Video gaming is an over 30 years industry. As the consoles become improved, video games get longer and deeper. In the first years of this market, only a few people were interested about video game designing. But now, a game company hires an "army" for this process. And sometimes this process lasts more than 2-3 years. You too have some possibilities about turning your passion into a paying job. The first step of that is game testing. But the main question is; "Are you really willing to work hard to live your dream?"Would you like to have your passion as a job?
I told you about this in my article about video game testing, but I want to mention it again briefly. Most of the people have some wrong ideas about becoming a video game tester. I'm sure you have searched the web too about this and seen some titles like; "Play games and make up to 100$ an hour at your home!". YOU NEED TO FORGET THIS! It's not possible to stay at home, play the latest version of Call of Duty for hours and only to get up for paying the pizza. Nobody will pay you for such a job.
What about the salary as a video game tester?
I got these average salary numbers of 2011 from Game Developer Magazine;
- Quality Assurance(Testers) : 47,910$
- Programmers : 92,962$
- Audio : 83,182$
- Designers/Writers : 73,386$
- Artists and Animators : 75,780$
- Producers : 85,687$
- Business/Legal : 102,160$
These are the salaries of full time employees. You will be hired as a game tester by most of the companies on a temporary basis. When a game is about to be finished, video game companies hire game testers for a 3-6 month period. So I think earning $40,000 in a year as a tester requires a lot of overtime.Only 4 Gamers
Only 4 Gamers is one of those sites that claim to help you find a job as a video game tester. You probably saw these sites while doing your research about game testing. They are generally membership sites and they want you to pay a fee for once to join up. Finding tester jobs could be hard and takes a lot of time. So those sites are good for saving your time because what they actually do is posting video game testing jobs to you from all game companies. It's a database of available jobs in game industry. Also their listings are always up to date. There are a lot of that kind of sites you can find but I will only tell you about "Only 4 Gamers" to make it simple.
I can give you an honest opinion about this site because I tried it. I went to this site and paid for a membership to be sure about it. I should say that, I wasn't expecting such amount of information for a $38,97 price. Here are some sections you can find on home page of Only 4 Gamers;
- Job Openings
- Game Companies
- Game Testing Courses
- Video Game School
- Introduction to Game Testing
- The Truth About Game Testing
- Things to Know Before Getting Started
- Building Your Skill Se
- The Mechanics of Game Testing
- Your Resume and Cover Letter
- How to Interview
- The Job Hunt
Like I said in my other articles about gaming jobs, you can find job openings in the sites of game companies. But doing this could take a lot of time. So, if you decided to become a tester and started to search about it but don't have an idea where to find information about the process, then this site could be a good choice for you. Also there is a sneak peek video on the webpage but you have to submit your e-mail first. But no need to worry, they won't send you spam emails.
Also you can check the other pay for info site, gamingjobsonline. It's a database of job openings too. It's very similar to Only 4 Gamers. If you want to become a video game tester, you have to act, now.
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