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TheTester
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I
t’s a common question
we get asked: You
get paid to play
video games? Well,
theoretically we get paid
to write about them. Such
is the demand of other
aspects of the job that all
the playing we need to do
is done in our own time, and
much of that time is spent on
games we probably wouldn’t
have played as a consumer.
The same can be said for a video
games tester. On paper it sounds like
a dream job: rock up to the office with
your sandwiches and a water bottle,
pull on the Uggs, settle into a comfy
couch and get paid to play games –
oh, and catch the occasional bug. But
imagine sitting at a desk playing the
same part of a level for days on end,
searching continuously for faults. Does
that still sound like fun?
Olivier Robin knows a thing or two
about games testing. He joined the
industry back in 1991 as an assistant
producer for Infogrames France, before
establishing the internal QA (quality
assurance) at Infogrames Europe,
where he managed the department
until 2003. Over the next six years,
Robin worked as a QA project manager
for various companies throughout
Europe before settling at Namco Bandai
Games Europe (NBGE), where he
currently oversees QA in France.
While there is no specific
qualification for entry into a games
testing role, an understanding of some
programming and gaming experience
is beneficial; the job is notoriously
underpaid and extremely stressful, but
many testers use the role as a gateway
into the development industry. Testers
must also be proficient gamers in
order to play the game at the highest
difficulty levels.
“In order to be successful as a
games tester, you have to able to stay
focused and apply methods without
‘playing’ or being bored,” says Robin.
“It’s easy at the beginning of a project,
but when a tester works full time on
a project for six months, it becomes
less fun for him. This is where we find
‘senior’ and strong testers.
“We mainly want the testers to
have experience in QA methods and
usual QA practices. We need to work
with trained testers who know
the Hardware Manufacturers’
Standards (HMS), and can detect
non-obvious issues. Testers must
be able to follow test plans, but
also ‘feel’ bugs. They must also
be able to speak and write
English.”
Robin says that the
majority of today’s games
testing undertaken by
NBGE is outsourced to
external testers primarily
located in India, where
reliable relationships are
built up over a number of
years.
Where the testing process actually
commences on a Namco Bandai
title depends on where the game is
developed.
“We mainly start on Beta stage if
the game has previously been tested
in Japan first,” Robin notes. “If we
work on a European production game,
we will start some preliminary tests
from Alpha stage. Once the game has
been released, we are also in charge of
testing patches and DLC packs.
“When we begin working on a game
we are looking for major bugs which
violate HMS compliance standards,
as well as all important functionality
bugs which can damage the end-user
experience or decrease the level of fun
and quality.
“All bugs are listed in a database,
checked by a QA project manager,
and sent to the developers for fixing.
If developers are reluctant to fix, we
discuss it with them. Sometimes it’s
better to waive the bug, rather than
creating more issues with one unique
fix. Sometimes we push to have the
bug fixed if we consider it to be really
bad for the player.”
The testing process involves
everything from partial and full
playthroughs, to checking the printed
materials for the box and providing
videos for the various rating boards
across the globe. The length of an
assignment can also vary.
“The time spent on projects can
differ and can take anywhere between
eight weeks to more than a year if
we include all the testing that has to
be done on patches, DLC and all the
additional content that a publisher
decides to implement,” explains Robin.
“Consequently, our teams can vary
from anywhere between four testers to
upwards of 25.”
We ask Robin how they charge for
the work conducted by testers. Is it by
contract? An hourly rate?
“Actually, we are charged with an
hourly rate by our testing provider. This
is negotiated via a yearly contract and
an agreement on how many hours we’ll
spend in 12 months.”
Communication is a vital skill as a
games tester. All faults found during
testing are required to be catalogued
and accurately conveyed to the client.
Robin identifies this as the key element
in the working relationship and the one
that can invariably cause the testers,
and not just the developers, problems.
“There is a real difficulty in getting
information in general [from the
developer]. A lack of information
regarding the design docs and game
behaviour can cause untold problems.
“Developers have a lot of tasks to
perform and don’t always have time
to update the design docs created at
the very beginning of a project. So,
for many bugs, testers have to ensure
what they have found and identified is a
real bug, or not one ‘by design’.”
Inevitably the final part of the
development cycle is where the
majority of the testing is done, and
Robin says the key is recognising when
this peak period is about to begin.
“Most of the time we can identify
when we’re about to get busy, so it’s
not too difficult to handle and testing
providers are used to it.
“But we really try and push to start
testing as early as possible, in order to
have more time to test... which also
means more time for the developers to
fix the bugs.
“It can be high-pressure and the
period at the end of the game is not for
the faint-hearted. We must deal with
any delays that may have happened in
previous stages, and so it’s up to us to
catch up the time lost before. It often
means double shifts and weekend
testing. But we’re used to it.”
Olivier Robin