Guide to become a game tester

I'm sure of that. You get the same exact service, for the same exact price! You have a pretty important decision to make right now Do you want to wake up every morning to find sick new games and fat paychecks in your mailbox? Knowing that you get to spend the day "paying the bills" doing something you totally love? Or do you want to continue being harassed and ridiculed for "spending too much time on those stupid little games" and "going nowhere in life" by everyone you know?

I understand that I'm getting full lifetime access to ALL of the guides, step-by-step tutorials and daily-updated databases - compiled over the past 8 years of PURE game testing experience. A membership to Become A Game Tester can be ordered anytime! Even if it is 2 a. I read your guide, followed the steps and got accepted for my first gig in 6 days flat!!

Matthew Roberts, Queensland, Australia Date:. Companies didn't have independent game testers, and I had to get all the cuts and bruises learning about the industry the hard way, just like you did. Heck - I picked up a few tips in productivity and how to get companies to start calling ME to test their games.. Simply amazing! Hi, I just wanted to say thank you! Thankyou so much!! I'm only 16! Hey Matthew - just wanted to email you and tell you I got my first game testing job all thanks to you!!

Id really like to test for bethesda. Their games always seem to keep me playing. Any advice on how to get that started? Bethesda is one of the Big Boys in the game industry though, so it would be hard to get a job there as a beginner. Hi i am from Malaysia. I would like to know how to start my career on this sector cuz im very very raw currently.

Check out the Quest for Your Career series. Also, I go in depth in my ebook on starting your career in video games. I am very passionate about gaming and enjoy searching a game for bugs and glitches and would love to eventually get myself into the bigger gaming industry and see this as a great start. What should I do? There are many testing jobs available, but you may need to search outside of your home town or home state.

Most of the testing jobs are centered in the areas where there are lots of game studios like Austin, LA, San Francisco, and Seattle. You may need to broaden your search.

I am a 8th grading. I am looking for a high school in NYC for either Video game programming, Video game testing, or both. If you find out, please come back to let us know! In the meantime, no matter which high school you attend, you can always take game programming classes online or learn from books, videos or tutorials. To play around with Unity and make little parts of a crappy game. While playing for instance skyrim I look for glitches and bugs I can profit from. And even more I am interested in game testing.

Are there any major or minor gaming companies who provide this for people in my age? For like summer Jobs? Please answer me soon, thanks, Rasmus. You should start there, maybe explore the list of top game design colleges for summer programs.

Hey ther Im from dominican republic , can i be a video game tester? I love games like resident evil. Castlevania and many fps. And as you can see i speek english hahha also german , french and ofcourse spanish. I live on dominican republic but i can travel to usa and also would like to know if there is some way to work from home as a tester. Greatings : carlos. Hi Carlos, your English is great! You might even check to see whether there are any job listings for remote work on sites like oDesk.

I love action games like call of duty and other war games. I am in high school what specific major do I need to persue to garenteen a good paying job as a QA? Also what particular location do I need to go to get the best job.

Hi Celina, please understand that QA is not the highest paying job in the game industry. Look here for the QA salaries. Read about some of the other video game careers here. So start by searching local job boards or some online job boards like Indeed. Ash, you should check out the article on the top game design schools. You might find one there that you like. Hello, sir. I am a young student going into his first year of college next fall. Although I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering its a well paying job source , I have alot of interest in video game design.

I am a bit inexperienced with terms, but I would eventually like to pursue a field of design in which I could help create worlds and sandboxes for games.

Whether it be the single player cinematics of worlds like Skyrim or the Multiplayer arenas of Halo. Using programs to 3D model objects and areas was a thrill! Your article addresses becoming a videogame tester as an entry level position. What advice could you lend to me for a goal that I cannot even properly name yet? Also, most of those big cities are not in the Michigan area, so I worry for my chances of getting a job anytime soon….

It was a good read and very imformational. It sounds like the jobs you might be interested in would be Level Designer , or maybe Environment Artist. Both of those jobs work with 3D modeling game levels. As to living in Michigan, most people apply to any job they want anywhere in the country, and then move there if they can. Some companies will even give you some money to help pay for the moving expense if you ask them for it. Depending on which one attracts you the most. Check out my article on the different jobs in the game industry , and see whether one of those sounds interesting, then work in that direction.

Those are great questions, Kevin. Look at this article for a list of the top game schools in the US. Hi, my name is Danny, from Houston,Texas. I currently have a ps3, ps4, and Touchscreen all in one computer not good for gaming though.

Any tips to help me out? Hi Danny, depending on where you live, there may be job openings for entry-level game testers with no prior experience.

