| April 2007 |
| By Matthew D. Sarrel |
The biggest open door in the game industry is testing and quality assurance (QA). For the most part, these are jobs that anyone who has a passion for games and an attention to detail can do. “We’re looking for somebody who loves games, is detail oriented and discerning,” says Denise Fulton, Austin Studio Head for Midway. But, Fulton cautions, “the era of everybody starting in QA is really changing. More and more we’re hiring straight from schools.”
Beta Testing
Many companies send out Beta copies of the game and obtain feedback from testers while they play the game. Beta testing is a volunteer job that can be done on your own time. This may be the easiest way to get game industry experience. Many times a thorough, communicative Beta tester will be offered a job as a playability tester for the company. “Get your foot in the door however you can and then you can distinguish yourself and advance,” advises Kudo Tsunoada, VP and General Manager for EA Chicago.
Playability Testing
Can you believe that there are people who get paid to play games all day? They do so in order to discover defects, or bugs, in the game so they can be corrected before the game ships. Playability testers report on the gaming experience, how fun the game is, how it compares to other games, and more. Playability testers give developers and publishers valuable insight into what gamers will think of the game.
Many game companies hire the majority of their play tester staff as temporary employees that are paid by the hour. Openings for temporary testers are posted on the company web site, on a gaming site, or on technical job sites such as Dice. Usually, companies hire a team of temporary playability testers to work for a full time manager who is responsible for the testing process.
Playability testing is very important. Everyone involved in developing and marketing the game needs to know what it’s like to play it. Playability testing may be one of the most important temporary jobs in the tech industry.
As a playability tester, you will have access to high ranking people within the company. They will come to you to hear about the game. This is your chance to impress them and convince them that you have what it takes to make the transition to permanent employee. Demonstrate that you have good verbal and written communication skills. Go beyond the requirements of the job and show some creativity. Think of ways to improve the game and share them with your manager. Think of your temporary job as a playability tester as a kind of internship where you can impress your employer and be offered full-time, permanent employment.
Temporary Playability Tester - In this job, you play a game, or part of a game, to determine whether it functions properly and is fun to play. You’ll evaluate the story line and level design. You’ll evaluate whether or not the game’s difficulty progresses evenly and if your score makes sense given the tasks you’ve accomplished. This job requires a lot of patience because you are playing an unfinished version of the game that probably crashes a lot, which you’ll document. This job is usually a temporary job (4-6 months) compensated on an hourly basis.
Lead Tester - The first step up from Temporary Playability Tester is a full time, salaried position where you are responsible for evaluating a specific aspect of the game’s playability. Perhaps you are assigned to assess the art within a game. You make sure that the character modeling looks accurate and is to scale. You look at the art and determine whether it is aesthetically pleasing. The Lead’s main function is to make sure that all of the bugs found by other testers are logged into the defect database. The Lead is responsible for assigning sections of the game to the other testers. And finally, as Lead you must be able to give a report on testing status at any time.
Supervisor/Manager - As a Playability Supervisor, you run multiple testing projects at the same time with several Lead Testers reporting to you. You manage a budget and hire temporary testers. You work closely with upper management to ensure that games are developed in a timely manner and meet design documents.
Quality Assurance
The QA team plays a vital role in the game development process. QA is involved in the entire development process, from setting development standards based on design documents, to making sure that all of the game’s underlying code is up to snuff, to evaluating the final product. QA testers uncover as many bugs as possible and log them into a defect tracking database. Developers then repair the game code and send it back for more testing.
Typically, the publisher and the development studio will have QA teams. The publisher evaluates the game to determine if the development team has delivered code that meets the currently scheduled milestone. The publisher’s test team will tell senior management whether the development team is producing a quality game that adheres to the requirements of the development contract. This is done over an over again during the development process, settling a series of “go” or “no go” decisions for overall game development.
For a PC game, there is also compatibility testing which focuses on potential hardware issues that could be caused by system configuration, video cards, sound cards, and game controllers.
Compatibility Tester - This position deals mainly with hardware compatibility than game functionality. Your job is to make sure that the game works on a variety of platforms with different sound cards, video cards and controllers. If you think that you know a lot about how to tweak a PC now, wait until you have to do it all day every day.
QA Engineer - Your goal is to proactively find, reproduce, and report software flaws and design issues throughout the development process. The most important aspect of this job is to document bugs in a clear and detailed manner. You check the game’s features against a formal test plan. Good communication skills are essential. You may even be asked to produce a walkthrough as you’ll have the most experience with the game.
QA Supervisor/Manager - Project staffing and management are the primary tasks of the QA Superisor/Manager. Also, you are responsible for maintaining lines of communication between the testers and other development groups.
QA Director - This person has years of experience in QA and usually runs multiple QA projects at the same time. This is the top QA job, so you represent an entire department to senior management. You are responsible for training, supervising, scheduling, and monitoring the activities of all QA personnel.
What does John Williamson, President of Zombie Studios, look for when promoting someone within QA? “Communication is at the top of the list. Once you get promoted you’re going to be talking to a lot of different people in a lot of different departments. The ability to understand a lot of technical information is also important. Now you have to not only understand your own little world but you also have to understand the other departments. The ability to lead is critical, to get people to do what they need to do on time, to help your staff to their jobs to the best of their ability.”
Matt Sarrel is executive director of Sarrel Group and a technology journalist based in New York City.
Comments on this article? Share your feedback on our discussion forum, Dice Discussions.
*Please note, you must be a registered job seeker in order to submit your question to Dice Discussions.
|
|
|
