| #ffffff;" /> | | | | with video? Does player speech sync with mouth |
| An important step towards getting hired for all | | | | movements? Are sound effects in sync with |
| the game testing jobs you want is to become a | | | | player action? Does the game save to disk, if |
| really a great video game tester – the | | | | designed to? Is the game compatible with all |
| star of the team, or at least co-star. Achieving | | | | supported operating systems? These are just a |
| that level of competency involves moving beyond | | | | few of the high-level areas one will want to |
| the what - finding bugs - to the how. How, | | | | investigate. |
| exactly does one uncover flaws in the game? | | | | Getting down to the nitty-gritty, one should design |
| Ultimately, most bugs will fall into two categories - | | | | a matrix that covers all major elements of the |
| either design and gameplay bugs, or code bugs. | | | | game and integration, then break each of those |
| Understanding that you aren't simply testing a | | | | areas down further. As an example, consider item |
| video game, but rather, are testing software, will | | | | storage. What are the various means of acquiring |
| help a great deal in finding and isolating bugs to | | | | items? Buying, finding, looting, and trading are the |
| hand off to the developers to fix. There are | | | | major ones; don't forget quest rewards. Once |
| universal principles to the discipline of testing | | | | acquired, do they stay in storage upon exiting the |
| software, and when applied to testing video | | | | game and then returning? Can you trade with |
| games, understanding these fundamentals will | | | | other players? If you drop it, does it stay |
| skyrocket your bug count - and your salary. You | | | | dropped? Can you sell items that you found? |
| will then find employers begging to hire you, and | | | | Made? Traded? Stole? As you can see, the |
| will have all the game testing jobs you could | | | | possibilities are truly endless. |
| possibly want. | | | | Game testing jobs consist of considering these |
| Software testing is ALL about finding bugs - the | | | | details and possibilities. The strategy to deal with |
| more the merrier, the earlier, the better. "File bugs | | | | such a huge number of possibilities is to build a |
| early and often" is a great philosophy to bring to | | | | test case matrix based on how often a given |
| the table, as the earlier the bugs are filed in the | | | | scenario or test case is likely to happen. One then |
| development process, the easier and cheaper it is | | | | categorizes the individual test cases and scenarios |
| to fix them. But as with so many things, what is | | | | based on priority: P0, P1, P2, etc. So obviously, |
| easy in theory is more difficult in practice - it isn't | | | | buying and selling an item and ensuring it stays in |
| until all the code is hooked together, "integrated", | | | | storage are pretty essential functions to the |
| that end-to-end testing of the game and | | | | game - these would be P0. Being able to sell a |
| gameplay is possible. So most game testing jobs | | | | quest item you stole from a looted corpse, less |
| are advertised in the alpha and beta release | | | | so - say, a P1. |
| cycles - but the closer one starts in the alpha | | | | These are just a few examples of applying basic |
| phase, the better. | | | | principles of software testing to video game |
| At this stage in the game (pun intended), it really | | | | testing. Applying these principles will drastically |
| pays off to perform what is called integration | | | | explode your bug count, making you stand head |
| testing. Do all the major elements of the game | | | | and shoulders above your typical video game |
| integrate well together? Or is sound out-of-sync | | | | testing peers. |