Large productions. Complex problems. Precise solutions.
When a production is under pressure, the margin for vague advice is zero. The Production Lab brings senior production experience directly into your pipeline, your processes, and your org, to fix what is actually broken.
Naughty Dog
Treyarch
Striking Distance
Survios
Machine Zone
BulletFarm
Ready at Dawn
Vigil Games
Four ways to work with established studios.
Each engagement is scoped to your specific situation. No pre-built framework forced onto your production.
Pipeline Audit
A structured assessment of how work moves through your production, from concept to ship. Where velocity is lost, where handoffs break down, and where the actual bottlenecks live.
Production Recovery
For productions that have slipped, gone off-scope, or lost team alignment. Rapid assessment without politics, and a recovery plan the team can execute against.
Process Redesign
When your team has outgrown its current workflows or inherited processes that no longer serve the project. The rebuild happens with your team, not on top of them.
Org Structure Consulting
For studios navigating growth, restructuring, or friction from teams that were never designed to work together at scale. A production org built to fit how you actually make games.
Not a consultancy. A production partner.
Most consulting engagements produce reports. The Production Lab produces results. Here is what that looks like next to the standard approach.
A structured path from first contact to production clarity.
Initial consultation
A focused 45-minute call with the right stakeholders to understand the scope, urgency, and goals. Confidential and no-commitment.
Engagement scoping
The exact shape of the work gets defined upfront: duration, access requirements, team touchpoints, and success criteria. A clear written scope before anything begins.
Embedded assessment
Direct engagement from day one. Standups attended, pipelines reviewed, leads consulted. No surveys. A firsthand view of what is actually happening.
Active implementation
Findings become action. Working alongside your team through the changes, not just advising from the outside.
Handoff and continuity
Every engagement ends with clear ownership, documentation in place, and a team that operates independently.
Need a producer embedded in the work, not just advising on it?
Beyond consulting engagements, Zach is available for contract and interim roles as Production Director, Lead Producer, or Senior Producer across feature teams, live operations, and launch.
Feature Team Production
Embedded production support for a specific feature team or discipline. Owning the schedule, dependencies, and day-to-day execution so the team can focus on building.
Live Operations
Production leadership for live service titles managing content cadences, sprint cycles, release coordination, and cross-functional alignment across active releases.
Launch and Post-Launch
Hands-on production coverage through launch preparation, certification, and the first weeks of live operations when execution pressure is highest.
Contract and Interim Roles
Available as a Production Director, Lead Producer, or Senior Producer while you hire, during a gap in coverage, or for a defined production phase that needs dedicated leadership.
Zach Gonzalez
A game producer with 20 years in games and 15+ years in production across AAA console, PC, VR, and mobile, shipped as Production Director, Lead Producer, Senior Producer, and Producer. Available for consulting engagements and contract or interim production roles. No two teams are the same, and no single methodology fits all of them. The Production Lab exists because production should fit the team, not the other way around. I draw from Agile, Kanban, and Waterfall, blending them together like alchemy into the systems that actually ship games.
Serious productions deserve serious partners.
All engagements are confidential. For studios that need results.