New Job
Crispy
Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Functionality Tester at SEGA Europe</div>I are excited! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
I'll be testing on all platforms (including handhelds). Initially it'll be on a contract with the possibility for extension.
[Edit] W00t!!!!1111ONEONEONEEXCLAMATIONMARK <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
I'll be testing on all platforms (including handhelds). Initially it'll be on a contract with the possibility for extension.
[Edit] W00t!!!!1111ONEONEONEEXCLAMATIONMARK <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Comments
Lucky <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> I'd love to playtest stuff from Sega. Tell em to make a new (good) sonic game!! lol =P
from what I've heard testing can be very monotonous. So it sounds cool but I wish you lots of patience.
That is true.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->R-Type<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's f*ing why. Don't be ridiculous ;O
Suddenly my seasonal position with the U.S.P.S. feels... inadequate. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
Suddenly my seasonal position with the U.S.P.S. feels... inadequate. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Better than nowt <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
He's just being modest, he really delivers mail personally by pony.
This guys got to be a god, this is always what i used to try and do complete lvls with out fireing a shot unless it is cearly obious that theres no way through. note this guys playing Super R-type *Gag
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcKb4q1__c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcKb4q1__c</a>
and this guy goes ok, watch his first attempt at the last stage well done.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0ZRFJQ17A" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0ZRFJQ17A</a>
but then he just tottaly owns everything.
before we got a computer i used to spend quite a bit on sega games when wasnt out with mates.
hope you can help them bring out some great titles.
actually what i meant to say even if it pays bad, and is boring after a while, you have your foot in the door of the games industry and it'll most likley lead to a job you do enjoy or that pays good (same thing? lol)
That doesn't leave me much I can talk about, but what I can probably say without risking losing my new favourite job of all time is that I'm playtesting a game called Viking: Battle for Asgard on the XBox360. Sadly I'm not allowed to say if it's good or bad, or if it's buggy or not, or how far along in development it is.
To make this post a bit less of a let down I will talk a bit about how much more fun this job is than my last one. My last job was in recruitment and I was working my ###### off 54 hours a week with barely any lunch break at all. I was earning ~41% more in recruitment but I started early (08.00) and finished late (19.00). I didn't really have a love for what I was doing, and it was a very pressurised job.
Here at SEGA I have frequent breaks, I'm doing something I actually enjoy, and I'm on the late shift so I don't have to drag my sorry ass out of bed until 1.00 PM at the latest if I really don't want to. It's a relaxed and collaborative atmosphere, which doesn't mean no work is done. I find myself much more driven because I'm actually working on helping improve something I care about. As far as dress code; you can wear pretty much what you want within reason, and there doesn't seem do be any anti-piercings/tatoos policy. There is a good mix of people here, to the extent where the 'geek' stereotype totally flies out the window. It's also not as male-dominated as you might think, I'd say 10-20% of people here are girls (more so in the localisation teams), with some occupying positions of seniority right up to the top.
<b>Bug testing</b>
Finding bugs (or 'bugging') is a much more mechanical process than I'd even guessed it might be. Having done playtests for a HL2 total conversion mod I can compare the different bugging processes. When you work on a mod you're in contact with the developers so you can log bugs a LOT faster because you don't have to be as precise, so the programmers/artists can always ask for clarification if needs be and it won't waste a lot of time. Also you usually bug check at shorter intervals, playtesting whenever a new piece of code is in or a new section of a level has been completed. This allows you more focus, but on the other hand mod teams don't really ever produce the sheer volume of work that a commercial developer can. What a large mod team could accomplish in a week, a developer could accomplish in a day.
When a bug is logged it must be done very precisely and in a specific format. This varies from developer to developer, but generally you'll be asked to categorise the bug (which area of gameplay it affects, e.g. AI, collision, graphics) classify the bug (how severe or 'game-breaking' it is) and always give steps to reproduce, which have to be written in a very straightforward manner. Once submitted, it will be checked for clarity and accuracy before being passed onto the developer. The developer will attempt to fix it and send it back, at which point the testers have to 'regress' it. Regression (from the Latin 'to go back') means checking it has been fixed once the developer claims to have fixed it. Once it has been successfully regressed the bug is marked as 'closed, fixed', and that's where the story usually ends.
