how to train for games tester?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Planetman, Aug 28, 2014.

  1. Planetman

    Planetman Well-Known Member

    May 3, 2014
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    I was wondering if the community could give insight to my question which is:

    How does one train to become a games tester?

    I am in Leamington Spa UK that has a lot of game company's there.
     
  2. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    a game tester is a really crappy job with poor pay.

    Showing the ability to document well is important. Mostly it goes to interns (who basically do it free) or casuals while they do degrees or something.

    The easiest thing is to the ring those companies and ask. They might say we have volunteer roles/casual roles you can apply here or they don't use in house game testers.

    Only the really big companies use paid game testers.
     
  3. Columbo

    Columbo Well-Known Member

    Sep 1, 2014
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    You're in a pretty good location which is a good start.

    Generally for entry level games testing the skills they're looking for are good communication (written and verbal), attention to detail and a lot of enthusiasm for games. Take a look at QA job postings and see what skills, experience and qualifications are necessary.

    It's perhaps not a job where being on the bottom rung for too long is going to be a good thing in terms of job security or pay, so it's worth showing the organisational skills and ambition to lead others and move up that way, or move sideways to design or production if that's your bag.

    If you're still in full-time education, then probably one of the best things you can do is contact all of the local companies (http://www.gamedevmap.com/ might help) and talk to them about being there for unpaid work experience/holiday work. Experience gained will go a long way.

    I guess there are some games QA higher education qualifications, and they might help a bit, but probably no more than any other equivalent qualification you might get, and a games QA qualification might be less transferable to other industries should you decide to get out.
     
  4. Planetman

    Planetman Well-Known Member

    May 3, 2014
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    Thanks

    Thanks for the informative reply
     
  5. Rogue

    Rogue Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 9, 2011
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    Games Developer
    Brisbane, Australia
    Games Testing is a different discipline to Programming, Design, Art or Producer roles. Many people see it as a "foot in the door" type job and it really is not (this coming from someone who was a former tester as well as working in programming later in their career).

    To be a good tester you need to be able to communicate via bug reports. You will need to be able to find bugs in a game, give steps to reproduce that bug so the development team can fix it and, afterward, be able to check if that bug was fixed.

    You do not just Play the game and see what is broken, oftentimes you follow a list of things to test and it can be very boring and tiresome (especially if you are on a large project and have to replay the same level all day, every day for 2 weeks).

    I should also mention that many studios do not have a full time testing team and will often retain key people and periodically hire a team of testers when a game reaches a beta stage and they have testing work to assign. For this reason, job security as a tester can be an issue.
     
  6. coolpepper43

    coolpepper43 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Aug 31, 2012
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    On the toilet
    Watch a lot of the movie Grandmas Boy.
    ;)
     
  7. CharredDirt

    CharredDirt Well-Known Member

    I just hired a QA tester, we produce a lot of small games.

    The main qualities that I look for is.

    1. Technical proficiency. Being good with computers helps.

    2. Being involved in a game design related school or class. Minor programming knowledge is a plus.

    3. Attention to detail. Being able to thoroughly test a game and document issues is a must.


    I hired a guy who has all of those and he's really working out well and saving me a ton of time.
     

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