It sounds like a really great job, making a living by playing video games all day. And if you're a true game fanatic, I mean a real fanatic, it can be a great job. But being a quality assurance tester for a video game company isn't always all it's cracked up to be.
Sony's offering a select group of wannabe game testers a chance at the job via 'The Tester' which is a new reality show being broadcast exclusively on the PlayStation Network. Switched.com reached out to a few people in the video game industry to learn more about being a game tester and the best ways to become one.
There are several key factors to getting a quality assurance game tester position:
1. Location -
If you want to be a game tester, you need to be where the game makers are. That means cities like Austin, Dallas, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Redmond, Washington. If there aren't a large number of developers or publishers around your area, you're going to have a really hard time being a full-time game tester. Occasional work might be found in New York, Atlanta or Chicago. This will only bring you in supplemental income. If you are really serious, you will have to relocate to one of the cities mentioned.
2. Get ready to Job Hop -
Full-time tester jobs are very rare. Typically, game makers (and third-party testing houses like VMC Consulting) hire testers on a contract basis. When the test cycle ends for a product, the testing team is laid off. That's the reason to live in a developer/publisher-rich city. Michael Weber, director of central development at Gearbox Software, says, "In a lot of cases, a tester can go from product to product at company to company." He adds, "If you want to do this as your livelihood... you need to put yourself in a position where you can move from studio to studio when the products ship."
3. Personality is extremely important -
You don't need a degree to be a game tester, just GED is good enough. But, if your personality and emotional maturity don't compliment the rest of the team, you'll never make it. Game companies say these are the most important qualities in a candidate. If you're a loner, or become enraged when you lose a game, this is the wrong career for you. Testers work long hours. They don't need unnecessary disruptions.
4. Attention to Details -
When you're trying to get a job to assure the quality of a game, you need a really good eye for detail. Finding bugs in the early stage of testing is pretty simple. Just about anyone can do that. But when developers have polished the products, it gets harder.
5. Communication skills.
Once you find an error, you'll need to let the development team know exactly what went wrong and how you made it occur. If you're unable to do that, it doesn't matter how good your skills are at finding mistakes. To test for good communications skills, Gearbox asks people to describe their favorite game and what they like about it. If a candidate can't do so clearly and enthusiastically, they more than likely won't get the job.
6. Don't just like games, Really Adore them -
Just having enthusiasm for video games isn't enough for testers. A real obsession is mandatory. Testers play and replay the same small part of a game over and over again, sometimes for eight hours or more per day. If you're unable to maintain focus and energy over that amount of time, you'll burn out quickly, and most likely ruin your favorite hobby in the process.
7. Never Pay To Get a Job -
As you research where to work, you most likely find services that guarantee you a game tester position for a nominal fee. These are the video game equivalent of those "Work from home: Make $100,000" or get rich schemes you find advertised all over the internet. If you're looking for a job, NEVER, EVER PAY TO GET THE JOB.
If You Are Qualified. What Next?
So, let's say you have all of the above qualifications. You're the perfect candidate. Before you leap in, there are a few other things to keep in mind before deciding to pursue this field.
Hours:
Ridiculously long hours is the norm for a game tester. You'll have to put in up to 10 hours a day at some places, even more as a game's deadline nears. If you burn out, there are hundreds of people who are willing to take your place.
Pay:
This is not a job to take if you want to get rich (or have a family to support). Most testers are contractors, with hourly salaries and no benefits. In 2009, Game Developer magazine put the average salary of a tester at $39,571 -- but even the magazine's publisher notes that number was likely a bit high. Other game companies put the number between $25,000 and $30,000 per year.
Hoping To Climb the Corporate Ladder? -
Many people view being a tester as the way to climb the ladder of an organization. That used to be true, but it's less so today. If you take a job as a tester, and then begin dazzling the development or art teams for another job, you'll kill your chances. These days, a quicker path to becoming a video game developer or artist is to make your own game. Show off what you can do.
Simon Carless, publisher of Game Developer magazine said "If you want to make games, you should just make games." "The tools have gotten easier to use to make games." Anotherwards if you have a skill, that's a lot more helpful than saying, 'I've been playing this game repeatedly and spotted errors in it'."
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