves the Universe. In Trover, we had a small floating character named Mr. Popup. His role was to give the player a Popup ability and then teach the player how to use it. Well on this particular day Mr. Popup decided to pop onto the players face and remain there while obstructing the player’s view. All this while continually repeating the line “F you I’m going inside” over and over again. 

What game had the biggest impact on you?

Everquest! This was the first time I interacted with other players in an online environment. I had no idea what I was doing. One occasion, a Dark Elf Enchanter came into Qeynos disguised as a Human. This Dark Elf convinced me to follow him out of town and then proceeded to transform back to his true form, he then yelled some derogatory insults at me, then killed me and looted my corpse. Scarred me for life! 

What is your favorite vacation spot?

Norrath followed closely by Azeroth.

Would you ever swim with sharks?

Only if my bones were laced with adamantium.

If you were made of cheese, what kind of cheese would you be?

Sharp cheddar! Because it is both delicious and associated with money!

What’s your favorite bad joke?

What's Spider Man's side job?

Web developer.

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself?

I am an avid audiophile, home theater enthusiast, statue / Hot Toys collector, and gamer. My wife and I share a love of music and it has been great watching and helping her tweak her system to get the most out of it. My kids are all gamers, but they are into different genres. From The Sims, to Roblox, to clicking heads in CoD and Overwatch we run the gamut. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet found the one game that we all enjoy regularly playing together. My goal is to, one day, find that unicorn of a game so that we may all enjoy the same game at the same time… One day!