Is it all Fun and Games?

The ins and outs of leading the next-gen video game publisher's QA team

1. Tell us a bit about yourself; how and why did you get into QA?

Hi everyone, this is Aditya. I’m one of the Streamliners, currently working as a QA Manager at Day Zero by Streamline. My journey into the games industry started about 9 years ago. My first job was at Ubisoft, as a Development Tester where I worked on multiple AAA titles  on various platforms - Xbox 360, PS3 and WiiU. After working for 2.5 years, I joined Codemasters where I worked as Senior/Lead QA on number of Racing Sims and got to work on new Console gen and also gained expertise on lots of testing processes in games industry. I took that experience into my role at Streamline, where I now work more closely with the development team on products, and I am building up my own team as a QA Manager.

2. In your opinion, what are the top merits of working as a QA in games industry?

I think for most gamer kids growing up, we all at one point dreamt of working in games and being able to earn money playing games. It is true that working as a Game QA is a privilege; I get to work in a friendly environment where I am constantly learning, and doing what I love. Here you are exposed to all sorts of platform SDKs, tools, and technology that the developers and artists generally use for development, but with added freedom and flexibility to learn new things, as you are not tied to a specialization. QA is the last line of defense in production, meaning it’s our job to make the product launch-ready and bug-free for users, and for 1^st party manufacturers such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. I’d summarize the merits as: exposure to the latest tools, development hardware and the SDKs, as well as the opportunity to work with other departments to steer the game to be more user-friendly.

3. What were the biggest challenges you faced working in various QA positions and studios?

The first challenge is dealing with the misconception that people hold about the QAs – that we just play games, which is only about 20% correct. There is a whole lot more to it than playtesting the games. We have to cover network matrix tests, which no other departments really pay attention to. We also run all of the platform specific compliance tests, which are crucial for launch and ensuring your game is accepted onto the console platforms. QA teams have to run a long and tedious load and boot checks for more than 10,000 permutations. At the end of the day there’s only so many times you can play the same game and still find it fun! We also have the key responsibility of tracking thousands of bugs, and every iteration of the builds to make sure the producers and developers are on the same page. On the surface, a QA job looks easy, but it has its own complexities. Of course, that is the case for most jobs, but Game QA positions, in particular, seem to be notoriously undervalued and underestimated.

The second challenge is keeping up to date with new technologies and consoles. Console manufacturers launch new SDKs every quarter, and release next generation of consoles every 4-5 years. Every time, it is our job to familiarize ourselves with all the guidelines and operational procedures for – current-gen and next-gen alike.

So, to really succeed as a QA, you not only need to be constantly learning, but actually enjoy the process of learning and keeping motivated to push yourself. To me, that’s the charm of working in game technology.