How to Become a Video Game Tester with No Experience
The aim of this post is to provide as much info as possible on how to become a video game tester with no experience. All the details that you’re about to read here are meant as a guide in order to assist those who aspire to be involved in this exciting field, as well as for those who might have just a passing interest in it.
No doubt, countless of diehard gamers dream are eager to become a game tester, a profession in which they are able to participate in one of their favorite pastimes — playing video games — and get paid to do so.
While playing those beat ’em ups, shooters, RPGs, and what have you for hours on end is a ton of fun, becoming a video game tester is not exactly a walk in the park.
However, you will find that it is possible to get a job as a video game tester as long as you’re extremely passionate about video games; you’re willing to put in the hard work, you’re willing to be persistent, and willing to carry out the proper research.
Having these qualities will pay off in the end, and you will nab that much-envied job of working from the comfort of your couch playing yet-to-be-released video game titles!
Speaking of proper research, yes indeed, it can be real hard to figure out how to become a video game tester with no experience. You research here and there, putting in so much effort, but more often than not, you hit a wall.
The sad thing is there are actually heaps of entry level game tester jobs available out there, but in most cases, only those with the right connections are able to uncover them.
Lucky for you, there’s this member-only, video game tester jobs website that will hook you up with paid testing gigs offered by numerous game developers ranging from the small indie ones, to the big guns in the business.
Here’s the link so you can check it out for yourself.
Thanks to this extremely helpful site, finding jobs that entails testing video games from home has never been easier.
After Landing Your First Job as a Video Game Tester
Now, it is awesome to get paid to play video games at home, but don’t forget, at the end of the day, it is still a job.
And job as a video game tester is certainly not an easy one. Treating it like it’s a side gig won’t lead you anywhere.
You need to fulfill every single aspect the gaming company you’re working for wants to make sure you’re hired again. Once landing your game testing job, you’ll want to start getting everything right and know a few important game testing techniques.
You’ll need to be able to write detailed reports to make it much easier for the developers.
This will make you look like a true professional and that will get you to land more game testing jobs and be offered more money.
Let’s take a look at some important aspects after landing your game testing job.
First of all, you really must read everything sent to you about the game. It’ll tell you how the game is going to be and let you test the game knowing what the target audience is.
The game developers will surely appreciate you giving them feedback as how the game is when compared to the information that you were given about it.
Along with the game to test and the instructions, you’ll be given a deadline to finish up your report as well as a standard format to submit your evaluation.
Then you must remember that you are not playing for fun exclusively. It’s a game testing job, and so you’ll need to do more than just playing the game as you would normally do.
You’ll need to test every single feature of the game, every single character, and try to do things that you believe the game isn’t ready to respond.
You must know how to find bugs in game testing so look for things that are out of place: bugs you find along the way, levels that just aren’t right, impossible jumps that are possible, and areas that you didn’t think were possible to reach, but resulted in a bug or glitch of some sort.
When you’re testing you need to learn that you absolutely must take note at every single thing you do in the game. Your job is to let developers know what works and what doesn’t work for you.
Be very specific in your reports as developers may need to replicate the exact steps you took to get that bug or glitch happen again.
If you’re giving more work for the developer than you’re helping them, they will let you go and won’t hire you for any more game testing jobs.
There are two types of bugs: The ones you can replicate and the ones which are completely random.
Some specific actions on certain parts of the scenario will trigger bugs that the developers would easily miss.
You need to let them know which location, character, items and the exact steps you took to let programmers actually recreate the bug in order to fix it.
But your game testing duties don’t stop on big bugs. If you find certain textures out of place, misspelling or any sound or music errors you need to let them know.
Think of it as your own creation: You’ll want it to be perfect, right?
This last part is up to whether you actually have the time to do it or not.
If there’s still a good amount of time before the deadline, you should try and play the game again to make sure that you didn’t miss anything along the way.
With big games having the chance of doing that is impossible, but if you can, it’s a great way of getting a more detailed report.
As you’re writing your final report you must make sure that you are using up every single piece of information you took on your play through.
On each area try to go from the major bugs to smaller ones as developers would prefer to start focusing on the bigger problems.