Often times, they only require that you graduated high school and have experience with games. Hi jason. Thank you. Hi Cody, you should start by searching for some game testing jobs in your area to see what qualifications they want. When a game is in development, there are many different bugs that are often easy to find. Usually things like, what do you do to make the bug happen?

What area of the game is it in? I have always wanted to be a tester, i find my self buyin a game like Call of Duty and not even trying to play the game but looking for glitches and mistakes that everyone else missed.

I have been playing games for a long time. Especially first person shooters. I looked at the requirements for working at Activision.

As call of duty is my favorite game, and I have a lot of experience playing that game. If I meet pretty much all the requirements, do you think theres any chance they would hire me if I just finished high school?

Be sure to read the articles on interviewing — and, good luck! I finished High-school in June this year. Would you happen to know resources that would help me in my search? If you check that out and still have questions, let me know.

I am thinking about changing my major into something like programming, but I never took a class in high school that was computer oriented and such. Before you change your major, I think you should try taking an online programming class to see if you like programming. If you find out that programming is interesting for you once you spend a few hours learning it, then you might consider changing your major. And which type of programming language must be important.

Hi there My name is Mitchell i am 15 years old and was wanting to know if there is an Xbox game tester job opening? I searched long and hard where to go to apply for a game tester. I want to get paid for something i love to do. I love to play video games alot. I went to the search bar and it kept sending me to sites that states to pay to become a member so they can get me out that the companies that are looking for game testers but it just seemed alil iffy for me to provide them info about me and my finances.

I just want to know where do i go to apply for it because i known a guy once who was doing it and making good money doing it too. You do not need to pay to find jobs, you can the on the normal job boards — you just need to know what to look for.

When someone starts working as a tester to start a career in game testing, how often does someone start at an age older than 25? And if I had the chance to get schooling in design or programming, how long does it usually take for a company like sucker punch, EA, ubisoft, treyarch, and there are others that I like to pick someone up out of school and give them a shot? In addition to that, are there a wide variety of jobs in the gaming industry, or not? From reading credits of games that I finish and feel accomplished I see all the names of all these different positions and just wonder if this is a career path that has no limits?

Hi Dennis — yes, there are a lot of different jobs in the game industry. Check out the article on the various video game jobs. I read through many of these comments and noticed that many of the questions are from younger and eager future designers who hopefully have a fantastic career laid before them. However, I am 24 years of age and have struggled to find a way to break into the gaming industry in Arizona.

I am fluent in a handful of coding languages with experience and will be concluding my Associates program for Software Development in in the next few months but none of that means much if there is no ground to find my footing on. The kicker is, I cannot leave this state without having a solid foundation laid out in another state, but I do not want that to stop me from gaining professional experience in the Game Dev industry. Game testing is a valid option absolutely, but do you have any advice on how a guy like me can make that transition so I can get my hands in the pie?

Then once you graduate, you can apply to jobs in other cities — just be prepared to move to a new city if you get a job offer. I wish you luck! What are you thought about must-read books that have been published for a game tester? What should a QA Lead know before leading? Are there any specific books for QA Leads to increase their knowledge? Both of which I lack. I have been playing games on the pc all the way back to the commodore Every site I have looked at all they want to do is sell me a book on how to be a tester.

I have always liked gaming and computers and I am interested in becoming a QA software tester, but not necessarily in the gaming industry. I was wondering your opinion on starting off as a game tester to gain experience in QA testing, and the relationship in testing other programs and software for other companies, not centered around gaming.

Hey Jason,great article again I have looked for game tester job part time in many sites,companies,etc and all of them have one thing in common:they need testing experience.

So if you see a job and it asks for under a year of experience, you should go ahead and apply for the job anyway. Hi I was just wandering what does it take to be a game tester, and If I did go to College what kind of degree would be better for me to get Hired.

Also having a perspective mind of Stuff better, and being logical about stuff Good too. Also lets say I live no where close to where any of the Game complains are. What would I do then. Or whichever equivalents your school might offer. I have been a gamer all my life I love games if someone I know brings up a topic about games I can talk for hours about games. It would take me days to complete a game when I was young but now I can complete some games in a day or two.

My quickest game to complete was home front in four hours I thought it was the easiest game I ever played. Any advice how I can become a games tester. Then, just apply! I am 13 going to fourteen in 4 months. I would really love this job when I am Check it out! Like i said hopeful you have some time because my interview is due in a week, no pressure. Good luck on your report! You should also check out my interview with a game qa tester.

What do you think? Hi Samuel, video game tester and video game designer are 2 very different jobs. Or look in the credits of any game MobyGames.

Hello, my name is Aaron and I have been looking into this field for quite sometime. I would love to get into the gaming industry, this is my passion. I just would like some insight into this field. Hi I just wanted to say I know gaming world is not easy but work job isnt I love playing game I love writing I love find patches in every game I play and I usually not that easy… but I tend to have fun with it im not going to say im the best or anything like that but im pretty good at what I do im barely 18 and I love to work.

