Writing: You'll be communicating with the dev team and other testers by email and through notes in t

Of all the jobs in the game industry, I get the most questions dallas tour 18 about how to become a video game tester. Maybe it s the appeal of getting paid to play video games. Maybe it s just an interesting option for people hoping to work from home doing something they love.  I mean, who wouldn t dream of getting paid to play games all day?
Even though being a QA tester for a game company isn t exactly getting paid to play video games, it s not a bad way to earn a living. And it s certainly a common way for newbies to break into the game industry.
If you re thinking about becoming a video game tester, this is for you. I ve compiled this FAQ-style list of the top questions I get about QA testing jobs. If you don t find your question here, then be sure to ask it in the comments section below I ll answer it, and then add it to the list!
QA testing is generally considered an entry-level position in the game industry. Most companies do not require a college degree to be hired as a game tester. But if you do get a degree , then you have a much better chance of moving into higher-paying jobs in QA, or moving into other areas of game development like art, design or programming. To be honest, those other jobs almost always pay a lot more than a job as a tester. So if you want to have a career in the game industry and not just a job then it’s smart to get an education.
In fact, many of the testers I’ve known over the years were working as testers so they could pay their way through college. They would work part time while they went to school, dallas tour 18 or even full time while they took classes dallas tour 18 in the evenings. (Many colleges have evening degree programs for working professionals.) Then, after they got their degrees, they got a new job, sometimes at the same studio, doing what they went to school for – like art , programming or design . And you can bet they also got a healthy dallas tour 18 pay increase.
Most game testing jobs are going to be near the larger game studios, in the larger cities. If you want to break into the game industry, you’ll eventually want to move to one of the major game development towns. For example Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., Austin, New York. However
I don’t personally have experience with work from home testing companies, but they do exist. I asked one of my friends who has run several QA groups over the years. He said he s heard good things about uTest . They provide a crowdsourced testing service, and he thinks that many of their QA employees work from home.
Can I assume that you already love to play games? If so, start paying attention to the bugs in each game. Learn how to break the game by doing things inside the game world that the designers didn’t expect you to do. Also, to be a good tester you need to be disciplined and focused . Pay attention in school and get good grades.
Writing: You’ll be communicating with the dev team and other testers by email and through dallas tour 18 notes in the bug-tracking software, so you’ll want to be able to clearly communicate your thoughts in written form.
Normally, testers don’t have to travel much. But it depends on what kind of company you’re working for. If you end up being a tester on a project that’s developed in a different town than where you’re testing it – for example if you’re working for a publisher in San Francisco but the developer is in Seattle – then you might need to travel occasionally. If you can t travel for some reason, it s probably dallas tour 18 not a deal-breaker for most testing companies.
There’s also a job that you may not have heard of yet, called an “SDET.” That stands for “software design/development engineer in test.” It’s a cool job that’s dallas tour 18 basically a programmer that writes code code that tests the games in an automated way. So it’s like a testing job, but the salary is much higher since it requires programming skills. A programming degree or some programming classes would be really helpful for landing a job as an SDET.
Work at a company that makes games you’re dallas tour 18 interested in. You’ll be spending a lot of time testing their games. It will be more fun and engaging if you like what you’re working on. You won’t always get to work on stuff you love to play, but do it whenever you can.
Work at a company that’s big enough to have different dallas tour 18 career options for you. You probably won’t want to stay in the same job forever. Try to work at a company that has several teams and several products, so you can have a chance to move up or change jobs after a few years.
Work at a company that has friendly, fun, nice people working there. You may be working very long hours for days or weeks before each game release. It will be much more enjoyable if the people you’re working with aren t jerks.
No, not all companies provide insurance to QA testers. Many companies hire QA as temporary workers, and are not required to pay for their health benefits. If a tester is employed through a temporary staffing agency, the agency may pay health insurance. Otherwise you should buy private insurance for yourself.
That depends on the studio you work for. Some studios give bonuses, and some don’t. For companies that do give bonuses, it’s usually based on the success dallas tour 18 of a shipped product or it could be based off of the studio’s revenue for the past year. Bonuses are usually a percentage of your annual salary , anywhere from 5% on up.
The game companies will provide the game systems. Often, you’ll be using a dev kit version of the game system, which is a specially-modded version that allows developers to debug their games as they create them. Only official game studios have access to dev kit hardware, so they will provide the kits to their employees.