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How Does One Become a Game Tester?
Rick the Red asks: "This is similar to other stories about game development. I'm a software tester, and I just saw this job posting: 'Jobs just do NOT get any better than this! We have multiple openings at one of the world's most successful software companies for experienced game testers of varying skill levels! Platforms and tools are not important. If you love video games and have at least 6 months experience you CANNOT miss this awesome opportunity!' OK, I'm an experienced software tester, and I have video game experience of varying skill levels, but I have zero professional game tester experience. Damn! So, how does one get experience if the jobs all require experience? I know, it's the age-old question, but are there any game-testing-specific answers?"
...and you can have my experience (about 5 mo.). It isn't what you think it is going to be. :-(
-Derek
- 6 months to 5 years experience as a professional video game tester REQUIRED!
Platforms and tools are not important. If you love video games and have at least 6 months experience you CANNOT miss this awesome opportunity!
Gee, 6 months to 5 years, that's quite the discrepancy. "Tools not important". I find the scattering of words like "awesome" and "hottest" pretty entertaining. With those strict requirements, I bet it pays a pretty low wage.
I'd be suspicious of this job: some things are too good to be true.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Seriously, though. It's one of those positions where the best thing you can do is find a friend who's already connected with the company, however remotely. You need good written English skills, to be able to play through a few well-known games and talk about them, and sometimes you'll need to pass a drug test. If you've got those three covered, you just need to know somebody (anybody!) or be in the right place at the right time. No other magic required.
Sounds to me like they're trying to fill a QA slot at a game design company. Now, if this company is serious about QA, you need a strong background in Software Testing. This is not an area I know a lot about, but I have a strong respect for the better QA types. They're good at thinking things through, and establishing procedures, and thwarting Murphy's Law. But even if the QA operation in this company is mediocre, they will still want some basic testing skills. Which is not something you pick up just by playing computer games.
I know several game testers, and none of them had any testing (game or software) experience - they walked in and demonstrated that they loved games, and had the patience to sit through test after test after test. I do hear that play-testing is an infinitely better job than straight bug testing, as you're more there to offer feedback on the gameplay and balance, but it's also a position that's usually filled these days by the customers inbetween release and the first patch :D
Some of the recent game tests that didn't require experience were Earth and Beyond (for which i got in, downloaded the thing and forgot all about it), The War Craft III expansion, and prior to that War Craft III itself. For some experience i would try going around the websites of othe various well known gaming companys such as blizzard, EA and westwood (westwood no longer exists, but just as an example).
So, how does one get experience if the jobs all require experience?
Lie.
Find a defunct, small, game company that use to exist on the opposite side of the country. You suddenly rememeber that you use to work for them. Congratulations, you now found some experience.
And yes, people pull crap like this all the time.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Step 1: Remove pants
Step 2: Bend WAY over
Step 3: Bite down on something sturdy
Step 4: Squeeze your eyes shut
Congrads! You're now a game tester!
Seriously. Actually talk to someone that's DONE it. Never, ever take a job like that is you actually enjoy playing games as it will kill your love for them forever. Perhaps it would make a good cure for a game addict, however...
Game testers get paid low wages for the often frustrating and mind-numbing work they do on pre-alpha through beta quality "games," and put in horrendous hours during the crunch times before certain deadlines (before demo releases, be it for online or a show like e3, or for milestones or gold master).
Game programming (software development) is where the good pay is at for the same hours.
1. Make a website with a gaming aspect (comic, review, etc.)
2. As it becomes popular (this might take several years)--you will become a blip on the game companies' radar.
3. Remember to rip/praise the game on your website.
To get your 6 months experience, do like I have been doing since late 1997. I have written my own video games, acting as lead coder and lead tester.
Will I retire or break 10K?
If there are no actual job listing on the game company's web site for testers, you can easily write a letter to the QA lead and/or HR department you found in the credits of some game from that company with an introduction of yourself and requesting to be notified next time there is a need for new testers (either when a bunch of the current ones quit or there is a major title going beta).