It walks you thorough the basics of game testing, and then how to find jobs, apply, and interview. I have found bugs on my own and done a lot of the things you said that you would have to do as a game tester like writing a report, do you have to be good with code and things like that to make a job?. Hi John, there are many game studios in Canada so you should be able to find some open jobs to apply for. There are many game studios in Canada, especially around Montreal, Vancouver and Quebec, so you could start looking for jobs in those cities by searching online.

If you need to know the basics of game testing and how to find jobs, I teach just about everything in my book on becoming a game tester. I just love games, exploiting them and getting advance of any bug. The real problem is, in fact, being Italian. Where to start? My mother language is commonly not considered for translations, nor I can be useful for customer service.

It would be good to start from home, as I said I work with computers and as an enthusiast, my rig is quite good for testing games. Hi Mario, there actually are several game companies in Italy — check out this helpful list of Italian game studios at gamedevmap. If you eventually want to live abroad, you could start out at an Italian studio and then apply for jobs in a different country with more game dev opportunities such as England or France later on, after you get some professional experience.

Hi Sam, getting a job as a game tester may not be as far away as you think. Hi Arun, most QA jobs are full-time jobs. But you could possibly learn programming and get a degree in the evening and weekends from schools that offer continuing education or adult-learning certificates.

For example I learned programming and made my first game demo while I was a tester, and then I completed a 1-year game development certificate course while I was working full time as a game designer. Many game developers start with a CS degree, so that may be a good path for you. Hi Jason I just love playing video games and I play it since I was small.

And do we get a good salary and all? Hi, there, my name is Robert. Am I wrong? I also have no college degree. Is a game tester the best way to start, or trying to a make phone game, if I want to be a game designer? Or should I go to a college? Hi i lobe playing game i am 13 years old now and i want to do somthing in game industry anything game tester, etc but which i can do online.

Usually I do not learn article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to try and do so! Your writing style has been surprised me. My question is, could I get a job as a game tester from my country?

I recently interviewed a guy that told me he was working as a game tester along with 4 more people. Could I work as a tester from my country?

Thanks a lot! Maybe look for non-game testing jobs to start out with, since many of the skills you learn will transfer to video games later on. Look here for an overview of game tester salaries.

I was searching for job like this.. Now, let me introduce myself.. A bit of story from me, I only had a laptop with bad specs, but i always want to play games.

So i setting my pc until i can play a games work on 60fps, but from that, i got some experience especially on focus when playing a games. One thing that important to be a game tester is focusing to search any bugs on games. The report must be detailed, so the programmer of the games can fix the bugs from the tester found.

Please reply this message Mr. Jason, i just want to get job that same as my hobby.. Hello Zulfikar, you are on the right track about what game testers do. Once you learn the basics, you can search for entry-level testing jobs and send in your application. Hi Daniel — video games are super fun! And nobody will pay you for your ideas, because everybody has good game ideas! The hard part and the part you could get paid for is to make the games, not just coming up with ideas.

Luckily, you can learn those skills, you can learn how to make games. Start by figuring out what kind of game job you might want like Programmer, Artist, or Designer and then research and start learning how to do it. Check out my articles about the different game jobs for starters. It will take some work, but if you love games and want to make them for a living, then it will be worth the effort. You can do it! While this overwhelmingly looks like a gimmick, from your picture, Jason, to the e-book, this site has a lot of information and I hope it is true.

To be honest, I never heard of Griptonite Games until just now. Could you ease my skepticism here? Or by all my articles on interviewing at game companies , based on many years of experience as a hiring manager?

And here they all are, all of them, for free. Take some time, put in some work, and gather as much info as possible from multiple sources. Just do me one favor: Next time you find somebody willing to spend their own time and energy to help a complete stranger like yourself, please try to have better manners. I had no intent to offend but I figured I would just be blunt and there was no point in sugar-coating. I had clicked on some ebooks of yours and saw they cost money, linked in some of your replies.

This coupled with your smiling face beside it I immediately thought it was a scam. My mistake, I apologize for labeling you a gimmick and thank you for this reply. There are just too many people out to get you these days. If you think about it, the rise of the video game industry could be a good way for people to prey on kids these days who have dreams of being a game developer simply because they enjoy video games.

Now I am honestly curious why you would put so much of your time and effort into this. I had once considered this career, as playing video games is what I do with a lot of my free time okay most but I figured there would be so many kids wanting in on this I would have 0 chance. In games you play, look for glitches and errors. When you find them, document them thoroughly — when it happens, how it affect play, and if you can, list possible fixes for the problem.

