First off, we shall have a look at precisely what it is a games tester needs to do in order to fulfil their job needs. Game developers are not just searching for people to play the games to see if they are enjoyable to play or not, the main role of a games tester to is play through levels, both finished and unfinished, and make a note of any bugs or mistakes which could have been missed by the programming team. They then have to produce accurate reports, detailing where the fault is, how it occurred, and if there were any other contributing factors which may have caused to the bug. At times games testing can be a bit dull, as you must test for as many states of circumstance within a level as possible. For example, let’s say we have a large level where the key character or hero of the game must jog across the bridge. The games tester will be required to test running over the bridge with all kinds of different items, and doing all types of different actions whilst crossing, to make sure no bugs arise as a result of this. So for example, the character might be able to jog across the bridge normally fine, but what happens if they run across with for example, a weapon drawn, or whilst casting a spell? They could fall through to their death. This kind of flaw obviously cannot be permitted in the final version of a game, so they need to be checked thoroughly before release.

Most Careers within games testing will entail simply that, testing the games, and then making reports on what has been found. However, in some cases, particularly when working for a smaller independent publisher, the games tester might have to be a more skilled individual, and take on a much bigger degree of responsibility. They could be asked to actually play through the game, and then manipulate the coding themselves, or fix the bugs themselves, rather than just making a report to be sent off. This tends to be truer of smaller publishers who simply do not have the funds available to pay people to do their games testing for them, so they must get people who are capable of doing multiple jobs.

So if you are currently searching for New careers, then here are some points to contemplate about games testing. It can be a very appealing job, as it means you are able to play games sometime before they are released to the general public. However, at times the job can be a bit dull, with levels that must be played through multiple times in order to make sure they work correctly.