I've been in the games industry for little bit (6 years) and have worked with various QA departments over the years. Beware I'm a programmer and those actually in QA may think I have a distorted view of reality. There are several distinct breeds (or "pockets") of QA:
;) Seriously though - community feedback is very important from these types of things, but it's usually a little late to change the core of a game by this point. It tends to be little things - balance and shine. Although if something catastrophic comes up, that would obviously be fixed as well.
(1) Developer QA teams - in-house at the company making the game. Often in the same building, maybe just the next cubicals over from the development team. Mostly makes sure the game is fun and that the design worked.
(2) Publisher QA teams - A QA team the people who put the game in the box. Mostly verifies that the developer is delivering as per contract and that the game will sell (and sometimes is the spark of stupid game change requests because of this).
(3) Platform QA teams (Microsoft / Sony) - A QA team that verifies your game is up to scratch for their platform and that it passes certification requirements (it uses the right logos & terms in the save menu, the game doesn't freak if it meets a corrupt memory card, final burn-in test, etc, etc).
(4) External public "beta" tester - MUHAHAHAH! Public tests are to make sure our networking code works and that our game can handle a thousand monkeys pressing random buttons.
Note that some of the above numbered "breeds" may be the same entity if you're self-publishing or being published directly by, eg - Microsoft. And regardless of their primary focus, every QA team is looking for stability and usability above all else.
Turn-around tends to get slower as you move down the list - internal QA may get several builds a day, be feeding bug lists directly to the team and verifying fixes in a tight feedback loop. Publishers sometimes like a build a week (or every day at crunch time), platform guys maybe every milestone or just at the end of the project for compliance testing. The further away from the developer, the fewer bugs should be found because the game should have been strained through the QA teams before it. However, publishers can sometimes afford to have huge QA teams compared to a developer and won't have the disadvantage of having prior knowledge about the gameplay (ie: won't know not to do something).
The places I've worked (a developer published by a 3rd party & a self-publishing developer), first-time testers are often hired on a temporary basis at the end of the project. We put flyers up at our local university advertising part-time work. After a horribly messy screening process (we once had ~400 people apply for 3 testing positions - although most applications were obviously flawed), hopefully we'll find a few suitables who are enthusiastic, able to follow instructions and work long hours. They then work under supervision of our senior testers, often in shifts so that we can have a 24/7 testing cycle available for the development team(s). QA teams tend to expand when there are projects almost finished (we sometimes have 2 or 3 projects in development in parallel) - then QA shrinks away until it's needed again. If someone does good work, we'd probably call them back for the next project to test. For a permanent opening they'd probably have to re-apply and go through an inteview process (not sure about this though, like I said - QA is not my department).
Turn-over of the permanent testing positions is not that common unfortunately. However, testers can rise through the ranks to level / game designers - that sometimes opens up positions.
It's tough getting a foot in the door. Persistance pays off, as does being intelligent, objective and anal. LISTEN, THINK, OBEY, SUGGEST (but only when relavent).
And assuming you manage that - Warning! High stress ahead! As a game tester you'll get instructions like:
1. lock yourself up in the broomcloset until the urge to become a game tester subsides. If that doesn't help:
2. run into a wall several times until the urge to become a game tester subsides. Oh, you're still game for the job? Well:
3. have your dog sick you in the genitals until the urge subsides. Hmm you don't have a dog huh? Oh well...
If you can stand that, _AND_ still want to be a game tester, you might be the right man/woman for the job.
Seriously, being a game tester will totally _spoil_ the games you are testing for yourself. You have to HATE the game to find the smalles bugs in it. The game is done when there's no reason for the game testers to hate it anymore. Oh, and when they can stand playing it several _more_ times.
It's not at all a glamorous job, and the beginning stages of development of a game is usually painful (for you, blech, lotsa bugreports). pre-pre-pre-alpha-tests are not end-user quality.
