1 6
BE PREPARED KEEP AN OPEN MIND
Each developer will have specific areas for each of their tests that
they want gamers to focus on to help progress their project to
the next stage of development. Read and take note of all test
requirements and objectives, you don’t want to finish a test only
to realise you avoided things they wanted feedback on.
2 7
TAKE NOTES
You never know what questions you’ll be asked at the end of
the test and it’s easy to forget minor details, particularly when
playing for longer sessions. Note your likes, dislikes and any
bugs you encounter – it’s our number one tip for providing
higher quality feedback.
3 8
KNOW YOUR ROLE
As game testers the majority of the titles you play will still be
deep in development. By their nature the content will be
unfinished, feature occasional crashes/bugs and sometimes
might not work at all. Try not to let this frustrate you and instead
channel these observations into the feedback you provide.
4 9
SHARE WHAT’S BROKEN
If you encounter a bug, glitch or crash, don’t let it slide.
Take a note of anything that doesn’t seem quite right, you
might end up being the sole reason no one else experiences
that same bug when the game releases to the public. You’re a
fundamental asset to increasing the overall quality of any title
you play with Game Tester.
5 10
TAKE IT ALL IN
Take moments to absorb non-gameplay elements of the game,
for example art style, animations, music, voice acting, sound
effects, ambience, lighting, user interface etc. Each of these are
equally important when building the world and overall feel of
any video game.
You may have a pre-existing opinion of a certain genre,
franchise or studio that relates to the game you’re testing, try to
put these thoughts to the back of your mind when testing.
Remaining impartial is incredibly important to offering unbiased
and constructive feedback. You might not be the target audience
but your feedback can still be valuable.
TRY TO BE SPECIFIC
Try to remember or note where you were and what you
were doing when something went wrong and give as much
information as possible, including your hardware specs where
necessary. Links to in-game screenshots or video clips can
also be a powerful visual tool that help developers recreate
issues and have them fixed up quicker.
STAY CONSTRUCTIVE
Testing games can be difficult sometimes, especially if
your hardware is causing a game to run poorly or crash.
Remember these developers are requesting your services
specifically to improve these issues. Try to remain constructive
and if something sucks, explain how you think it could
be improved.
CONSIDER PRESENTATION
Reading through feedback from hundreds of testers can be a
daunting task for developers, try to present your feedback in
a clear and neat format, using line breaks and bullet points
where necessary to make the information easier to digest.
ENJOY YOURSELF!
While a main target for game testers is to look out for bugs
and areas that can be improved, it also helps developers just
as much to know what parts of the game are enjoyable, this
allows them to focus on their strengths and bring other elements
of the game up to the same level of quality.