About Jeffery Stevenson
Location: Austin, TX
Occupation: Database Consultant/Writer
Bio: Pop Syndicate's Creative Adviser is also the writer and letterer of the long-running twice weekly webcomic, Brat-halla (following the Norse gods during their elementary school days), which ran for a few years at Kevin Smith's MoviePoopShoot.com (and later, QuickStopEntertainment.com) and is currently hosted over at Graphic Smash. He was also the hired wordslinger for Jim Valentino's Task Force 1 from Shadowline/Image Comics.
To keep up with the rest of Jeff's insanity, feel free to check out his personal blog at Dark-n-Dam'd.
Posts: 36
More from this author
A question about becoming a video game tester...
I was flipping through the TV channels after my mom grounded me from playing games on my Xbox360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, cell phone, and the computer, and I caught a special about video game testing. They were having a blast! How can I do that for a living?
Leia O., Polis Massa, AZ
Dear Leia,
Wouldn't that be the life? Game controller in hand, sitting on your butt in front of a large screen TV. Month in and month out getting to play the same game and the same levels over-and-over-and-over until you start puking up polygonal figures and lines of code.
Ah, yes. That's the life. If (after that visual) you're still interested in pursuing a career as a quality assurance specialist of the creative variety, many universities offer courses covering this aspect of software development. Some even offer a quality assurance curriculum specializing in game development.
Let's take a look at a transcript from one of these classes to see what the lucky few full-time gamers go through to learn the craft of being a video game tester.
####
Mr. Walters: Welcome to Quality Assurance in Video Games 101. I'm your instructor, Mr. Walters. In this course, we'll discuss the methodologies for providing quality assurance throughout the entire video game software development lifecycle and supporting gaming systems released into production. I've been working in the industry for over a decade now on such projects as the Ultima series--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Woo!
Mr. Walters: Thank you. I've also worked on Tomb Raider and--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Woo! Lara kicks ass!
Mr. Walters: Ahem. And Starcraft--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Yeah!
Mr. Walters: And N--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: W...
Mr. Walters: Need--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: W...
Mr. Walters: All right. Enough introductions. Let's get started. Turn to page 7 of your textbooks and let's go over--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (raising hand): Ooo... ooo!
Mr. Walters: Yes, Mr... Thompson, is it?
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Hey, that's me!
Mr. Walters: Did you have a question, Mr. Thompson?
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (to another student): Check it. He knows my name already. It's like I'm famous or something. I--
Mr. Walters: Mr. Thompson! Do you have a question?
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Yeah. Well, I did, but I think I forgot it. No... wait... there it is. It was about video... games... and-- Oh yeah! When do we get to start playing all the cool video games?
Mr. Walters: Not until later in the course.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Oh, okay.
Mr. Walters: Now in Chapter One of your Quality Assurance textbooks, it covers the core principles of...
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (raising hand... again): Ooo... ooo!
Mr. Walters: Yes, Mr. Thompson.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: It's later.
Mr. Walters: I meant later in the course as in a class at a later date.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Oh, okay. I just thought we, ya know... we were gonna be playing games to... uhhh, test them out and such.
Mr. Walters: In good time. Now, where were we? Oh, right. The core principles of quality...
Athletic-looking Student with Football Jersey, Baseball Cap, and Calloused Thumbs (raising hand): Excuse me... sir?
Mr. Walters: Yes, Mr. Armstrong.
Athletic-looking Student with Football Jersey, Baseball Cap, and Calloused Thumbs: I'm with skinny here about playing games. That's the only reason I signed up for this course. I wanted to play games and maybe find some way to score a career doing it.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (high-fives Athletic-looking Student with Football Jersey, Baseball Cap, and Calloused Thumbs): Sweet!
Mr. Walters: There's more to testing software than just playing games. You need to know what to look for to ensure a quality product gets released with little to no known issues. You need to know how to communicate any issues found with the programmers, producers, or artists working on the project. You need to know how to handle regression testing to make sure potential fixes don't break other parts of the game. And that's just the basics.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: But don't you have to like... play games while you're doing all that?