You have been warned :)
What bugs me is how easy it is to get away with this. Knew a guy who got a Director-level job based partly on a bogus PhD. When his company folded, he asked me to hand his resume around. He misspelled the name of the University he was supposed to have graduated from! The mind boggles.
You make the mistake a lot of job seekers make - Assuming that you have to be a perfect match for the requirements
You don't. They just give an indication of the sort of skills the company is looking for. You say you have software test experience. That's great! You say you love playing games. That's great! You have qualities that are clearly relevent, and can obviously be presented in a way that show that you are suitable for this career.
(Disclaimer: I do not work in games, but I know loads of people who do).
just do NOT get any better than this! We have multiple openings at one of the world's most successful software companies for experienced game testers of varying skill levels! Platforms and tools are not important. If you love video games and have at least 6 months experience you CANNOT miss this awesome opportunity!
OK, the idea that you will get paid to play games is misleading. This is not gameplaying for fun. This is running through the same level a thousand times, covering every "square foot" of floor space (or whatever concept makes sense in the game), doing every state-change (open a door, push a button, collect an object) in different orders to make sure none of them results in an unexpected result, tracing exactly the same path through a game again and again while a developer tries to locate a bug, trying to describe to engine developers (who may never have seen the scene in the game that's crashing, that's the designer's job) what exactly you did that caused to you fall through the floor, or to a designer (who has never touched the engine code) why two walls don't meet when viewed from a particular angle. Oh, and the pay sucks, and producers and other staff view you as entirely expendable, and as someone not smart enough to be a coder or designer. I know people who loved games, but lasted less than a year as testers, and now never want to touch a game again. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it!
So, how does one get experience if the jobs all require experience?
Three words: Lie on Resume
During College I had about 2 years of "play-testing" NCAA Football on the PS2, with multiple bug reports and cheats the computer exploited.
I once heard being a game tester described as:
"They put you in a room full of broken toys. As each toy gets fixed, they take it away from you and replace it with another broken toy."
But seriously - getting a game tester job is a common way into the games industry, especially if you are short on experience. It's long hours and a lot of work, but if you're really wanting to make games for a living it's a way in.
Jumpman Zero is currently in testing. Sure it's a free game. And sure you'll have to bring your own test equipment....
But at least you're not stuck play-testing "Elevator Tycoon: The Revenge" for 8 hour stretches.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I was a game tester for Sony Computer Entertainment of America (989 Studios). My work credits included Crash Bandicoot Warped, Spyro the Dragon, Medevil, and Syphon Filter, among endless counts of PlayStation Underground and Pack-In disks.
Being a game tester is a great job if you are single, or if you have no bills, or if you have no ambition to be financially successful. We got paid $10.00 an hour (in the San Francisco Bay Area, that amounts to jack and squat), and we worked anything between 40 and 80 hours a week. If we did not like the hours, or the work, or the way we were treated, tough luck, because there were a hundred people waiting at the door to take our place.
I got in because I knew someone on the inside who put my name on the top. This was how most people who worked there got their jobs. I had an interview, in which I was advised by my insider friend not to wear a "Dope" t-shirt like the previous candidate. The interview was simple, so I thought until I worked there for a while.
I had the pleasure of working with some of the most unbelievable human beings on the planet. You prolly think I mean that in a good way. But between the guy who fell asleep at his console every day, the guy with mysterious scalp problems, the racist, the interestingly unstable 'nam vet, the people who could not find their asses with both hands and a map, and of course, the guy whose young life was forever changed (arguably ruined) by a 6 year old who had beat him at Street Fighter 8 years earlier (he dedicated his life to being the best Street Fighter player there was. He was a ranked California champion - do they have such things???) - well, these people were unbeleivable. Not that they were all insane. I met some great people, and have some very fond memories of that time.
We had a bomb threat my very first day. One day, someone fired a shot through one of the windows at us.
