The Game Industry - Part 1: The QA
Greetings,
After Liar came to #earthbound crying, sobbing and probably full of self-inflicted scars due to the lack of articles, I though I could start sharing some of my insightful experiences.
For those of you that don't know me (everyone), I am currently a hired Games Programmer in a semi-small company in Quebec, where we make cellphone and other casual games (as well as that one DS/GBA Shamu game that they now give for free with any games you buy ¬_¬.) As well, I though that I'd mention that even though I studied in an English college, I'm French, therefore, if you find my sentence structure to be bizarre, then I shall flash my "I'm French" trumpcard.
Over the course of the next few articles, I plan to hopefully break some dreams as well as creating some (and rant a while too.) And after that...well we shall see.
Without further incoherent rambling, here is Part 1: The QA
PART 1: THE QA
"When I grow up, I want to test games and play all day long!"
Avast, have ye not heard that too many times? Do you still believe that this is true, that the QA, which stands for Quality Assurance by the way, not Play Games All Day (albeit the two have the same intonation,) play games and enjoy it?
"What do they do then?"
Judging from our cellphone games, our bugbase ends up with 300-800 bugs when the project is over, and this is for a small 64K cellphone game that spanned for about 3-5 months. You do not play a fully finished game; you play pre-alpha, alpha, beta games that have features not always finished. You try the game and...WHAM it crashes (a crash in Java actually makes that sound if you have your speakers up, really.) What do you do? Enter "It crashed" in the bugbase? Ohh very very no ¬_¬. You try to reproduce it a couple of times, and explain how it ends up crashing. Obviously the fun comes in, if the bug is hard to reproduce.
"But I will test games not out on the market!"
Well, that's because they can't be on the market, they're in the crappy stage, you crazy person. And beside, not every game is a Super Mario or a Metal Gear; you'll also have to test the games that make you frown, by simply watching bad reviews on Gamespot.
"But I'll be proud! I'll be able to boast!"
Oh reallllly? I think the only people that "love" the testers, are those already in the industry (programmer, artists, etc.) Aside from that, testers are not really a boast-worthy title, since even if they did find 300 bugs, one will be left in game, the casual players will find it and say "stupid testers, can't do their jobs right." People fail to realize that testers have found so many bugs, that they're bound to miss some...
"Yeah, but there's no stress."
Perhaps you're right on that one, however, let's analyze overtime. As a programmer, I'll do overtime, if the stupid publishers want stuff sooner on my deadlines. Testers, on the other hand, play alllll the games of the company therefore, it only takes one project that goes in overtime for the QA to be stuck there; joyful, isn't it.
Well, that probably raps up my first rant; I plan to have non-rant articles...but we shall see. I think I may tackle the whole “I want to be a designer” next...
Slashmire
(3DS Max users, contact me for fangames project ¬_¬)
Greetings,
After Liar came to #earthbound crying, sobbing and probably full of self-inflicted scars due to the lack of articles, I though I could start sharing some of my insightful experiences.
For those of you that don't know me (everyone), I am currently a hired Games Programmer in a semi-small company in Quebec, where we make cellphone and other casual games (as well as that one DS/GBA Shamu game that they now give for free with any games you buy ¬_¬.) As well, I though that I'd mention that even though I studied in an English college, I'm French, therefore, if you find my sentence structure to be bizarre, then I shall flash my "I'm French" trumpcard.
Over the course of the next few articles, I plan to hopefully break some dreams as well as creating some (and rant a while too.) And after that...well we shall see.
Without further incoherent rambling, here is Part 1: The QA
PART 1: THE QA
"When I grow up, I want to test games and play all day long!"
Avast, have ye not heard that too many times? Do you still believe that this is true, that the QA, which stands for Quality Assurance by the way, not Play Games All Day (albeit the two have the same intonation,) play games and enjoy it?
"What do they do then?"
Judging from our cellphone games, our bugbase ends up with 300-800 bugs when the project is over, and this is for a small 64K cellphone game that spanned for about 3-5 months. You do not play a fully finished game; you play pre-alpha, alpha, beta games that have features not always finished. You try the game and...WHAM it crashes (a crash in Java actually makes that sound if you have your speakers up, really.) What do you do? Enter "It crashed" in the bugbase? Ohh very very no ¬_¬. You try to reproduce it a couple of times, and explain how it ends up crashing. Obviously the fun comes in, if the bug is hard to reproduce.
"But I will test games not out on the market!"
Well, that's because they can't be on the market, they're in the crappy stage, you crazy person. And beside, not every game is a Super Mario or a Metal Gear; you'll also have to test the games that make you frown, by simply watching bad reviews on Gamespot.
"But I'll be proud! I'll be able to boast!"
Oh reallllly? I think the only people that "love" the testers, are those already in the industry (programmer, artists, etc.) Aside from that, testers are not really a boast-worthy title, since even if they did find 300 bugs, one will be left in game, the casual players will find it and say "stupid testers, can't do their jobs right." People fail to realize that testers have found so many bugs, that they're bound to miss some...
"Yeah, but there's no stress."
Perhaps you're right on that one, however, let's analyze overtime. As a programmer, I'll do overtime, if the stupid publishers want stuff sooner on my deadlines. Testers, on the other hand, play alllll the games of the company therefore, it only takes one project that goes in overtime for the QA to be stuck there; joyful, isn't it.
Well, that probably raps up my first rant; I plan to have non-rant articles...but we shall see. I think I may tackle the whole “I want to be a designer” next...
Slashmire
(3DS Max users, contact me for fangames project ¬_¬)
