Hi, I was wondering about what is needed to be a beta tester. I googled and found a lot of info but there are a few things unclear. Can someone explain the process?
Thanks

So many ways people pick testers and the first part is likely if they are in house team members,

Then you get into volunteer testers

And in our case we have really 3 types of "testers"

1. In house Q & A who do a deep test of the actual code as it is built and then completed.
2. Q & A Teams, led by a lead tester for each language version

This involves final proofing of sub titles, in game graphics like signs etc, and then play through level testing for bugs, logic gaps or jams. These are very small groups, sometimes as few as two.

These people must have upgraded (current gaming systems preferably vista, XP or even both) systems, some knowledge of game mechanics, be able to work quickly and on deadline and follow reporting procedures, plus be able to interact with our technical people.

3. Playtesters: This is a wide ranged group that does all sorts of feedback during the game build. It can be voice talent feedback, certain puzzles, levels, demo tests etc

This last group comes from active forum (ours) members, persons of interest whose opinions on game elements we know and regard highly, articulate posters at other forums or who have written us in the past and expressed a lot of critical helpful feedback in the past etc

We do a great deal of all sorts of feedback, testing etc

Edit: I forgot to mention that discretion is one of the most important elements of being any sort of tester. Although you see things early - it can be frustrating in one sense as you typically are signed to a strict NDA, meaning not only can you not ever discuss what you played and experienced during testing you often can not even mention that you were a tester until released by the developer.

Others have an application process, where you send specs and your background with games playing or/and testing and then people are selected. URU was handled that way, same for Legacy Interactive and other places.

And then there are indies and such who post a call for testers. Here at GB and other active game sites. Best way to start is to look for such calls and reply. Once you've tested one or two games of any sort and have a good reference and some experience, lots of places will likely want you to test.

:kissy12: Laura. New cat?

Just to add, I think that there might be a misconception that beta testing is easy.

To be a good beta tester, one has (to mention a few things) to check - the nuances of the game, sound, text, glitches, dead ends, puzzles, logic and continuity -
This entails replays and maybe be a stricter reviewer of the game.

Usually, there's a deadline for the beta test. One has to play through and give the comments at a specific time.

Also, the game to test maybe be not complete, missing translations or dialogues, glitchy.

One has to take the responsibility of beta testing seriously because the success of the game depends also on the testers and if the developers listens to the testers.

Well... a year new. More a new avatar as I noticed my old was too large and had vanished.

Thanks Cap'n Mag - It is hard work and very serious work. Crediting testers seems scant praise for those amazing ones who go to the max, And we are deeply appreciative.

(not surprising) That so many of those (elite testers) are from here at GB

Hello Iva,

Re the beta testing process - I ran the beta test for 'Rhiannon' last August. Although I've been in IT for decades, I still learned a lot from the experience, because testing a game is not the same as testing software - you need a different kind of mindset to be a game tester. This is because you are also testing a work of fiction - a piece of art, not just the logic and functionality of a soft machine.

When we first started the test, I made no differentiation between the roles of the testers - everybody was just playing the game looking for bugs. That's the first tester qualification - you are testing, not playing the game. You're doing the unexpected to look for dead-ends and cliff-edges in the game logic. You're a tester, not a gamer. But that narrowness turned out to be my mistake.

As well as revealing the nature of beta testing, that showed me I had to have a broader strategy. Of course I needed bug finders - but I also needed players, to test not just the logic, but the playability of the game.

Then another aspect arose - being a first person game, 'Rhiannon' has much text to read. Some of this was casual, some formal - some written by kids, some by adults - some written in the present day, some 100 years ago - some in everyday language, some journalistic, some technical. There were considerable stylistic and syntactical subtleties, not to mention checks for spelling and grammar to be done. We needed a separate type of beta tester to check the quality of the writing.

So we've got three types of beta tester - logicians, players and quality assurance - and I bet if I thought about it some more I could find other types. Next time, those specialist skillsets will be my starting point.

Another thing is that from my point of view, nobody who wants to be a beta-tester can fail to qualify unless there are already enough testers on the project. The testing team has to contain as many types of player as possible, old, young, male, female, different lifestyles, backgrounds and motivators etc. etc. This is because the adventure gaming demographic is a broad one, much broader than FPS and racing, and if the structure of the beta test team can reflect that, so much the better.

There's another aspect - the beta tester has to want to do it for their own spiritual reward. When we ran the 'Rhiannon' test, we coudn't afford to pay the testers. But now I think about it further, it's better in any case that they are not at all involved in the commercial success of the project, because then they can be completely objective. So next time we'd look only for volunteers, because that in itself tests the game's quality.

We ran our test for two weeks. That was decided upon because we wanted to keep the testers' attention on the project as contiguous as possible. So we warned them in advance about the dates we'd need them for and asked if they could be sure of their availability. Then we asked them to give their word that they would not divulge anything they found. We also asked their permission to use their names in the games credits.

We also laid out what we needed from them in terms of responses - a script if you will, for the submission of a finding. We also gave them a Wiki site for reporting problems, (although next time I'd probably use Bugzilla or something similar).

We fixed problems as we found them, but didn't issue patches as we went. That was because the version of the game we used in the beta was almost fully functional, (although I understand other companies have a more fragmented approach, testing the game in bits rather than the whole). We wanted a solid starting point for the test, and we didn't want to then erode that with minor changes because it might cast doubt on the integrity of the test - minor changes can introduce new bugs and you may have to start again.

Hope this helps

Regards,

Noel Bruton
Arberth Studios

Thanks Noel -- very eye-opening!

Gatorlaw, MaG, and Noel I want to say "thank You for that very knowlegable, and enlightening journey that I went through reading what you all posted ... Very - very - interesting

Thank you very much Gatorlaw, MaG, and Noel for all the info. Now i finally get it.

I haven't been around for quite a while, and am sorry for the late reply.

And Happy New Year Everyone! :winter:

Very interesting! Thanks for the insightful descriptions.