Hello. I am a senior in High School heavily interested in the Game Design field leaning towards the programming aspect of it. I already program games using the Game Maker software and I am in Computer Science 4, however that is solely Java. After I graduate I want to try to apply for an QA internship at Bethesda Studios for the summer.
QA intern link: http://jobs.zenimax.com/index.php?a=view_job&jobid=25
Every requirement I felt comfortable about except the last item "Experience and understanding of Console and PC game testing ". I know C++ is the primary language used and I know a little of it (Planning to learn more through my parents and books). However, I have no idea where I could get knowledge of game testing. Are there any books, articles, journals ect... that could help me gain knowledge about the game testing process? And is their any other information or skills I should gather before this spring that could help me get this internship?
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How to prepare for a QA internship
You should research the "life cycle" of a bug and how QA helps regress bugs. Familiarize yourself with some bug-tracking tools like Jira, Hansoft, and Bugzilla, as well as version control software like Subversion, Git, and Perforce (I'm pretty sure you'll run into Perforce). Also, read some books on game production to get an idea as to where you'll fit.
I don't know if this will be any help to you, but I can safely say I secured my first job in the gaming industry by impressing the interviewer with my understanding in two main areas:
1 - Milestones/Workflow
2 - Testing strategies
I'll take for granted you know the former.
If you need info on the 2nd, I recommend reading this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing
I especially liked how the white and black box subsection introduced agile methods etc.
Also, you will want to get familiar with test plans of some sort.
It is an efficient way to work as it allows you to "remember everything" you should be testing.
There's a lot more you could be learning beforehand, but most studios have their own strategies and methods, and once they have realized you are:
a - interested
b - engaged
c - actually get up your ass to get the information you need
they might feel confident about hiring you for the internship, and then filling in the gaps for you.
Hopefully that helps a bit?
Edit:
To add up to what Will said, I'd also have a look at how Mantis works. It is usually found only on smaller scale projects/development teams, but I am not familiar with what Bethesda uses, so better be safe than sorry... most likely, Jira (for bug tracking) and Perforce (as file repository/source control) will be what you'll be dealing with for large scale console games, but don't quote me on that.
1 - Milestones/Workflow
2 - Testing strategies
I'll take for granted you know the former.
If you need info on the 2nd, I recommend reading this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing
I especially liked how the white and black box subsection introduced agile methods etc.
Also, you will want to get familiar with test plans of some sort.
It is an efficient way to work as it allows you to "remember everything" you should be testing.
There's a lot more you could be learning beforehand, but most studios have their own strategies and methods, and once they have realized you are:
a - interested
b - engaged
c - actually get up your ass to get the information you need
they might feel confident about hiring you for the internship, and then filling in the gaps for you.
Hopefully that helps a bit?
Edit:
To add up to what Will said, I'd also have a look at how Mantis works. It is usually found only on smaller scale projects/development teams, but I am not familiar with what Bethesda uses, so better be safe than sorry... most likely, Jira (for bug tracking) and Perforce (as file repository/source control) will be what you'll be dealing with for large scale console games, but don't quote me on that.
Just don't screw up the interview.
Get your hands on this book if you can, so you will have something to talk about.
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Development-Essentials-QA-Testing/dp/1435439473/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292968576&sr=1-1
If you can't get hold of the book, make something up and hope they fall for it.
Get your hands on this book if you can, so you will have something to talk about.
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Development-Essentials-QA-Testing/dp/1435439473/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292968576&sr=1-1
If you can't get hold of the book, make something up and hope they fall for it.
Read FAQ 5 in the Breaking In Forum's FAQs (this post is now in Breaking In).
The FAQs link is above -- it's really really small -- if you can't find it, you're not QA material. This is a test! (^_^)
The FAQs link is above -- it's really really small -- if you can't find it, you're not QA material. This is a test! (^_^)
If you have an Xbox 360 and $100 to spare, you could join the XNA Creators Club (or whatever they call it these days) -- http://create.msdn.com/en-US/. There's a Peer Review system where people review each other's games to approve them for release on XBox Live. You could volunteer some time there testing games.
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