Then report these issues to the company that publishes the game. Your correspondence over this issue could help give you a contact person in that studio. And this could get your foot in the door of that company. Thank you for the suggestion, Frank, but sending unsolicited bug reports to a video game company is unlikely to get you hired. Hi Jason, I seem to find myself in a predicament. Currently I am moving on to my senior year at Penn State and I need a new major. My next question is about finding an entry-level position that I can learn on the job.

I used your job search tool that you provided and most jobs seemed to require previous experience, any suggestions there? Penn state does offer certificates in game design, should I pursue that? Since your school offers a certificate, that could be a convenient way to find out whether you like game design and are good at it.

I really appreciate the info this has! Do you know you can get paid for using Facebook, Twitter, Istagram, Youtube and more. Click the image below to learn more. Now in this chapter, I am going to share valuable information with you that will help you in establishing yourself as a gaming expert. This is a very important part of a guide so make sure you read it till the end and also follow its advice.

It takes time to get your name and reviews reach to the right people and the right websites. This part of this guide will show you how to become a game tester by establishing yourself as a gaming expert so that it will make your resume stronger and stand out among your competition. The first area where you can show your worth is writing gaming reviews for the website. Many gaming websites accept reviews and also give credit to the reviewer.

You can start writing reviews of these boxing games and submit it to top sites. May be some of them will agree to post in their site. However, before submitting your reviews to these websites, you have to improve your writing skills, and you have to be fair in rating the game so that website admins and developers know what you are talking about.

You can start by re-writing already published game reviews. However, make sure your articles are wordly completely different but deliver the same point of view. Or, you can also write from a different point of view — this means instead of liking the game, you hate it. Either way, you have to start writing gaming reviews and ready to submit them. When your gaming reviews start getting accepted by the website admins or moderators, then you have to prepare yourself for applying as a volunteer.

You have to work without pay. Many people are ready to do these jobs in their part-time to improve their experience and make resume stronger. First, you have to collect good sources of sites where you can submit your reviews. You have to get your review published in at least four sites. This may sound a lot — but the better, the quicker you get it done, the higher the chances you will have to secure a job as a game reviewer.

When you gain some experience in game reviews, then you have to start writing a review on some big Xbox one games and also apply as a volunteer reviewer.

This way many administrators will take you seriously and glad to have you as a reviewer. When you work with bigger sites, employers will see you have enough gaming experience and able to write about games, and they will know you have the drive to test games completely.

Writing a blog is also one of the great ways to establish yourself as a gaming expert. A blog can contain both reviews and articles.

It is a lot easier to set up your own blog or you can pay for the domain related to gaming and setup blog there. This will help you to share your own opinion about the game and you can run it as you like. This way gamers will understand what you are talking about and they start trusting your information. Gaming blog is one of the best ways to put your written work on the internet, and it is a good step towards becoming a gaming expert. As you continue writing reviews about different games, it is now the right time to create articles and give out helpful tips and tricks about games you like.

For example, if you like a review for games on a site, then you can search on the forum to see what question gamers are asking and then research on it and create an article to answer their question in a detailed way. Make sure you check out some sites to get an idea about how a good article looks like. It is very important to write an article on gaming topics you are familiar with.

Find a Good Topic — Take time to find out a good topic to write. Start by searching the gaming forum and analyze what gamers want to know. Then, you have to research the question and come up with a detailed answer that can help gamers. Read also: Product Designer vs. Game testers may earn more based on their experience and the size of the company. Some large companies may require their testers to work from an office, where they provided the console and tools needed to test the games.

Most game testing roles are work-from-home opportunities where the tester may invest their own game consoles and equipment required to test the game. A specialised degree in game design or development can also help game testers advance their careers and earn more. You may not require a college degree to become a game tester, but the requirements vary from firm to firm. Most game development companies do require their testers to have the following skills:. A certification can help you develop advanced skills and may help you earn a competitive role.

Recommended certifications or degrees to become an eligible game testing candidate in any firm may include:. These are several benefits of being a video game tester. Some benefits of a game tester in almost any firm include:. The period between the beta version of a game and the final, published version of a game could take years, subject to the length and complexity of the game.

As a game tester, you can have the rare chance to experience games and in-game narratives much before the rest of the world. This can be a precious experience for games that have heavy demand or very popular games whose release is long-awaited. A video game testing career is one of the fastest ways to enter the game development industry. It is a rigorous job that can get intense with multiple reviews and repeat gameplay, but the role lets you understand the minute details of the game development industry.

Using your experience as a game tester, you could enter the industry as a programmer with your favourite gaming firm. You could even develop and design your own independently produced games. Game testing is a relatively flexible job, which may let you work from home and at your own pace. You can treat the job as an additional source of income and take on part-time jobs in other industries.