Video Game Tester Salary
Video game testers make money with their hobby. How many hobbies do you know that pay $60,000 per year? If you love video games, you can make that much money too.
The best part about being a game tester is you don’t need to have a college degree. You don’t even need to be 18 years old. Video game designers are looking for people to thoroughly test their games before they release them to the public. A successful game release can make hundreds of millions of dollars. A flawed game’s bad reputation spreads quickly turning a potential goldmine into a bankruptcy. Game testing is one of the most important parts of game development.
The requirements are pretty straightforward. You must love playing games and you must have excellent attention to detail. You must also be able to meet deadlines.
There are several different scenarios that you might be presented with. The game company might send you a new game and ask you to play the game to a specific level. Then you will look for flaws on that level.
The flaws might be a place where the game hangs or crashes. If this is the case, you will want to document exactly what you did that led to the problem. You’ll want to note exactly where you were in the game and on the screen. What other characters or objects were on the screen at the same time. How did the crash occur? Can you duplicate it so you can report the exact sequence you went through to cause the problem.
This is the main thing game companies are looking for. They don’t want you to beat the game. They want you to identify the flaws so they can correct them before the game is released. By identifying and duplicating the problem, they can fix it faster. So the better you are at documentation, the more respect you will get.
You must be able to meet deadlines. Your input is worth nothing if its too late to correct the problems you identified. Miss a deadline and kiss your future as a game tester goodbye.
The best thing is there is no age or educational minimums. In many cases, game companies like someone who is younger to test their games. Why? The best tester is someone how is the same age who is in the games demographic. What does that mean? If the game’s main audience is 13 to 18, they will want testers in the age group who will have the same reaction timing and thought patterns as the game’s target audience. That only makes sense. Someone 35 wont be able to click those buttons as fast as someone who is only 14. A 14 year old may think it’s fun to run into all the other cars on the street: someone older and more conservative may not think to run over a policeman for fun.
To get a job in the video game industry you need to get your foot in the door and get your first assignment. Ask your friends if they know anyone who already works as a video game tester. This is the easy way. If you don’t know anyone in the industry, you’ll need to send in some applications.
Click Here! to get a job as a video game tester.