Now, most people have said "For the love of god, don't do it!" I think I can temper my response somewhat. It's a fun job that has it's down times. People think it's all about playing. Sometimes it is. Sometimes, you spend the day plugging in every joystick you have in the house and pressing X-O-UP rapidly because someone yesterday got it to crash that way but they don't remember which controller it was. Sometimes you get to see games pre-alpha before the world. Sometimes you spend a whole weekend with nothing to test other than a PSU disk with nothing but video. Sometimes you test games like Jersey Devil, which make the bile raise up to your throat every time you see the damn main character. And then sometimes, you play through a game so much, that by the time it comes out on the market, you can visit a friend's house and kick their arse without looking.
To sum up - you get in by knowing someone (or getting very lucky). You stay in by enduring the sweatshop mentality and living with the crazies. And if you hang in there for a long time, put in your due, get a sharp head about you, you might just land the coveted Perm Tester position and the 36k yearly that comes with it.
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There's a big difference between game testing and participating in an open beta.
QA folk have to mercilessly replay every nook & cranny of the game looking for buggies. Worse yet, when found the next step: Play the buggy area over & over until you can provide a "recipie" for recreating the bug.
What were you expecting?
I would suggest finding a small studio and asking if you can test their games part-time without pay. You'll gain experience and you'll find out if you like testing.
The risk to the company is that you'll tell people about their game, or that you'll quit quickly, so you'll have to convince them otherwise somehow.
When the game is finished, you'll have a game on your resume and if the company likes you, you might have a job.
(And when you find bugs, say something like "I was in this awesome firefight which looked hella-cool and this awesome boss popped up and fragged me. It was great! Oh, by the way, I could see right through the boss' left side. Anyway, that was awesome!")
Firstly get rid of any ideas that game testing is as fun as enthusiasts believe it is, it will probably be mind-numbingly dull for you. As other posters have pointed out it will pay a low wage (I saw figures from the UK of around 8,000-10,000 GBP, roughly 12,000-15,000 US dollars iirc) and involve poor hours because everyone wants to do it so there's no shortage of replacements. If you do want to get involved with games though I'd suggest other, more skilled, positions. Or maybe lead QA or something rather than just tester monkey.
Does purchasing Master of Orion III count as game testing?
Check out Nintendo's developer site
Game testing is a lot more fun than many other jobs out there, but you have to enjoy bug hunting more than playing games. You have to have a sadistic desire to bring the whole project to a hault for a day during crunch time, and make everyone pissed at you, or you won't do any good.
The best thing to do if you are having trouble getting in, is to beta test as much as possible, and put that on your resume. Keep your resume concise and to the point, showing efficient literacy. And let them know how much you know about gaming and what faqs you have written / how methodical you are about playing.
Finally, never take a job from a recruiter like Excell... the pay is miserable enough without someone taking 10-40%. Look for a listing of game companies in your area or places you are willing to move to, find which ones need testers, and submit resumes and samples.
Good luck!
The ______ Agenda
As with all slang, "headhunter" is used informally by loosely affiliated groups of people. Different groups of people use slang in different ways. Very likely there are people who only use "headhunter" the way you used it, and people who only use "headhunter" the way I used it. Probably many other ways as well. None of them is more "correct".
If there are people interested in RPGs that are willing to become free game testers in the Orange County, California area. Troika Games, LLC the makers of Arcanum, and now Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil are looking for people to do in house quality assurance and gameplay testing.
These are unpaid internships, but if you turn out to be someone who isn't a total jerk, we would be more than happy to write you letters of recommendation and if you are a real asset to the company even hire you on ourselves.
So far we've hired 5 people out of unpaid internships and they are some of our best workers.
If you are interested please e-mail jobs@troikagames.com or give us a call (949)250-4933 or mail us (our address should be on our website. Please only inquire if you are willing to work in the Orange County, California area. This isn't for "Closed BETA Testing", this is an actual quality assurance position where you will work in house with the developers.
... the same way you'd go about becoming an astronaut!
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