As a game tester, your job is to test games for potential flaws or errors. You will have to spend lots of time playing video games so that you can do this effectively! Companies hire testers to play their new games and find any issues they may have.
Some companies also ask testers to try out different versions of a game to see if there are differences in how the game functions. This helps them determine whether or not the changes made what we call “lucrative” to the game- which means it was more likely to be purchased.
There are many positions within gaming as a tester, but most people begin by testing at the company that hired them as an intern or junior position. The next level is full-time employment, with paychecks growing larger every year.
The highest paid position within the industry is that of senior gameplay engineer, who work under engineers. These individuals develop new features and fix existing ones in the games they create.
Other important positions include producer, marketing, and business development. A lot of these positions require having either a bachelor’s degree or advanced certification like those from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI).
Test your skills
As a tester, you will be asked to try out games to determine if they are fun to play and if there is any potential for improvement. This could mean testing the game for bugs or finding new ways to tweak the gameplay or add features.
There are several types of tests that testers do, such as playing through a level to see how well it flows and whether there were any glitches that took away from the experience. Testing different modes like Story Mode, Arcade, and Multiplayer can also be done to see what works best with the game.
The most important thing about being an tester is having a sense of humor. You will need to be able to laugh at yourself when making mistakes or failing an assignment. However, don’t take your job too seriously- some things will not work and you will have to cut your losses.
Test your patience
As with any career, being able to put in long hours is a must. Developers need people to test their games so they can fix all of the bugs before release and users can find all of the glitches that prevent them from fully enjoying the game.
As a tester, you will have to be very patient while looking for those flaws. This can be frustrating at times as you look through endless amounts of content trying to find the right level of detail to find a small bug or even no trace of a product whatsoever!
There’s always next person who can take the place of this individual and it may take months before you get assigned again.
Record and share your gameplay
As game testers, we play many games! We test out new versions of games to see how they work and if they are any better than the previous version. Some of us even take our gaming very seriously and get into really competitive modes or levels within a game!
There is an important role that gamers cannot do without — tester! A tester is someone who actively plays a video game and finds all sorts of things while playing it. These findings can include bad graphics, boring storylines, poor sound effects, annoying features, and more.
Testers find these issues and report them so developers can make changes and updates to improve the game for future players.
By leaving their experience as a player just once, you will help shape the gaming world forever! There are several ways to be a gamer tester, some paid and some free.
Make or break a game
As a tester, your job is to try out games and see if they are fun to play! If you find very few features of the game interesting, then it is probably not worth buying.
There’s an old saying that goes “make a movie and people will watch it, write a book and people will read it, but launch a video game and people won’t be interested.” I don’t know what made this cliché so famous, but it definitely has some truth in it.
After all, why would someone spend money on a videogame when they can get the same thing for free? Or better yet, why would they pay full price for something that could just as easily be downloaded for nothing?
That’s like paying five dollars at Costco because you couldn’t resist their cheap wine. Sure, the wine was expensive, but you could have got it anywhere online for much less!
As a gamer, writer, reviewer, or even casual player, your opinion really matter. A lot! You may think that a game is totally awesome and everyone should buy it, but that doesn’t make it so. On the other hand, you might feel that no one should ever purchase a certain title because it looks too boring or simplistic.
Identify bugs
As a tester, your job is to find as many flaws in games as possible so that players can have an enjoyable experience while they play them.
There are two main types of testers at Microsoft – gameplayers and usability researchers. Usability researchers look for things such as whether or not an aspect of the game is easy to understand, how intuitive some feature or element of the game is, and if there’s anything that seems overly complicated or difficult to use.
Gameplayers look more into the actual product itself and test out different aspects of the game to see what works and doesn’t work when playing through it. They may experiment with the level or story mode to determine which parts feel streamlined and natural and which feel like something has gone too long and needs to be sped up.
Both types of people do important jobs but only one kind is totally essential to the success of the game!
A developer will never make a successful title without a good usability researcher and vice versa. A developer won’t succeed in developing their craft unless someone gives them helpful feedback about the product, however, a great gameplayer cannot guarantee success either because sometimes bad gameplay mechanics are just hard to get past.
Help fix bugs
As a tester, your job is to find as many errors and glitches in games as possible so that the developers can make needed fixes.
There are two main reasons why game testers are important. One is to ensure that the game works well for its intended audience, and the other is to help promote diversity in video games.
As you may have heard, some people feel that gaming is becoming increasingly exclusive. It is very common to see stories about how only white men get to enjoy popular videogames like Call of Duty or Mario games. People talk about how these games seem targeted at an exclusively male crowd.
This perception has become more widespread due to media coverage. Some sites focus almost entirely on talking about this topic while using statistics to back up their claims.
It is important to remember that not every person who enjoys these types of games is racist. Many people just happen to be white, which is also a pretty large proportion of the population!
While there is nothing wrong with enjoying mostly titles designed for and/or marketed towards men, it cannot be denied that most major blockbusters include significant amounts of action, shooting, etc. That is definitely appealing to both sexes.
Hopefully you will never need to use the power of bug-finding on any given title, but if you ever do – know that there are thousands of gamers out there who value your input and would love to work together on fixing whatever goes wrong.
Get credit for your work
As an xbox game tester, you will get to test games on different consoles and give feedback to the developers. Your comments are very important to them as they rely on you to give good and bad reviews depending on whether or not their product is improved upon!
If you want to be part of this industry, then start taking testing seriously now so that when it’s time to apply, you are already working on a project. You can also create your own review while you are waiting to be selected, just make sure to keep it professional.
Your reviewer title will be used in online forums, blogs, social media sites and more! If you have trouble coming up with something, use our article about what people who test video games for companies do to gain credits like having an e-mail address related to gaming.
Learn new things
As a tester, you will be learning something new every day. You can use your knowledge to test games as an artist testing out textures or environments, a gameplay designer testing game systems, or even finding bugs.
As a tester, you get to play games that other people have designed! This is so you do not need to invest in expensive software or consoles to try out some of these games.
There are many ways to contribute as a tester. Some focus more on gameplay, while others work with art or writing. No matter what area of the game you are working in, there is always room for improvement!
Game testers make sure that everything works well for users- this may mean checking if features work and are clear, if the controls feel natural, and if there are no major flaws in the game.
For artists, they may find tools needed to create appropriate landscapes, textures, or models for the game. For writers, they may be asked to describe the scenes, add flavor to characters, or research how games implement certain concepts.
The best way to learn about games is by playing them! There are so many different types of games, from action to puzzle, shooter to RPG, it does not take too long to pick one up.