Five Myths About Game Testing

 

If you read about game testing on the Internet, you probably see a lot of promises that sound pretty good. Huge paychecks, lots of off time and the ability to work at home while playing the hottest new games for free – sounds like a pretty sweet gig, huh? Unfortunately, while game testing is a great career field with a number of opportunities for advancement, most of those promises are at best misleading. Here are the five most common myths about game testing and what you’ll really find if you get hired for a job by a developer.

1. You Can Work Whenever You Want – While some game testers are given a little leeway to work at home, most work in the office, on a schedule. Sometimes that schedule is incredibly tight, requiring you to spend hours each day in the office and when deadlines arrive, you might work 60-80 hours a week.
2. You’ll Make a Lot of Money – The pay isn’t bad, but you certainly won’t make $60,000 as a starting game tester. When those numbers are quoted, they refer to lead tester jobs and programming positions that you can move into after you have proven yourself as a good tester. For now, expect hourly pay or a low salary with limited benefits. At first game testing is entry level work and you’ll get paid accordingly.
3. You Play New Games Before Release - Technically, this is true, but not like you think. While you do play games pre-release, you don’t really “play” them so much as operate them. A game tester never gets to enjoy a game because they might spend 12 hours walking in carefully measured grids or clicking through menus to make sure the game actually works as it’s supposed to.
4. You Can Give Ideas to the Developers – Never, ever do this. Your bug reports will be solely for describing a bug and how to recreate it. Ideas are not for testers. In fact, most programmers are not even listened to for their ideas. Eventually, you might prove yourself, but the developers don’t want the ideas from a game tester.
5. You Can Get Hired Easily – Finding game testing jobs is hard, so if you find them, you’re probably a few steps ahead of your competition, but it’s not easy to land one. Education, experience and confidence will get you there. Take your interview seriously, too. Just because you heard that the developer is relaxed doesn’t mean you can show up in jeans and a t-shirt for an interview.

Game testing is a lot of fun and a great way to move into other, higher paying careers in game development. Take it seriously and work your way up and you’ll be at the top before you know it.

Make sure you get it right and don’t make any wrong assumptions about game testing. Check out Beta Gaming Testers today for everything you’ll need to know about the field before you try to land your first job. CLICK HERE