Game Testing for your favorite developer

There is a lot of really great developers out in the gaming community, but there is even more bad ones. All that crappy shovel ware that gets put on your console of choice has to come from somewhere. It is even possible that if you are looking to learn how to test games for a living you might be testing software for these kinds of previously mentioned developers in the entry stages of the job. Still, a person can dream about testing for their favorite developers. In this editorial we've done just that, these are the developers that we would do anything to test games for, well almost anything.

Nintendo

This might come to as a surprise to a lot of gamers but it really shouldn't. Nintendo has always been one of the lead game developers since mainstream gaming started. The only doubts most hardcore gamer would have working with Nintendo is their newly adopted strategy of appealing to the casual audience. Still, the company is an innovator in adverse ways to play games and they create some of the most memorable franchises to date on any console. Nintendo is one of the most tight lipped companies, not leaking or showing anything until they are fully ready. Their "keep quiet" policy on games makes them very appealing to go behind the scenes and see some of these projects before the public. It should be every gamers dream to see the newest Zelda or Mario before E3 even has a trailer. Nintendo's innovation and longstanding track record towards making great games puts this as one of our dream worthy testing jobs.

SCEI

The last two games that Fumito Ueda created have become undeniably some of the best pieces of playable art and easily some of the best games ever made. If you do not know who we are referring to, Ueda is the lead designer and director on ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and the (unreleased) Last Guardian. Anything that Ueda touches gets a nod towards a best game ever made achievement. Just think if you were to work on a team like that; influencing and helping create a potential software masterpiece. You could be contingently responsible for making the game what it is today. The gameplay is no slouch when it comes to testing either. Usually Ueda's games are huge, involving complex puzzles that could possibly be flawed without rigorous testing. It takes some real work to find a nice balance in the platforming making sure there isn't an unforeseen method to bypass 30 minutes of gameplay. Surely SCEI and Ueda will be around for a while, and it would be a real treat to get in on some of that action.

Rockstar

Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest selling franchises ever made. Rockstar's open world gaming is a precursor to any other game trying to follow a similar design doc. We think it would be amazing to get an early drop into a Liberty or Vice City. These games are made to challenge a players adventurous nature to explore, and what better person is there to do that than a game tester. It is true that the game would be a testing nightmare due it's sheer ferocity in size and content. That isn't to say that we would love to crash a car into half the things residing in the city just to find broken geometry or seeing if the AI works properly. Perhaps trying to park a helicopter right in front of the next proceeding story mission in order prevent the game from running properly. The possibilities are nearly endless, it would be a hefty project to undertake but a fun and rewarding one.

Valve

Valve is the definition of quality gameplay. The developers have given memorable games that stamper all over their competition. Half Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, Portal, and Left 4 Dead are all great games that would be nowhere without an abundant amount of quality assurance. Valve is a company known for understanding gamers and giving them the best quality for the least amount of money. When they put out a product that behaves off kilter, they patch it quicker than most companies. It would be great to get inside the heads of these developers and work along side them with their hardcore gaming philosophy. Figuring out balancing issues with one of their multiplayer games or trying to break the puzzles in an upcoming Portal would be worth it's weight in gaming hours.

Other Developers Worth Mentioning

Some other companies worth mentioning are: Infinity Ward, the guys and gals who brought us the best entries in the Call of Duty series. We would love to test out some of the new multiplayer perks before they hit store shelves. Dice has a huge track record of multiplayer class based games dating up to 10 years ago. Without rigorous testing of all the Battlefield games there would be enough exploits to ruin the game's playability. Bethesda is the leading designer of western RPG's who brought two huge instant classics Oblivion and Fallout 3. Their huge open worlds and their endless ways to kill enemies would keep any gamer testing for hours. Also, Bethesda is a great company but that isn't to say that they don't need more work on their games. To be perfectly blunt their games are buggy as hell and have graphical/animation problems. It would be nice to give some opinions while under the hood of one of their new games.