Hopefully I didn't say anything I shouldn't have! :x
Finding bugs (or 'bugging') is a much more mechanical process than I'd even guessed it might be. Having done playtests for a HL2 total conversion mod I can compare the different bugging processes. When you work on a mod you're in contact with the developers so you can log bugs a LOT faster because you don't have to be as precise, so the programmers/artists can always ask for clarification if needs be and it won't waste a lot of time. Also you usually bug check at shorter intervals, playtesting whenever a new piece of code is in or a new section of a level has been completed. This allows you more focus, but on the other hand mod teams don't really ever produce the sheer volume of work that a commercial developer can. What a large mod team could accomplish in a week, a developer could accomplish in a day.
When a bug is logged it must be done very precisely and in a specific format. This varies from developer to developer, but generally you'll be asked to categorise the bug (which area of gameplay it affects, e.g. AI, collision, graphics) classify the bug (how severe or 'game-breaking' it is) and always give steps to reproduce, which have to be written in a very straightforward manner. Once submitted, it will be checked for clarity and accuracy before being passed onto the developer. The developer will attempt to fix it and send it back, at which point the testers have to 'regress' it. Regression (from the Latin 'to go back') means checking it has been fixed once the developer claims to have fixed it. Once it has been successfully regressed the bug is marked as 'closed, fixed', and that's where the story usually ends.
Hopefully I didn't say anything I shouldn't have! :x<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I would be surprised if you have. That's a very generalized view and basically how all software testing with an established process goes. I work for a defense contractor and we have a very similar process. I am a bit surprised it's so formal but I guess that makes sense being SEGA and all. Does it always go back to the person that wrote the code?(If you can answer that?)
Yesterday I was going through the game and checking all the NPC audio/text to make sure it was correct and that it was triggered properly. That might be because I scored highly on a spell-checking test at the interview stage, or it might be because they want all new starters to get to grips with all areas of bug checking.
<!--quoteo(post=1663082:date=Dec 6 2007, 06:03 PM:name=locallyunscene)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(locallyunscene @ Dec 6 2007, 06:03 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1663082"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I would be surprised if you have. That's a very generalized view and basically how all software testing with an established process goes. I work for a defense contractor and we have a very similar process. I am a bit surprised it's so formal but I guess that makes sense being SEGA and all. Does it always go back to the person that wrote the code?(If you can answer that?)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Someone got fired (and got SEGA in trouble) because he slated some games on a blog that someone eventually linked to him, so they're extra vigilant on this point. I don't actually know if the bug goes back to the person who coded/scripted/made it. That's down to the developer and what sort of structure they operate within their dev team.
All in all, congrats <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
All in all, congrats <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Thx. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
I found out about it via <a href="http://www.gamesrecruit.co.uk/" target="_blank">GamesRecruit</a> RSS feed. It specialises in UK industry vacancies, which is a good thing because most focus on the US and Canada. I find using <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/ig?hl=en" target="_blank">iGoogle</a> as a homepage linking lots of recruitment RSS feeds makes jobhunting a little less tiresome.
I found out about it via <a href="http://www.gamesrecruit.co.uk/" target="_blank">GamesRecruit</a> RSS feed. It specialises in UK industry vacancies, which is a good thing because most focus on the US and Canada. I find using <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/ig?hl=en" target="_blank">iGoogle</a> as a homepage linking lots of recruitment RSS feeds makes jobhunting a little less tiresome.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Holy ###### google can do that?
umm, yah?
That is what iGoogle basically is. It is a Feed Reader.
open up iGoogle
Add Stuff
Add RSS Feed
Salary was low ($8Cdn).
I worked there for about 2 weeks only because I had found something else closer to my current career. I took that testing job because I was curious.
You basicly do the followings :
- test specific situations and write down the result vs expected results
- you may test games that not all graphics have been done (just gameplay coding).
- you may wind up in annoying bugs that have nothing to do with what you are testing and therefore do not report about them (like falling through a 2-3 pixel width whole and falling into void)
- you have a deadline and possibly a maximum trial amount to do it
- if you do not report enough bug reports, they may start to come down on you (thinking you are just wasting time playing or doing other non productive things)
- they tend to promote people that do very detailed and clear bug reports (constant quality types of reports)
- getting your way up the ladders toward development is possible but very slow
- you have to report your hours almost like using a punch clock
- no benefits and often, misssing hours on your pay checks
- expect just about every types of people working with you and therefore, some might get on your nerves or you cannot stand them (but being able to work with Anybody is a quality they appreciate)
- expect to see nerds or geek being game testers (saw a few which were like, get a life man !)
- office space and equipement usualy is cramped and looking more like a warehouse then anything else (well at least where I was).
- and other things which I probably forgot ...