Also, you may also be required to test a particular game on different gaming systems, so if you’re testing video games from home, owning multiple consoles is a tremendous plus.
If you follow these guidelines, you’re sure to have everything it takes to actually know how to be a world class video game tester.
Sure, it’s quite a bit of work but if your love is playing video games, then this shouldn’t really be a problem.
The main issue people usually find is getting those video game testing jobs.
So, get the best help on how to become a video game tester with no experience, and get your first game testing job faster than ever.
My Journey on Becoming a Video Game Tester
In this section, I thought it would be a good idea if I let you know more about myself and tell you about my own journey as I decided to become a video game tester.
After deciding to leave school when I was just 18 (and had no real qualifications to get a decent job) I spent (or wasted, now looking back) 5 years of my life working on low paying, high effort jobs that gave me absolutely no satisfactions.
I had to work and my qualifications wouldn’t let me really take it one step further so I was stuck with bills to pay and seemingly no way out.
Being a gamer for my whole life (and admittedly spending more time playing video game then studying), I would have loved to actually become a video game tester.
There was just one problem: I had absolutely no idea on how I could one.
My salvation came from an old friend who had managed to become a video game tester. My attention immediately spiked. I was really curious on how he managed that.
He wasn’t top of class but he was living a good life and above all that, he managed to be a full-time video game tester!
Obviously, I had a ton of questions to ask him and we ended up chatting for hours.
My interest would increase on every question. Everything seemed so perfect; I knew what I wanted to do for a living. It was a great feeling and I wouldn’t let this chance slip away from me.
Obtaining some inside knowledge was fantastic and a great way to get in.
I had already looked up for some game testing related jobs, but the fact is that companies rarely advertise online, and will usually hire from special agencies which not many had access to.
It allows them to be extra demanding on what they want, which is understandable.
I wouldn’t back down.
I was completely dedicated in my job search after deciding, this would be the most perfect career I could have ever thought of that I wouldn’t stop.
I was decided on doing what’s most important in these cases: Take action.
My friend told me that there were several companies online that listed these game testing job openings, along with complete information on the questions that would be asked by gaming companies.
I decided to follow his advice and try one of these companies since I was so passionate about being paid to play video games, and I knew that it would be extremely difficult to find a job online since there are few.
Due to my lack of qualifications and knowing that there would be a lot more contenders for those spots (and contenders with a lot of experience), I knew that it would be no easy task for me to find a job in this area.
But I just couldn’t give up.
After carefully looking at all the options available I decided to ultimately take my friend’s advice and join this site.
Believe me, it was the best decision I could have made.
In just a few hours I got very detailed information on how to prepare for interviews, what a resume focused on getting a video game testing job should be, and complete and detailed information on actual game testing job openings.
Need to say, I was thrilled!
The best part is that even though there were no job openings for my area when I signed up, new jobs are added regularly and just 3 days later I was able to find a job I could take.
Now I just needed to get it. After getting the details I started preparing for the interview.
I always wondered what they would ask someone for a position like this.
After reading all the information the site provided it hit me: This is really valuable information!
I wouldn’t have thought of this, but it does make great sense!
I sent my carefully prepared resume, hoping to get a positive response which came in just a few days.
I was really nervous for the interview, but thankfully I knew exactly what was coming my way.
Not even a month passed since I first joined the site and I had already landed my first job.
My career as a full-time video game tester had just begun and I was thrilled to work every single day.
This absolutely changed my whole life, it allowed me to settle, getting a decent income but most importantly: Feeling fulfilled and happy to work every single day.
I guess not many people can actually say that, right?
If you want to know how to become a video game tester with no experience, you need to keep in mind that the most important thing is to take action and never give up.
Believe in your dreams, do everything in your power to get them and I’m sure that as mine, they will come true.
Check out the site that has allowed me to chase my dream and become a video game tester including jobs for testing video games from home.
How to Become a Video Game Tester with No Experience: 5 Great Ways to Prepare Yourself
Being a game tester is probably every gamer’s dream, but the fact is that is you don’t know how to become a game tester, you’ll be stuck in an endless loop trying to get into the business but never accomplishing it.
