Pad
Happy:
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
Game Testing
|
Vol.
2, Issue 7
December 23, 1999
|
“Testing
is a good place to start in the industry”
I would never claim that my experience of testing was definitive
– there are as many types of “testing” as there
are programming (well, almost). I had the good fortune to work
for a developer with substantial in-house resources which made
things a lot more interesting for a mere tester (i.e. designers
looking for design feedback from testing, personal contact with
the development team) than working for a publisher. I would say,
though, that this summary of the utility of a testing job is one
generally accepted by my peers: if you can’t code, can’t
do art and have no development experience whatsoever, testing
is your best shot at that oh-so-valuable “foot in the door”.
Plus, if you play your cards right, it can lead to some interesting
places (junior designers are often recruited from testing departments).
Some people may get a boost from work they do in the pubic domain
(i.e. the guys who did the original Team Fortress now work for
Valve) but testing is the place to be if your killer mod isn’t
going beta anytime soon...
“Games
testers work crappy hours and get lousy pay”
With most jobs in game development the hours get pretty hellish
towards the end of a project, and testing is no exception. Playing
games “all day” may turn into “all night”
during the frantic final weeks, with testing departments often
getting the shitty end of the stick when it comes to late nights
at the office. As for crappy pay, that’s definitely true
if you’re comparing testers’ pay to that of programmers
and artists (especially of the ‘senior’ variety). However,
in comparison to the many other non-game related jobs you could
be doing for the same money, testing has to look good in comparison
(i.e. cinema usher - another job I did that everyone else seemed
to think must be non-stop fun). The long hours can add insult
to injury as it is unusual for testers to get “overtime”
as such, but some companies will pay a share of the royalties
or completion bonus which can make up for the otherwise exploitative
wage scale! Alas, whereas newbie programmers and artists can see
comparatively rapid rises in their pay the same doesn't really
hold true for testers (which is why nobody really wants to be
a tester for more than a couple of years if they can help it).
I realise
the above is a fairly abridged guide to testing If anyone has
any questions about testing that I’ve left unanswered or
is looking for advice, I’m be happy to help. I’d also
love to hear from those of you that are testers. For those interested,
the following is a quick rundown of the things propping up my
CV when I was hunting for testing interviews: aside from my impending
Psychology degree, I had taught myself C over the last year and
written a (fairly poor) Net Yaroze PlayStation game which was
of sub-NES quality but did teach me a ton about the basic structures
of game development. I’d been writing for loonygames for
about 6 months, and had previously written for a number of other
gaming websites (including the now-defunct-but-much-beloved N64
Gazetta, of which I was Associate Editor) over the last 3 years.
I also let the interviewers know that I had owned just about every
console (and a fair number of computer systems) released since
the mid-80’s, and I guess my pathological love of games seemed
to shine through automatically. That’s the strongest thing
on my side at the end of the day: I love games and I really enjoy
being able to make them for a living with a bunch of other like-minded
folk. It’s a cool job, and a cool thing to be part of. Merry
Christmas, everyone, and Happy New Year - see you on the other
side of Y2K!
-
Nick Ferguson is looking forward to “testing” his Xmas
pressies this year. Yeah, baby!
