Here they are, our dev team! Now let’s play a game of let’s find the QA tester…
One of the most important but also frequently overlooked job (despite being incredibly useful) in the video games industry is the QA tester. To become a QA tester, you need to have solid organizational skills and a problem solving mindset.
What does a QA tester do, exactly?
In a nutshell: having a QA tester in the team saves time for everyone. They test the game to find and reproduce any bug they can find, and they make tickets detailing the bug in a management software. That way, the devs can find the source and fix it easily.
Searching for bugs is very time consuming and sometimes frustrating. However if you like to find problems and search for solutions, this job might be for you.
How to become a QA tester?
QA testers come from all kinds of background. The main criterias to become a QA tester at Million Victories are, for example, an analytical and curious mind, being a team-player, good in english and with basics in Unity and project management softwares such as Jira. One of the must is also good knowledge of mobile games and Apps in general, since Million Lords is a mobile game.
The degrees of the person in itself doesn’t hold that much importance, even if previous experience in the video games industry or just knowledge about video games is greatly appreciated.
Find the bug, FIND IT!
Interning as QA tester?
For today’s devlog, we asked Louis, our intern in QA testing, some questions about his job as a QA tester in Million Victories.
- What studies have you done before getting at Million Victories as a QA tester for the game?
“I’m currently in A3, a class specialized in video games at the Institute of Internet and Multimedia (IIM) at la Défense (Paris).”
- Why become a QA tester at Million Victories? What drew you in the job?
“I wanted to become QA tester to see how my knowledge and what I learnt in class was applied in real life. What interested me first in this job was the game development process and how were the different test phases set up. I’ve always loved video games so it was not a surprising turn of event. Even though people often tell me “you get paid to play video games all day!”, it’s really not as simple as that.”
- What does an ordinary day as a QA tester looks like?
“During an ordinary day at Million Victories, I usually test different phases of the gameplay to check if nothing blocks the experience of the user when they are playing the game. I do what are called Smoke Tests and study the bugs the players are sending through the mail support or discord. I try to replicate them and find out where it comes from before sending a ticket to the devs detailing the bug thoroughly, with screenshots or videos. “
- Did you learn a lot by being a QA tester?
“Oh yeah, I learnt a lot about the job of QA tester but also about what personal traits you need to have for the job. We had a week of lessons about QA testing and practicing this IRL was pretty great. It also allowed me to improve my organizational and redactional skills. When writing a ticket you need to be as clear as possible, and to leave no place for doubt.”
- What are the difficulties and the drawbacks of being a QA tester?
“Being a QA tester can be quite difficult: you need to be meticulous and thorough. You also need to learn how to use some softwares and that’s not one in one day. I already knew how to use Unity before coming to Million Victories but some are not as lucky. For each App/Software you test, there is a background you’ll have to learn.”
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