The Life of a Game Tester

If you're looking at becoming a video game tester, you may wonder what your job will entail. The life of a game tester can be very fun, but it also requires some work. After all, you're not just playing video games; you're helping a video game company discover all the errors and the bugs in the game. You're not a player; you're actually a part of the game production process.

That's one aspect of the life of a video game tester that some people don't realize—you're not a player, you're a tester. This means you have to make certain you don't get caught up in the actual gameplay or the story. If you do, you may forget to look for errors or try to find bugs. This means you may have to go back and play through part of the game again, which can take up a lot of time. You may find yourself doing this a lot on the first few games you test, but don't worry, you'll eventually learn to switch  your focus from player to tester. Once you've got the hang of testing, you shouldn't have any trouble focusing on errors and bugs instead of gameplay.

Working From Home Game Tester

Another thing that one may not realize is part of the life of a game tester is keeping on task. Because you're working from home, the environment is very different from that of an office. You might find yourself easily distracted by other things, including the telephone, your spouse or children, your pets, house work…just about anything can be a distraction at home. This means you've got to stay focused.

You might also be tempted to put off your testing, especially if you don't like the game you're working on or if you don't want to write the reports. However, if you allow yourself to do this, you can easily fall behind on your testing and miss deadlines. Sticking to your deadlines is very important, so while your work schedule is very flexible and you can take off a day or two as you need, it's also important that you keep up with your game testing and don't let yourself get too distracted.

Another thing many potential game testers don't realize is how much writing they will need to do. Writing notes on the bugs they find, writing emails to the programmers and other people at the game company, and writing their final reports are all very important aspects of a video game tester's life. Often, emails and reports are the only way the tester communicates with the programmers. If the programmers can't recreate the bugs from your notes or don't find your notes particularly helpful, then they may not want you to test games for them any longer.

The life of a video game tester is a lot of fun, but it is also work. As long as you remember this and keep your focus, you'll do just fine.