Today I interviewed a classmate who is doing testing in the game industry. His game company is making massively multiplayer online role-playing games, similar to legendary games. His company currently has more than 1,200 employees and is a listed company. Currently, its game products have markets both domestically and overseas.
Because I am a person who has no interest in games, I asked some questions that you may be interested in, and help you explore the way in advance.
1. How do you feel about employment in the game testing industry?
I have been working in the game testing industry for 4 years now. The software testing industry is too complicated. It is very easy to find a job in the game industry, as long as you do functional testing. But this industry has a big span for newcomers, but it will be easy to do after a long time. If you are familiar with the business, you can do anything. If you don’t know some basic business of the game, the company is basically unwilling. It is better to spend money to poach people than to spend time to train you.
2. What is the difference between game testing and software testing?
There is game planning in game testing, which is similar to product managers in software testing. There will be many plans in the game responsible for different systems, such as weather system, combat system, point system, numerical system, etc. Each system module is different. Compared with software testing, there are more integration tests in game testing. The correlation between the systems is relatively large, and there are a lot of scene processes to be covered and tested!
3. Have you ever encountered a bug when it went online?
100% sure, it just depends on the severity of the problem.
4. If there is a bug, will it be blamed? Is there a performance review?
It is not necessarily the fault of the test. It mainly depends on the division of responsibilities. Generally, the corresponding person in charge will be found, and then this situation will generally affect the performance appraisal. For example, if a bug is discovered, a few points will be deducted. If it is an employee of an outsourcing company If a bug occurs, the company's internal instructors will also deduct money and points. The higher the level, the more the deductions will be made. Outsourced employees may be responsible for writing accident reports, summarizing the situation, self-criticism, etc., and may be fired in serious cases.
5. Have you ever had an online bug?
I have only one so far. Because I worked overtime until 4-5 in the morning, I gradually lost patience in the test. I was lazy and encountered a bug online.
6. How did you feel when the bug appeared online? Do you feel panicked?
well enough? Because the bug incident was not 100% my responsibility, and the planning requirements at that time were not clearly written, so it was okay.
7. What is the update cycle of the game testing industry?
The update of the game industry is really voluptuous, basically every week. In the software testing industry, you may have hundreds of millions of users if you don’t update it for a few years, but if you don’t update the game testing industry, users may run away.
8. Does your game company work a lot of overtime?
The general working hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., which can be arranged according to your work situation. You can leave when you are done, but the atmosphere in our group is relatively good, and we will take the initiative to work overtime.
9. Is there overtime pay for overtime work? (Ask questions that you may care about)
No, it’s just a few dozen meal allowances, but overtime work will affect performance appraisal and indirectly affect your quarterly bonus. It doesn’t mean that the more overtime you work, the higher your performance. Overtime and attendance are just an indicator, and the bonus will be determined based on your labor output in the end , completely in accordance with the principle of more work, more pay. Bonuses are generally issued every quarter after you become a full-time employee. Your rank and output are different, and your bonuses are also different.
10. Some people say that the game company is very cool, and the only way to go to work is to play games? ! (You may all want to know!)
It can be said that this is not exactly the same. In the end, the test should cover as many different scenarios as possible, but if you have finished your work for the day, you can play your own company's game. It mainly depends on the company. Small companies may not allow or accept employees playing games during working hours, but large companies, such as Tencent Dad, allow it because they believe in the self-control of their employees. After all, they have such high requirements for recruiting and special professionalism. High, there is a high probability that you will not touch fish.
11. How much is your salary?
Greater than 10k and less than 20k. It is not convenient to disclose specific data, this is the top secret of the company
12. Every year, the Internet says that the bonuses in the game testing industry are scary. How about your company?
It’s okay, the general bonus package includes a minimum of 2 months’ salary, and the worst one also has 1 month’s salary. If you are a senior old expert or business expert, millions of dollars is completely fine, it mainly depends on your own industry experience.
13. Is there a lot of people in the test group?
It is mainly arranged by country, region and project. There are about 30 people in my project team.
14. How did you get into the game testing industry?
I majored in software testing in college before, and I went to Tencent during my internship, and I have been in the game testing industry since then. I used to play games, and my family always said what was the use of playing games, so I said, can I make it my career? Isn't it valuable? Then I really got into the game industry to do testing. I myself like playing games more, so I still enjoy it.
15. How do you feel about the career development of the game testing industry?
I feel better. For example, the development path of the software testing industry may generally be like this:
Go to outsourcing first, then go to small companies, then go to medium-sized companies, and finally go to large companies if possible.
But if it’s in the game industry, it’s different. You may go directly to a large game company as soon as you get a job, so relatively speaking, I think this is still very good, and the starting point is very high! For example, the company I work in has a very mature promotion system, and I am confident that I may be promoted to a test supervisor in the next 2-3 years.
16. Is there any difference between the testing methods of software testing and game testing?
The testing process is actually similar to that of software testing, only the details need to be adjusted, but basically you still need to know the basic skills of testing such as requirements analysis, use case writing and submitting bugs, and game testing is based on manual testing as much as possible. The testing team I belong to is There are more than 30 tests.
17. How difficult is game testing compared to software testing?
It may sometimes be necessary to conduct cross-server testing or integration testing of system modules, etc., and the complexity is relatively high. Let me give you an example. Sometimes, for example, 100 people on server A have to compete with 100 people on server B. Then this Sometimes it is impossible to 100% require 100 people to conduct such a test, so the side value of the test will be modified, and 100 people will be changed to 10 people, and then the PK simulation will be performed. It may be that these are the differences, but how detailed the distinction needs to be, still requires specific analysis of specific situations.
18. How to improve test efficiency? Will it be automated?
Still can do automation, unittest and airtest will be used, the demand for automation talents for game testing is very high, but there are relatively few talents, it is difficult to recruit suitable automation testing talents, because the complexity of the game scene is high, and the cost of automation is too high ! Ordinary game companies don’t know how to do automation, unless it is a big game company, it goes without saying, they have their own mature automation system. For example, I mostly write and write by myself, and I can write for some relatively simple activities or scenarios, but basically I run it locally, and I don’t do automation and sustainable integration platforms.
19. Has the epidemic greatly affected your company?
In fact, in my opinion, I don't think it is big, and it can even be said to be rising against the trend.
20. The game issued by the state is not allowed for minors to play. Does it have a big impact on you?
Hardly, because our games are aimed at adults, which may be a big deal for companies that target underage games.
21. What is your future career plan?
Visually, I will always develop in the game industry, and if there is a suitable opportunity, I will start a business. For example, in terms of game traffic, operations, promotion, trade unions, etc., as long as the policies are good and suitable opportunities are found, they will consider starting a business in the game industry.
22. How do you classify games?
My division is very simple. For example, Qiang Battle is more suitable for the post-70s and 80s. Strong Competition belongs to young people. They like to play more trendy games.
