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?"

Comments

I write games for a living.

[mcgroarty]

I write games for a living. And let me tell you... when we're bearing down on release, and you're the dude who's making the lists that keep me from going home nights, you don't want to be a game tester. What you do may well be important, but I'm still going to hate you for it. And I'm going to let you know. Loudly. :-)

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.

Simple steps to game testing

[alannon]

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...

Are you sure you want to be a tester?

[CoolVibe]

I'd suggest you do the following first:

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 :)

Voice Of Experience.

[immanis]

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.