If you want to know how to become a game tester you need to know a few things.
While the requirements change from company to company, you should start preparing yourself.
Here are a few suggestions:
Write Reviews
This one is very simple, but it still seems like many people completely ignore it. You’ll need writing skills for this job and they need to be good.
There are a lot of websites that allow you to post guest reviews. Be as professional as possible; only review what you know of.
When you want to know how to become a game tester you must know what’s working and what’s not.
You’ll be a part of the direction the game will take and if you find gameplay flaws you’ll need to step in and tell them so.
You’re not just there to find out if the game has bugs or not, you play a much bigger role.
Learn to Create Your Own Small Games
To really know the process of testing a video game you should start by creating your own small games. You may be scared already, but it’s a lot easier than it seems.
There are a lot of free resources online that will help you achieve that, and if you have some practice with computer, then you’ll easily be able to follow some tutorials and get started.
But why is this related to something like knowing how to become a game tester?
The fact is that while you’re creating a game, you’ll need to test it. You’ll need to find bugs. And you’ll want them organized and properly reported.
Create Your Own Personal Mods
There is a great deal of games that allow you to change a bit of the source to adjust some parts.
In fact, did you know that the Portal team was hired after they created and publicly demonstrated their mod?
You’ll have to face all the challenges of game creation as well, and there are multiple websites that will willingly take your mod for others to download and test.
It’ll perfect your programming skills, you’ll gain experience and you might get in touch with a great deal of developers if you’ve made something great out of it.
Get In Touch With the Community
Participate in gaming related events, create your own events. Try to be a part of the modding community, to get in touch with other people who share the same interests.
They’ll probably know people inside and they can help you finding out more on how to become a game tester.
Beta Test Some Games
This seems logical, but we’re talking about getting early access to some smaller games and actually actively helping developers finding bugs and helping development.
Becoming a video game tester seems hard, right? Well, it’s not.
It’s actually much easier if you have the right tools for the task. Find out how to become a video game tester with no experience by getting on this website.
Game Testing Job Salary
Managing to actually become a video game tester is actually fantastic.
You’ll be playing all the newest games (even before they hit shelves!) and you’ll be getting paid while you’re at it!
Doesn’t it found absolutely fantastic? It is, but there’s still one last question in your mind for sure.
If you want to start a career, even as a video game tester career, you need wonder how much you’ll get paid.
Why would you go and jump in a video game testing career if you would be getting really underpaid? It could be unworthy all the work you actually need to go through to land that job.
A video game testing job usually has a salary that can range from about 15 to 20 thousand dollars per year, up to a whopping 80 to 100 thousand (or more!) per year.
Of course that the money that comes from a game testing job is completely up to personal effort, how many game testing jobs one actually manages to get, the amount of money that the developers are willing to pay and other factors.
Since most game testers are working on a daily basis and not on a contractual salary, we’ll be breaking it down into hourly and weekly figures.
The hourly pay of a video game tester is very much up to the developer along with the level of experience of the game tester.
It can range from (typically) $8 to $20.
Just for the sake of doing some math, let’s consider a video game tester that at a mid-level which is probably making hourly figures of around $15.
Yeah, and that’s not hard to reach after the right level of experience.
Considering a regular 40 hour of work week, which is what typically a video game tester would have to work to meet the deadlines that the game developers demand, being paid $15 per hour, you’ll be getting a fantastic weekly paycheck of $600!
Now things are sounding better, right?
And you’d be getting it while getting to play your favorite video games. I’m sure that as a gamer, this would be absolutely an amazing deal!
Of course you can always work some extra hours if you need the additional cash.
The problem here is that you will not be getting a job for a lifetime. Until you get to work on top video game developers, you won’t be getting regular jobs.
This means you’ll need to get to keep on looking for more and more game testing jobs. That can be quite difficult unless you know where to find them and how to get them more easily.
And if you’re planning to do it on your own, manually finding those jobs and going to endless interviews can be tedious. That’s up to you but there’s a much easier option.
Checking out certain websites that provide job offers that allow you to get paid to play video games at home is the much easier option.
You will be able to obtain the necessary details to help you land those entry level game tester jobs.