Someone once told me that "start as a tester and work your way up" was a valid approach also. I've always wondered why that is. Maybe they like to see confirmation that you're not afraid to do hard tedious work to help get a game out -- that you don't have a naive idea about working on games being nothing but fun. Maybe it's to filter out personality clashes: while you're still in a disposable position they can see if you get along well with the rest of the company, instead of trying to read you from a single interview.
I've never been a game tester, although I am a programmer and I guess I technically do "test" the games I make. Game testing helps you think logically and analytically about problems, how they form, and how to help solve them. Somebody who's never tested a game before might say "When your character gets knocked down, it takes way too long to get back up!" That may be true, but what they don't realize (and what a more experienced game tester might understand) is that if you change the "get-back-up" time and make it faster, it could throw many other variables out of whack. It could easily throw off the AI of the enemies, who are expecting to wait for a longer period of time and may just stand there waiting for when you normally WOULD have gotten back up. This would make the game too easy, and it might throw off the designers who might say "well, make the bad guys stronger!". I think you've probably already gotten my point 30 sentences ago, so all I'm trying to say is that someone with a CompSci degree might not look as impressive to a game company as someone with a CompSci degree and some professional game testing experience!
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there will be bugs to test.
i can only tell you that!
Gears of War 2 is buggy! CONFIRMED!
Expansion/booster pack. Epic usually does one of those for each UT game - usually free too.
I've never been a game tester, although I am a programmer and I guess I technically do "test" the games I make. Game testing helps you think logically and analytically about problems, how they form, and how to help solve them. Somebody who's never tested a game before might say "When your character gets knocked down, it takes way too long to get back up!" That may be true, but what they don't realize (and what a more experienced game tester might understand) is that if you change the "get-back-up" time and make it faster, it could throw many other variables out of whack. It could easily throw off the AI of the enemies, who are expecting to wait for a longer period of time and may just stand there waiting for when you normally WOULD have gotten back up. This would make the game too easy, and it might throw off the designers who might say "well, make the bad guys stronger!". I think you've probably already gotten my point 30 sentences ago, so all I'm trying to say is that someone with a CompSci degree might not look as impressive to a game company as someone with a CompSci degree and some professional game testing experience!