Applying for a Games Tester position

I would say dont do it!!

I play tested for interplay, Harleyford near Marlow.

Casper the friendly friggin ghost!!! :mad: had to play that game all the way through sound on, sound off, music on, music off and so on.

This was back in the sega saturn and ps1 days lol.

Also play tested the lost vikings and various star trek games for them on the amiga.

Hated star trek so that was a chore. lost vikings was ace. loved that game though :D

Dunno how its done now days, but back then the console was hooked upto a vcr, all play sessions were recorded and any problems which were spotted we had to note down time on the vcr and description of what we were trying to do at the time.

This is back in 94-95 christ over 10 years ago!!
 
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I was going to apply for a testing position this summer while I'm off but they're all in uncommutable locations. Annoying really.

Oh and for anyone thinking of going into testing - clicky.
 
Is games testing a good way to get into games programming? If a decent testing job came up I'd probably take it, but right now I'm not really looking for one. I'm hoping to get the programming internship with EA next summer, but it seems to be very highly competitive.
 
As an ex games tester all I will say is be prepared for some extremely boring days.
I worked as a games tester for Millennium Interactive many years ago (this was during the days of the Amiga etc).
I played James Pond for months and months and everytime you thought that was the end of it, that the game would surely soon be going gold then the next build would appear and back to the start you would go.

Most software houses do not expect a games tester to last more than a year.
If you get an interview be ready for the question on "Which direction do you want to move in with regards your career?"
Most software houses see a games tester position as purely a foot in the door.
 
Psyk said:
Is games testing a good way to get into games programming?
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Dunno but someone who worked at EA in QA when I was there had just graduated from Royal Holloway in CS and he managed to get in contact with people in development and within 2-3 weeks he was transfered from QA to some kind of development role.
 
Its the same as with any other company, jobs get posted internally first and then publicly if no one is interested. From what ive seen you just need to know basic programming and then they stick you in a course, depending on how well you do will determine whether or not you get a job :) (at least at my place)
 
I'm not saying which company i work for incase i leak information by accident it cant be traced back to me :p im QA zefan.
If games get released with bugs its because they were rushed out the door / needed to hit a deadline or the developers werent willing to work for free to finish off the game after getting their last paycheck. Actually there can be quite a few reasons... so dont always put buggy games down to testers as they have most probably pointed them out due to how much they have to play the game!
 
actually i think there was something every tester has to sign saying you wont discuss it anywhere for a certain amount of years.

I recognise the name Zefan
 
Ex Lionhead, EA and Codemasters tester here.

I actually enjoyed it and it didn't hinder my game playing what-so-ever. Good luck anyway! :D
 
I didn't know there were so many QA people on the forums :eek: :D

I'm QA, but not games, just business software. More lucrative, but I imagine the principles are the same in games testing. I'd recommend the OP goes into software testing, but business not entertainment.
 
melbourne720 said:
I'm QA, but not games, just business software. More lucrative, but I imagine the principles are the same in games testing. I'd recommend the OP goes into software testing, but business not entertainment.
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Well that's all well and good if he's out to make as much money as he can. But most people who want to work in the games industry aren't in it for the money, if they were they probably would be in a different industry.
 
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