Become A Video Game Tester – I Did 25 Years Ago

How would you like to become a video game tester? If you were now a tester this would be the busiest time of the year for you. With the holiday season just around the corner, I personally know from experience that video game testers in all of the big video game companies are working around the clock to get the games out to production.

I have spent the last 25 years in the video game industry. I got into the industry as a video game tester back when the first Nintendo, the NES was released in the United States. One thing I have learned over the years, if you want to get into the video game industry and you do not have a college degree or experience, the best way is to become a tester.

FROM TESTER TO QA MANAGER

After about five years of being a video game tester I became a QA Manager of a testing department of 4 testers. QA stands for Quality Assurance, just in case you were wondering.

We tested all of the Simpson’s, Ren & Stimpy, and Home Alone video games for the Nintendo (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES) and Game Boy video game systems. We also tested other games for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear.

Then the video game company I worked for got even bigger and they bought out a smaller company. The newly bought company had 8 video games that were close to being Alpha. What does Alpha mean? When a video game is at the Alpha stage it means that it is feature complete but not everything may be fully hooked up and working.

When these games became pre-Beta I had to double the size of the testing department to handle these 8 games plus the 6 games we already had in testing. So I was now managing a department of eight testers testing 14 games every day 6 days a week for 3 months straight. I had to rotate schedules of my 8 testers so that there would always be 4 on and 4 off. I did this so I wouldn't burn them out, which can easily happen to a video game tester.

I am extremely picky when it comes to hiring a new tester. Being a good video game player is not an important qualification to become a tester. Long story short, I was able to assemble a testing department that Nintendo rated as one of the 10 best Nintendo licensee testing departments. When I heard that it made me feel real proud because I knew my managing skills were paying off big time.

I found out that being a QA manager had its advantages over just being a manager of testers. If you are someone who really likes to play video games, have you ever thought to yourself that you would like to design a video game?

Well as a QA manager you can get this opportunity. Actually the only time a video game tester can get the opportunity to do video game design is when they are a QA manager and/or when the QA manager enlists your help in doing some minor design features.

Another great perk to being a QA manager was that I got to travel with the company to all of the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) conventions and to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), all expenses paid. That was quite sweet! The reason I got to go was so I could work the booth and demonstrate the games if anyone had any questions or wanted to see how it played.

FROM QA MANAGER TO PRODUCER

Right around 1999 to 2000 I switched to another company that had heard of the great job I had done at the previous company. I thought they wanted me to start up a video game testing department for them but instead they wanted me to be their new Producer. Wow! I was floored by that promotion.

The majority of big video game companies always promote QA Managers to Producer. Why is this you ask? The reason for this is because producers are responsible for much of the game design and no one can design a fun video game better than someone who plays video games.

If you were to ask the majority of video game producers and designers who are not programmers, they will all tell you that they started out in the industry as a tester. This is why entering the industry as a tester is a good way to lead up to being a designer.

Think about it. You spend 5-7 years as a tester, then lead tester, and then QA manager, while all that time playing video games. If you were the owner of a video game company, who would you want to design a real fun game? A video game tester, because they know what it takes for a game to be fun.

EXPERIENCE PAYS OFF

I have tested well over 250 video games, managed a very successful testing department, and produced and designed video games. I got a chance to design the first three levels of a video game called Megas XLR for the Cartoon Network’s Power Play Games website. This was based off the TV series of the same name. I was also asked to design some games for the ESPN Arcade website.

My last big job in the video game industry was last year when I was responsible for the content testing of 50+ video games within a free iPhone gaming app, for Nickelodeon Addicting Games. One of the VPs of that company I had worked for many years ago and instead of having his internal testing department handle the testing of the game content, he contacted me and offered me the job. Of course I took him up on his offer especially when he told me that I could work from home. SWEET!!!

Now that I’m not doing as much work within the video game industry, I am teaching people on how they can become a successful video game tester. If you should ever want to get into the video game industry, without a doubt being a video game tester is the best way to get your foot in the door.