Written by If you are hunting for New careers, and you have a vetted interest in computer games, then getting a New career as a games tester may seem like a dream come true. I wish to take some time to shed some light on this very job, so if you have been considering different Careers recently, and are after a little more information on this particular job, then read on, and hopefully this will help you decide on whether or not this is the most appropriate New career choice for you.
First off, we shall have a look at precisely what it is a games tester must do in order to realise their job needs. Game developers are not simply hunting for people to play the games to see if they are fun to play or not, the chief role of a games tester to is play through levels, both finished and unfinished, and point out any bugs or mistakes which may have been missed by the programming team. They then have to write accurate reports, describing where the fault is, how it occurred, and if there were any other contributing factors which may have caused to the bug. Sometimes games testing can be somewhat tedious, as you must test for as many scenarios within a level as possible. For example, let’s say we have a main level where the central character or hero of the game must dash across the bridge. The games tester will be asked to test running over the bridge with all types of different items, and performing all types of different actions whilst crossing, to make sure no bugs come up as a result of this. So for example, the character might be able to dash across the bridge normally fine, but what happens if they run across with for instance, a weapon drawn, or while casting a spell? They may fall through to their death. This kind of flaw obviously cannot be permitted in the final version of a game, so they must be checked carefully before release.
The majority of Careers within games testing will be purely that, testing the games, and then making reports on what has been discovered. However, in a few cases, especially when working for a smaller independent publisher, the games tester might have to be a more trained individual, and take on a much bigger degree of responsibility. They may be needed to actually play through the game, and then change the coding themselves, or fix the bugs themselves, rather than just generating a report to be sent off. This typically truer of smaller publishers who simply do not have the funds available to employ people to do their games testing for them, so they have to get people who are capable of doing multiple jobs.
So if you are currently hunting for New careers, then here are some points to consider about games testing. It can be a very attractive job, as it means you are able to play games long before they are released to the general public. However, sometimes the job can be somewhat dull, with levels that have to be played through multiple times in order to make sure they work properly.
