Reality Check: Game Testing a Road to Opportunities, Not to Riches

This is a public service announcement brought to you by the loving people here at QJ. It might seem like common sense to some of you, but it’s always good to make sure that everyone gets this reality check about games.

As much as we all love games and love to get the chance to play them, it feels sad to say this but you won’t get rich from game testing.

While ads for game testers tend to pop up every so often on different sites, with game testers supposedly being offered $80-90 an hour to play games, it isn’t true at all. The general going rate for a game tester is around $10-15 an hour. At the very least, it’s some nice pocket money on the side – but it’s not the road to riches.

Now, it’s nice to play games and all, I think we can all agree on that. The problem with trying to test games for a supposed amount of money is the potential burnout. In addition to having to take care of paperwork to explain whatever bugs you might happen to fix, there’s also the strain it can put on your ideas of gaming. While you might grow to appreciate game testers because they can actually pull off this kind of tedium, you may end up getting bored long before you finish what you’re supposed to do.

For those who really want to get into the world of gaming as part of a development team or as a programmer, there’s no better way to go about it than by picking up the skills to make games of your own, either from school or from people who can teach you programming. Once you learn a new skill for yourself in the gaming field, try making games of your own to master the art of programming and get real experience in game design. That’s another reason why DS and PSP Homebrew is so a great venue for potential game makers: people won’t hesitate to tell you what’s good, what’s bad, and what you can do to improve.

If you can take criticism and improve from the input you’ve been given, then you certainly have what it takes to do well in the world of games development. That, and you probably won’t get tired of making your own game worlds to play in, no matter what genre it is, especially if you get a fan or two along the way.

The reality check might be over, but the dream continues: keep playing those games, but remember to work hard if you want to make gaming your way of living. Good luck gamers!

This is a public service announcement brought to you by the loving people here at QJ. It might seem like common sense to some of you, but it’s always good to make sure that everyone gets this reality check about games.

As much as we all love games and love to get the chance to play them, it feels sad to say this but you won’t get rich from game testing.

While ads for game testers tend to pop up every so often on different sites, with game testers supposedly being offered $80-90 an hour to play games, it isn’t true at all. The general going rate for a game tester is around $10-15 an hour. At the very least, it’s some nice pocket money on the side – but it’s not the road to riches.

Now, it’s nice to play games and all, I think we can all agree on that. The problem with trying to test games for a supposed amount of money is the potential burnout. In addition to having to take care of paperwork to explain whatever bugs you might happen to fix, there’s also the strain it can put on your ideas of gaming. While you might grow to appreciate game testers because they can actually pull off this kind of tedium, you may end up getting bored long before you finish what you’re supposed to do.

For those who really want to get into the world of gaming as part of a development team or as a programmer, there’s no better way to go about it than by picking up the skills to make games of your own, either from school or from people who can teach you programming. Once you learn a new skill for yourself in the gaming field, try making games of your own to master the art of programming and get real experience in game design. That’s another reason why DS and PSP Homebrew is so a great venue for potential game makers: people won’t hesitate to tell you what’s good, what’s bad, and what you can do to improve.

If you can take criticism and improve from the input you’ve been given, then you certainly have what it takes to do well in the world of games development. That, and you probably won’t get tired of making your own game worlds to play in, no matter what genre it is, especially if you get a fan or two along the way.

The reality check might be over, but the dream continues: keep playing those games, but remember to work hard if you want to make gaming your way of living. Good luck gamers!