sccsux Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Deleted by me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I know of one guy on SF who'd a games software / toolset writer. When I first started in computing the one thing I found early on I couldn't do was graphics development. I have a great respect for games developers. The closest I ever got was developing some educational software in the early to mid 1980s, but I have to say that me and graphics don't mix! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I know of one guy on SF who'd a games software / toolset writer. When I first started in computing the one thing I found early on I couldn't do was graphics development. I have a great respect for games developers. The closest I ever got was developing some educational software in the early to mid 1980s, but I have to say that me and graphics don't mix! I used to say that me and BASIC programming didn't mix, but then I did a Uni course in VB4 about 4 years ago and got a City and Guilds certificate from it. Before that I remember one day when I was working at Krisalis in Rotherham, I spent 6 hours typing in a Pac Man game on a Spectrum out of a programming magazine, 6 hours later the bloody thing crashed and wouldn't work! Grr! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenger Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I've worked in games since the latter half of the 1980's. The industry has certainly changed a lot since then! Still have to work ludicrous hours to get the games out though... I agree that testing is a nightmare job. It pays peanuts, and relies on people who take the job just to get into the industry, who then move up into other roles as quickly as they can. They ought to pay the testers much more so the the guys who show real talent and aptitude at finding bugs and who work well with the devteam stick around and build on their experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I've worked in games since the latter half of the 1980's. The industry has certainly changed a lot since then! Still have to work ludicrous hours to get the games out though... I agree that testing is a nightmare job. It pays peanuts, and relies on people who take the job just to get into the industry, who then move up into other roles as quickly as they can. They ought to pay the testers much more so the the guys who show real talent and aptitude at finding bugs and who work well with the devteam stick around and build on their experience. Oddly enough testers are definitely undervalued in my line of work as well (I'm a VB6 / .NET / PHP contractor). The best project I worked on in terms of it finishing on time and to budget ws a gig with GE some years ago - we had a team of 4 developers and a permanently attached tester, who literally spent all day in the office with us testing. He was an ex-developer and he did an amazing job. He enjoyed testing immensley - in fact, he once commented that the big problem for him was career progression - no where to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibble Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Some really good testers move into design, scripting and in some cases - production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Some really good testers move into design, scripting and in some cases - production. It's a shame, because I really believe that there should be a career progression - senior tester, test analyst - maybe even test architects. Working out good test lans and scenarios is so hard - anyone good should definitely be encouraged to stay doing it. How do games get tested? Are there 'test levels' taht allow etsters to do specific things in a controlled manner, or do they literally just sit and play games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyn Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 i always assumed that they were given levels or an area to test and simply figure out everything that could be done that shouldn't be done then give the details back and try again and again. I always remember the flaw on mario 64 where you could drop from through the roof on the castle and end up in front of a door, when you opened it you were in the same little space. you had fallen into the waiting area that lies between rooms loading, odd little bug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibble Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Some testers do stay in test and become senior in that department. Experienced testers are worth their weight in gold, as you suggest. Games are tested in the final stages of development. The testers play through the entire game, or the section being tested and search out bugs. Bugs are classified by severity, usually A, B or C. These are then reported back to the rest of the team, coders, artists and designers, who will fix them, hopefully. This fix is then reported back to test who will verify if it is fixed, and if so remove it from the bug report/database. Its a formal process, that is made much easier by people who know what they are doing, and do it in the correct spirit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sccsux Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Deleted by me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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