Test Games And Get Paid
Ask the question: \”if you could do anything as a job, what would it be?\” and the response for most gamers will be the same – a video games tester. Little wonder. Play video games all day everyday, and then get paid for the \”effort\”? That has to be one of the sweetest rackets going on.
The common (mis)conception of game testing is that people are paid ridiculous amounts of money for playing video games all day. In truth, the pay is not quite as generous as you might think, and the process is far from fun especially if you do it on a continual basis, yet it\’s still an appealing career choice for many.
First and foremost, it is an often tedious and dull affair and one that involves no shortage of hard work, in fact, you can rest assured that for every 15 minutes of game play you will probably have to spend the next half hour writing up a report on the bugs you unearth during the process. You will need to be thorough and meticulous both in your quest for bugs and glitches as well as in the actual recording of them.
The tester will also need to ensure that they record and note their findings carefully in order to then pass on the relevant details to the game development department who will then seek to remove the bugs and fix the errors. The tester will need to be very explicit and thorough as to the level of detail they submit, in order to help expedite the process.
Now that we have cleared up the issue of what a video game tester will actually involve, the next burning issue that we will need to look at is the issue of pay, i.e. how much money does the average tester get for their efforts?
It is not really possible to simply provide a round figure or a precise prediction and this is because there are a number of variables that will affect the final salary. Not surprisingly, the level of experience the tester has will count heavily in their favour and so a tester who has a clearly established work portfolio with a number of provable successful projects will command a higher fee than a rank novice. The salary offered can and will differ between different companies although irrespective of how much they happen to pay for your work you can be rest assured of one thing – the work you do will be a major feather in your cap, and the experience you\’ll gain gives you a big advantage when going for other games related jobs.
For a free report on how to break into the games industry, and start earning a game tester salary visit betagamestester.com and download the free ebook to learn the secrets of how to test games for a living.
