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The Game Tester
It's not easy to be a hardcore gamer. It's hard. Wouldn't it be easier if you had a job in the videogames business? Think about it: working for a software company, being able to play games during office hours, with people who share your passion. Free games, industry parties, lots of fun and good money. Well, think again; working in the PC Games business is nothing like that. Chances are you'll end up dealing with people who just care about the financial success of the company, with marketing executives who don't give adamn whether the game is good or not because "We'll put two-million bucks behind it and it'll sell like donuts", with programmers who cannot understand why an arcade-style racing game cannot have the intricacies of a complex simulator. Still, you'll get some free games plus a decent salary.Still interested? Good. The easiest way to get a chance to work in the videogames industry is to start as a game tester. Mind you - the job is actually tougher and less exciting than you think. While it is true that you'll spend most of your day playing games, you must bear in mind that this means testing to death the same game again and again, since the earliest days of development until it's finished, and this can get really boring. The game tester starts working as soon as either the graphic engine or some of the AI routines are ready (and even earlier in some occasions: sometimes testers have to check the game design documents in order to make sure that there aren't weaknesses in the game structure.) It means checking the graphics and the control system or testing the AI routines, moving around coloured dots (it's often the case with sports games) or extremely unappealing chunks of graphics around the screen to check how the code reacts. Reporting bugs is not an easy or exciting task either. You need to assess the exact circumstances (if any) of a bug taking place and its consequences on the game. More often than not this means playing the same bit of the game again and again and again until you are able to repeat the same bug whenever you want to (or better: whenever the programmers ask you to) or until you're sure that it was a one-off bug, something which happens in situations which cannot be repeated. If you don't like PCs, you'll probably find an absolute nightmare having to cope with all the compatibility issues (does the game work fine with all the graphic accelerator cards? And what about the sound cards? And the joypads/joysticks?) but you'll get used to it in a matter of weeks. Other downsides of the job is that office hours can range from your usual 9-5 to a very stressful round-the-clock when you're under deadlines and you don't have any guarantee that you'll be mentioned in the credits unless you're one of the lead testers. (Let's face it; you want your friends to know that YOU were part of the team who made that brilliant game, don't you?) Put in the frustration coming from dealing with programmers and/or artists who don't know what does make a good game (the industry has many such people...) and you'll get an even worse picture of the job. Being a game tester is not all that bad, though. It's the perfect way to get into the biz for many different reasons: the first one and more obvious being that you'll be constantly in touch with both the programmers and artists. In a few weeks' time you'll understand problems concerning polygons (polys, for friends...), frame-rate and its relationships with the responsiveness and precision of the control system, how to address RAM-related problems and much, much more. Hold on - let me make myself clear: you will NOT become a programmer but you will understand which compromises you must have in the game in order to have it work in its best possible form, given the capabilities of the system it is working on and the skills and talents of the developers. Another obvious plus of the job is the money. In Europe, an internal tester is usually paid somewhere between US$15,000 to US$23,000, assuming he's employed full-time. However, some companies have part-time testing jobs, so that you don't have to leave school to be a tester. The real highlight of being a game tester is that in many occasions you'll be required to play an active role in the making of the game: rather than limiting your task to just testing existing code, sometimes testers are asked to suggest alternative solutions to problems in either playability or game structure. It often happens that, during the development stages, the game feels and plays differently from what it should according to the game design document. It could be the control system which is too complex, the physics model, the AI or any other element of the game which doesn't work as well as it should. The testers' main task is to flag any problems arising but they are often asked to give their precious input in order to improve the game. It sometimes happens that the most critic and capable testers move onto design positions, which is a much more rewarding (both in terms of financial success and self-fulfilment) job with many more responsabilities. Another way to climb the ranks of the company is to become Quality Assurance Manager, supervising and directing the work of several testers for one or more titles. Therefore, starting as a game tester can take you to higher floors while making many interesting contacts in the industry. The perfect game tester can express himself quite well in both written and oral form, knows how to work in a team and know games inside out - both new and classic titles. Needless to say, to do this you must play a lot: explore all the possibilities of a title, do things the developers couldn't think you would do (such as killing a friendly character, throwing away a useful item, going out of the track in a racing game or standing in particular areas where you're not supposed to stay) and see what happens. Be curious while playing, and be critic. If you have what it takes ring the bell; this industry needs you. Don't let the first negative replies write the word END to your career in this industry. Keep trying until a door opens, then put your foot in. Start writing your cover letter now (keep it short, nobody likes lengthy cover letters)) and be ready for the interview. Sooner or later you'll have your chance, so don't waste it. Mary works in US for a media company, occasionally writing for the biggest PC Games Reviews portal, and drinking too much coffee.
MORE RESOURCES: Prime Gaming and Riot Games Run it Back Riot Games Tigers Host Midweek Games Before Opening Conference Play ... Memphis Official Athletic Site Utica man creates wrestling, MMA tabletop games: What to know Utica Observer Dispatch FAU to Play Four Games in Two Days Florida Atlantic University Athletics Games Two and Three of Pitt's Series With North Carolina Canceled ... PittsburghPanthers.com Top 12 Moments from the First Bananas Games Ever in Texas The Savannah Bananas Locals Populate All-State Hoops Games Saturday at King's and Curtis Centralia Chronicle 10 games in 20 days will determine fate of Timberwolves Sports Illustrated High school basketball: Alden-Hebron will bring back All-Star games ... Shaw Local News Network Johnnie Baseball Splits Two More Games in Arizona - Saint John's ... Saint John's University Athletics Baseball Starts Five-Game Homestand Tuesday against Villanova ... Bucknell University Athletics FOX 13+ to broadcast select OL Reign games in 2023 Sounder At Heart Toys and Games Market to grow at a growth rate of 9.2 percent by reaching USD 844.34 Bn 2029 Yahoo Finance “Not Disabled Enough”: Several Multi-Extremity CrossFit Games ... Morning Chalk Up FTC Finalizes Order Requiring Fortnite maker Epic Games to Pay ... Federal Trade Commission News Zack Snyder Says A ‘Ridiculous Scale’ Rebel Moon RPG Video Game Is Coming After The Netflix Film Forbes XFL Football Games on TV Today (Sunday, March 19) Athlon Sports Final Two Games Of Baseball Series At Pitt Cancelled UNC Athletics Amid bankruptcy, Bally Sports North plans to televise 153 Twins games Sports Illustrated It's games, purses and auctions for Ladies Night Out The Daily Jeffersonian Baseball: Buckeyes sweep Dayton, extend win streak to seven games Land Grant Holy Land Kevin Huerter's Injury Status For Kings-Jazz Game Sports Illustrated Teaganne Takes On the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games ... Morning Chalk Up Anthony Edwards' Injury Status For Timberwolves-Knicks Game Sports Illustrated Padres’ Juan Soto, Austin Nola exit games with injuries: How their absences may impact San Diego The Athletic How to watch Team USA in 2023 World Baseball Classic title game NBC Sports Philadelphia Arsenal traveling to USA to play in 2023 MLS All-Star Game World Soccer Talk Post-Game Quotes: Marquette Michigan State Athletics 2026 World Cup Will Have Four-Team Groups and 24 More Games The New York Times AI learns to outsmart humans in video games - and real life The Associated Press 2023 BAFTA Games Awards: The Nominations British Academy of Film and Television Arts Biggest Video Games Releasing in March 2023 ComicBook.com |
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