Squirrelly-looking Student with Ginormous Braces and Calloused Thumbs (chanting): Games. Games. Games.
Students (chanting): Games. Games. Games. Games. Games.
Mr. Walters (sighing): Why the [censored] do I put myself through this same exact [censored] year after year?
Leia O., Polis Massa, AZ
Dear Leia,
Wouldn't that be the life? Game controller in hand, sitting on your butt in front of a large screen TV. Month in and month out getting to play the same game and the same levels over-and-over-and-over until you start puking up polygonal figures and lines of code.Ah, yes. That's the life. If (after that visual) you're still interested in pursuing a career as a quality assurance specialist of the creative variety, many universities offer courses covering this aspect of software development. Some even offer a quality assurance curriculum specializing in game development.
Let's take a look at a transcript from one of these classes to see what the lucky few full-time gamers go through to learn the craft of being a video game tester.
####
Mr. Walters: Welcome to Quality Assurance in Video Games 101. I'm your instructor, Mr. Walters. In this course, we'll discuss the methodologies for providing quality assurance throughout the entire video game software development lifecycle and supporting gaming systems released into production. I've been working in the industry for over a decade now on such projects as the Ultima series--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Woo!
Mr. Walters: Thank you. I've also worked on Tomb Raider and--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Woo! Lara kicks ass!
Mr. Walters: Ahem. And Starcraft--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Yeah!
Mr. Walters: And N--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: W...
Mr. Walters: Need--
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: W...
Mr. Walters: All right. Enough introductions. Let's get started. Turn to page 7 of your textbooks and let's go over--Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (raising hand): Ooo... ooo!
Mr. Walters: Yes, Mr... Thompson, is it?
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Hey, that's me!
Mr. Walters: Did you have a question, Mr. Thompson?
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (to another student): Check it. He knows my name already. It's like I'm famous or something. I--
Mr. Walters: Mr. Thompson! Do you have a question?
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Yeah. Well, I did, but I think I forgot it. No... wait... there it is. It was about video... games... and-- Oh yeah! When do we get to start playing all the cool video games?
Mr. Walters: Not until later in the course.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Oh, okay.
Mr. Walters: Now in Chapter One of your Quality Assurance textbooks, it covers the core principles of...
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (raising hand... again): Ooo... ooo!
Mr. Walters: Yes, Mr. Thompson.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: It's later.
Mr. Walters: I meant later in the course as in a class at a later date.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: Oh, okay. I just thought we, ya know... we were gonna be playing games to... uhhh, test them out and such.
Mr. Walters: In good time. Now, where were we? Oh, right. The core principles of quality...
Athletic-looking Student with Football Jersey, Baseball Cap, and Calloused Thumbs (raising hand): Excuse me... sir?
Mr. Walters: Yes, Mr. Armstrong.
Athletic-looking Student with Football Jersey, Baseball Cap, and Calloused Thumbs: I'm with skinny here about playing games. That's the only reason I signed up for this course. I wanted to play games and maybe find some way to score a career doing it.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs (high-fives Athletic-looking Student with Football Jersey, Baseball Cap, and Calloused Thumbs): Sweet!
Mr. Walters: There's more to testing software than just playing games. You need to know what to look for to ensure a quality product gets released with little to no known issues. You need to know how to communicate any issues found with the programmers, producers, or artists working on the project. You need to know how to handle regression testing to make sure potential fixes don't break other parts of the game. And that's just the basics.
Scarecrow-looking Student with Dark Circles Under Eyes and Calloused Thumbs: But don't you have to like... play games while you're doing all that?Squirrelly-looking Student with Ginormous Braces and Calloused Thumbs (chanting): Games. Games. Games.
Students (chanting): Games. Games. Games. Games. Games.
Mr. Walters (sighing): Why the [censored] do I put myself through this same exact [censored] year after year?
####
Got a question about breaking in for The Creative Adviser? Ask away! It might even get answered!
All material in The Creative Adviser is fictitious and intended solely for the purpose of entertainment. Names are fabricated and any similarity to real people or places is purely coincidental except in those cases where public figures are being satirized.
Syndicate this story
Post a Comment