Quality Assurance Game Tester

There are several different types of video game testing jobs out there. The beta testers work to discover all of the bugs in a game and tell the game programmers how to duplicate these bugs. Then the programmers go about fixing them. Another type of game tester is a quality assurance game tester. These testers don’t necessarily look for bugs, although that is part of their job.

Quality Assurance Testing

As a quality assurance game tester, you would test the game after the beta testers have completed their work and all or most of the bugs have been fixed. Your job is to go through the game and make certain that it meets all of the standards set by the company. This includes checking on things that the beta testers may have overlooked. Some things quality assurance testers look for are spelling and grammar errors and  color errors. They also deal with the game’s story, if there is one. Are there any plot holes in the story? Are characters presented in a consistent manner?

Genre Is Important

In some games, quality assurance testers have more work than in others. In role playing games, for example, quality assurance includes checking all the dialogue and storyline for inconsistencies, which can take quite some time. In fighting games, the focus may be more on how easy it is to execute certain moves and on how fluid the characters move. Checking the realism of the backgrounds and the way graphics look can also be important.

Working as a Quality Assurance Tester

Unlike beta testers, most quality assurance testers work full time for a game company. They generally work out of an office and are part of a team instead of working independently. This is because quality assurance is less of simply playing a game looking for errors and more of a process that involves making certain the game is as good as it can be.