jpor

iTrader: (1)

As per the title. Was wondering the following:

A).. Is it as it's cracked up to be? I.E all you do is play games and pass on any issues you find?

B).. If the pay was any good for that sort of job? Maybe looking at a change of career.

Thanks.

ScoobyDriverWannabe

Saw a few thread son this over the years on different forums & it didnt seem as good as its made up too be.

Hard too get into, plenty of people willing too do it so they pay peanuts.

Can be very tedious and boring. ie you dont just play a game all the way through and pass on any issues should you come across them.

You play a specific designated section of a game over and over again, maybe doign things in different ways trying too find bugs.

bob269

Things to consider, will you get a job testing a good game or pile of crap?, can you live with playing crap over and over?

messiah

Lad I used to work with used to do it for (who are now) Sony Studio Liverpool (WipEout). He thought it was his dream job but the reality was nothing like - the main part of the job was to try and do things that you're not supposed to do, like finding gaps in walls so you can get "outside" of the gameworld so the main coders can plug the gaps - sort of like "glitch prevention"

Got decent money by all accounts but it bored him silly.

Edcase

I started as a game tester 14 years ago, as did some of the leading industry figureheads including ex head of WW Studios for Sony, Phil Harrison.

I started on 6k a year.

It's maybe less 'easy' to progress these days, however there is a more structured and formal path, usually assistant producer (*** prod ), producer, senior producer (bear in mind senior producers earn upwards of 60k nowadays), or else into game design.

Different studios treat their testers differently. Some use regularly rotated temps or short-term staff, others build a valued team of specialists and take their feedback very seriously, to the point that they can help to tweak or even suggest game features.

As has been said above, it's not just about playing the game through, you have to specifically be obtuse and find ways to 'break' the game, which means doing things the average punter wouldn't.

I give people the same advice I would give to anyone looking for a job in 'entertainment'. It's not a 9-5 job. You need to have an absolute passion, often to the detriment of friendships and sometimes your health.

But, it can be fantastically rewarding. When the reviews start coming in and you see people in the stores picking up your game, it's a great feeling. Of course, there can also be a 180 degree flip to that scenario

But in terms of the ability to learn about the industry, to set yourself up and get a foothold, it's still one of the best opportunities going, if you play your cards right.

Have a look here: http://www.igda.org/breakingin/

Just noticed my old profile is still on there!!!

this is from about 2001 so please don't laugh

http://www.igda.org/breakingin/profile_ed_bartlett.htm

Actually you can laugh if you like, I don't really care ;p

Good luck!

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info guys . Looking at the salary for this sort of work, it would mean taking a massive drop in the salary I take home now . Will have a look further into this with the links 'edcase' has provided

mart360

When are you gonna get Xenon released into the public domain


bloody cracking game, and its stuck in oblivion



Mart

Edcase

Sadly Bitmaps are pretty much defunct these days.

Before I left in 2003 we did a 'free' update which I designed for PC Format magazine, we ran it as a 6-part series, gave away the art and source code and used it as a kind of old school 'teach yourself game development' piece.

I still have them all somewhere, will see if I can find the final version and upload to rapidshare!

mykp

used to work for Ocean years ago, and worked in the testing department.

What I will say is we had lots of people come though the testing department saying this was there dream job and they very quickly left.

You dont just have to be able to play games you also need an eye for detail and also have to an aptitude to repeat the same part of a game, over and over and over and over and over and over......etc.. to find bugs there are supposed to be fixed, also to repeat them. You also have to document any bugs you find in detail.

While I was working there we had one bloke who went mad and I mean, pants down, underpants on his head, pencils up nose! MAD! as he had played the same game for almost 13 months and he'd filled an entire a4 pad with the word KILL! I kid you not!

Oh! the money. Basic rate of pay is crap, but you can treble it with overtime. Close to game release we used to work 24 hours on, 24 off. Which means basic salary 9 to 5, 5-12 time and half and 12 - 9 double time and the next 24 hours you got basic pay.

You'll also end up with RSA at an early age, my wrists and fingers are knackered from all that keypad and keyboard hammering.

Another upside is that you'll be playing the new games ages before anyone else, but depending on your contract will depend on whether you can tell anyone about it as some have confidentiallity clauses.

finalzero

My mate works for Jagex Ltd, they do a fair bit of game testing for other companies etc, give them a try:

Jagex Software :: Home

Edcase

He's not joking sadly

Affects me bigtime. I have to use dragon naturally speaking instead of typing now.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

You should always remember that in all likelehood you won't be playing Half life 4 or CoD5 but will be stuck (for 13 months like someone else said) playing the latest Barbie game or Disney kids/pokemon rubbish...

urban

iTrader: (1)

How many years ago?

I used to work for a local company and we did contract work for Ocean & US Gold.
That was 1987-1989 - ****, thats a long time ago

As much as I hate to admit, some of the bugs reported back to us never got fixed.
We'd just say that they were fixed and needed tested again.
Only for the real non reproducible faults though.

Shaun

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Cheers will have a look

Ghetto Dude3

set up a uk version of giantbomb.com

that seams like a much better idea, people send you games to review and if they are crap, you say so and try another one

DanPhillips

Shhhhh, don't give away the secrets...

I once had a bug from US Gold for Snes game, it was an A class bug (normally a show stopper).

"The music is too funky on the sewer level"

I asked for quite a few waves

Cheers

Dan

spectrum48k

Cool!

You on any of the Commercial Breaks program they did on Ocean and Imagine ?
Commercial Breaks - A documentary about the Imagine and Ocean Software

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Wow lead tester for the legenday bbmap brothers! That's quite a claim to fame to a geek like me. Btw Any news on the mac situation?

pmacFTO

Hehe - that's when we were still loading our games from cassettes Ah I remember my wee spectrum

mykp

Was a bit young to be there at that time, I was there from 1992 to 1996. Started in the warehouse, then testing, then helpline (Which was great until they started releasing PC games) as people bought PC and had no idea how to use them, let along get games to work on them

Rob Walker

Used to work at Ocean myself in the early nineties... Happy days.

Edcase

Nah I was lead tester for a previous company, NMS Software. I went to Bitmaps as a game designer but ended up as Business Development Director before I moved on. I was also a huge fan so it was amazing finding myself in that position!

No news on the Mac ATM, but don't worry if you can't wait. I'd rather hold on and see what the upgrade is but it may be weeks away or days I just don't know.

cheers
Ed