Information on Beta Testing

Strong Caution:
Seious Game Beta Testing is the most tedious awful task you can imagine.

It''s nothing like playing games.

Take a popular game, and try to beat it using every possible mutation you can find.

For example in an RPG, this means, beating the game using every combination of character class, or hitting every type of enemy with every single spell in the game.

In a first person shooter, it''s going to be looking into every nook and cranny for bad texture jobs or leaking portals. Killing every kind of enemy with every type of weapon\ammo.

Then, recording your results, and doing it again when they fix the stuff you have found.

Very true, and, although it is the easiest position to get in a game development project, it is usually extremely low pay (unless you''re with EA), has very demanding hours and generally not open to 14 year olds There''s lots of free projects though which would be more than willing to have you on, I''m sure. I would, but we''re not at the stage where we want beta testers picking the game apart.

-Joe

well is beta testing any worse then packing groceries, draining fries, working at a snow-ball stand... to me, anything with computers is a dream-come-true

I worked as a tester at one point in time. Take it from me -- beta testing for a game company sounds sweet. Your friends will envy you.

HOWEVER... you will make little money, be expected to work a ton of hours (I regularly clocked 60 hour weeks... and no, overtime pay wasn''t really that much of an incentive). It is also TEDIOUS. If you love games, that''s all good and well, but realize that when you are a beta tester, you are NOT playing games. Like a previous poster said, you must do everything possible in your imagination to break the game. You must do things that YOU will think are stupid (I have spent entire days navigating menus, trying to come up with a way of moving through the menus that breaks something). You must keep precise records of every bug you encounter -- very rarely do you get any actual input on game play AT ALL .

I don''t know what else to say. All in all, I did think having that job was a good experience for me. As a programmer I learned a lot about testing, and that''s a skill I definitely value, and that has actually helped me on-the-job several time. You have no idea how many times a client will come to you and say "Your program crashed when I opened a file" or something to that effect, and when you ask them what steps they took before they crashed they WILL NOT KNOW (because they don''t have the mindset of a good tester). Because I had experience as a tester, I _always_ keep in my head the exact steps I''m taking, so that if I encounter a bug in my program, I''ll know how I did it -- and knowing how is halfway to finding where your bug is.

Here is a link to a review of a game that I worked as a tester on -- ''Army Men: Sarges Heroes (DC)''. You''ll notice that the review of the game isn''t all that rosy, but you WILL see that they compliment the thorough testing. That''s what testing is all about -- not about playing the game, but about making bugs all-but-nonexistant in a product (even if the product is lack-luster).

Even though the inherent gameplay of Army Men Sarge''s Heroes isn''t remarkable, praise must be given to Saffire, the game''s developer, for taking the time to go in and play-test its version of the game. The PlayStation version was the definition of buggy, while the later Nintendo 64 update fixed only the game''s graphical problems. This time, Saffire made Sarge''s Heroes playable.

I just wanted to take that blurb out of the review for those of you who wouldn''t have followed the link... sorry for the long, rambling post. Testing is very hard -- applying for a job as a tester is even harder, though. There are ALWAYS tons of applicants. My advice is to comb the companies in your area -- go in (dressed nicely, even though game companies are notoriously relaxed atmospheres) and give them your resume (even if they accept applications online, I guarantee you will stand out if you take the time to go in (this is not always a good thing, but among the faceless masses, it just may help)). Don''t let them tell you that there are no positions available -- make them keep your resume on file anyway. Good luck (if you still think this is the job for you).

Incidentally, I worked at a fast food place also, back in my younger days, and I would also count that as an invaluable experience. Don''t expect to get your dream job the first time you try -- a lot of the time you''ll have to work to get anywhere. Shoot, I''m still not where I want to be, but I''m going to get there no matter how many steps it is necessary for me to take!

-pirate_dau

Oh, and just to add to that a little bit. When I was a tester, they didn''t really seem to care whether or not I could program/model/design levels. They were interested in that I had technical skills (I could use a computer), but I was employed alongside an artist (non-computer-artist), a chemical engineering student, and other random characters (man, my whole life has degnerated into a video game.. I''m referring to people I worked with as ''characters''. lol). If you want to be a modeller/programmer/anything along those lines, that''s great -- but it likely will not get you the job.

-pirate_dau

Don''t let everyone here discourage you - testing is fun

Seriously - you need to be a certain type of person to enjoy it though, if you love pointing out how other people have stuffed up, and you''re good at hiding after you''ve cleared things as being ok and someone else has found something you''ve missed (don''t worry, you''ll soon learn the line - ''testing can never be 100% - sure, I could have put in another 100 hours to find those last couple of minor errors, but hey.'')

I''ve never been a tester on a big gaming project, but I''ve worked with plenty of smaller teams, mostly on casino type games - I can see that it would be easy to get lost in the crowd in a big team, but if you have the above quality''s and can get into a small team, you''ll get the opportunity to shine and you''ll enjoy the work all the more. Testing can be very rewarding, if you''re good at it you can make a good impression to.

Oh lord, I have been playing games much longer... starting with Ken''s labrinth which was made just after Wolf3d. "Ken" aka Ken Silverman went on to develope the Duke Nukem 3D engine, and John Carmack, (Founder of id Software [who made the wolf3d engine]) went on to make DOOM, then Quake, Quake2, and Quake3: Arena. He is now currently working on DOOM3 which is sweet as a mofo alive! http://www.doomworld.com/php/screenie.php?dir=/macworld/
or
http://www.3ddownloads.com/?file_id=138158 for the movie.

er.. tetriscoter... do you really honestly think there''s anyone alive much less anyone on this board who isn''t fully aware of just who John Carmack is and what ID is working on at the moment?

Ok , I guess there are some people living and breathing that don''t know about doom3, but none of them are posting on this board.

I sure as H*ll hope not!!! JOHN CARMACK IS GOD!!!

quote:

---

Original post by tetriscoter
JOHN CARMACK IS GOD!!!

---

.....who...?

Sadly being a beta tester can ruin you entire gaming future...if you do it long enough you might start looking at all games as beta''s and only play them to find more bugs and that way stop enjoying them. I am quite sure that is not what you want.

But as a summer job thingy I don think that is something to worrying about, and why not try it...then you''ll know if you like it or not!

- Captain