Multiclassing

By now, you should be pretty comfortable on most kinds of testing projects. You might have a couple of weak spots here and there; you might not be the best speller, you might have a hard time organizing your repro steps, or you might just have trouble getting through whichever game you're assigned to. But those are all things you can work on as you go.

So what's next? You can do your best and wait to get promoted, but what else can you do in the meantime?

Finding bugs day in and day out is the core job of a tester, but there are ways to branch out within that. I'm talking about specialties, skills not all testers learn or use, but are nonetheless essential to a quality product. Skills like:

Localization. The word "localization" has several meanings, all of them related. It can mean "general proofreading." It can mean "translation into other languages, and proofreading those translations." Or — this is the definition most RPG fans use — it can refer to taking an awkward, literal translation and rewriting it into something that carries the same meaning, but sounds more natural.

Whatever the definition, a localizer specializes in maintaining the quality of a game's text, and can make the difference between a clean presentation and a sloppy one. Needless to say, the more text-heavy the game, the more important the localizer's job becomes. On especially text-heavy games, such as long RPGs, publishers may conscript entire teams of localizers to check the script line by line, both on paper and in-game, and make sure that each line uses correct spelling/grammar/punctuation and fits in its intended context.

Obviously, a localizer needs a strong command of the language in question. You'll need to know not only how to identify typos on sight, but the technical reasons they're considered typos. (You won't necessarily have to know all the techincal rules right off the bat, but learn them quickly as you go.)

For example, say you come across this line in game:

Look out John!

What's wrong with it? One thing: There needs to be a comma between "out" and "John." Why? Because, in this context, the word "John" is a direct address, a word or phrase referring to the speaker's intended audience. A direct address, by the way, doesn't have to be someone's name; other examples of direct addresses include, "Face me, boy!" "Excuse me, sir..." or "My fellow Americans, I am not a crook!" In all such instances, the rule says to put a comma there to offset it from the rest of the sentence.

So when you're fixing "Look out John!", don't just say, "Add a comma before 'John.'" Say something to the effect of "Add a comma before 'John' to offset the instance of direct address."

Not everyone will understand the technical wordings of the rules you cite, but they'll recognize that they are rules, and that you know them; that helps your credibility.

Here's another thing about localization: Depending on the project, you might be on a short leash or a long one when it comes to making changes. Your instructions might be to make the bare minimum of necessary fixes to the punctuation/grammar/spelling and leave it at that, or you might be allowed to completely rewrite the text wherever you see the need.

Be warned: It can be frustrating to see a horribly-written (but techincally grammatically correct) line and not be allowed to fix it. Your lead can sometimes convince the higher-ups to approve that kind of fix, but sometimes not, especially if the line's already been voiced over (in which case it's pretty much locked down). And even if you're given more freedom to suggest broader edits and rewrites, they may or may not take those suggestions. Still, when everything does come together, it's a rush to see your own lines right there on the screen, especially if they end up voiced over; those'll be your lines the actors are speaking, and that's a great feeling.

Whatever the details of the assignment, be aware of how much freedom you're allowed, and try not to overstep your bounds without at least going through your lead first.

There's much more to say about the finer points of localization, but we'll save the rest for later.

Compliance is another specialty available to most testers. Some places call it Standards testing or Guidelines testing, but it's all the same; a compliance tester makes sure that each title follows all the rules laid down by Sony, Microsoft, and/or Nintendo (depending, of course, on which platforms the title's intended for).

In a nutshell, each of the Big Three has their own sets of rules for each game released on any one of their platforms. These rules deal mainly with how the game software interacts with the hardware; for example, if the end user pulls out a memory card in mid-save, there are specific rules on how the game has to deal with it. The details of the rules are always in flux, but your company should have the all the latest versions of them, usually in the form of a checklist.

Some places consider compliance testing a specialty, and will section off a certain group of testers to focus on compliance full-time. Other places are less specific; each time they want to sweep through the compliance checklist, they might have the lead pick out a couple of testers to do it, and the lead may or may not pick the same ones as last time.

With that in mind, not every tester needs to be familiar with first-party standards, but it certainly does help get you noticed. Even if you're not a designated compliance tester, knowledge of the standards can help you notice potential compliance issues, which you'll then (usually be allowed to) bring to the compliance team's attention.

On the plus side, becoming a compliance tester can make you more valuable, and thus make your job that much more stable. Testers who demonstrably know first-party standards backwards and forwards are a rare commodity, and worth keeping around whenever possible.

There are two downsides to specializing in compliance. One, you run the risk of getting pigeonholed; a company that needs you to run compliance checks on all its titles may not let you spend much time on anything else. Two, there's a lot of pressure. The reason good compliance testers are valuable is because, when it comes to first-party guidelines, even one failure to follow them can get a game delayed for weeks or even months. When that happens, and it will happen eventually, people get pissed. At you.

Now, wise producers and QA leads know that games do sometimes fail first-party guidelines; no matter how well your compliance team knows the rules, someone at one of the Big Three may have a wildly different interpretation of some obscure rule, and call foul when you never would have. Since there's no guarantee of getting it right the first time, no matter how good your team is, it's always good to plan on getting it right the second time instead.

Mobile game testing is another specialization your testing house may include. Not every publisher or developer deals in mobile games, but those that do have their work cut out for them; it's up to their mobile QA department to ensure that each game works on every single supported brand of phone, and that can be as many as 100 different brands. Want to be the go-to guy when they need someone to play through the game 100 times back-to-back-to-back? You can be!

The downside there is pretty obvious; you'll have a pile of phones to get through, some more user-friendly than others. You'll also have to learn all-new ways to test each title; mainly, you'll need to make sure each game behaves properly during incoming calls. And not every mobile game is a winner. You might get a little envious of the other testers as they enjoy their next-gen blockbuster while you're stuck on its comparatively scrawny cousin.

On the plus side, mobile teams are generally small, which makes it easier to get noticed, and they can be much closer to the developers than other test teams are, which can give you valuable experience. Ask around to see if either of those two things apply where you work.

Since localization is what I have the most personal experience with, we'll start talking more about that next.