Become a Game Tester & Get Paid to Play Games

You can turn your hobby into a money making profession. If you love playing games then you got an opportunity to make money with it.

Instead of wasting time you can become a Pro and take gaming as a serious career option.

In this article we tell you how you can become a game tester and get paid.

How to Make Money as a Game Tester

So you might be asking how to become a game tester & make money playing different games.

But before that you need to know who is going to pay you and why would they ever be willing to pay you for just playing games?

Well here is the answer.

Gaming companies are always eager to know the response of their buyers. They want to know whether they really like the game or the product has some serious issues.

Buyer’s opinion would help them to make changes and other enhancement that they are demanding.

So before these companies launch a product to their end users they need game testers who can check the performance of their product.

You will be ascertaining how well or bad the product is and what needs to be done to fix design and coding issues.

For doing this a gaming company would pay a game tester on hourly basis.

There are various other ways you make money playing games.

You can take up online surveys related to games and make money.

You get paid for previewing and reviewing new games.

You also get paid participating in focus groups.

What You Have to do as a Game Tester?

What would your role be as a Game Tester?

As the development process goes into final phase the game testers gets a version and they begin playing games.

• Finding Errors – Testers have to find errors while they start playing games. Errors could be coding errors, bugs, design errors and logic errors.

• Reporting Bugs – When you are working for a large project with dozens of testers then you have to determine whether the bug has already been reported or not. If not then you have to report it and check again if the fix works or not. Then finally you verify that bug hasn’t reappeared.

• Checking UI and Functionality – Check the look and feel about the User Interface. You also have to check functionalities like game progress, outcome, multi player games etc.

• Verify Integration Points – Here you have to check if the game win determination matches the gaming rules.

• Compatibility and Security Review – Check for the operating system and browser compatibility and see whether the game is working well or not. Similarly verify security and reliability.

• Performance Testing – For online games you have to check whether the site is able to handle the traffic or not.

• Multi-Player Testing – Verify handling of all players with right distribution of gaming resources to each one of them.

You have to do these things as a game tester.

What Do You Need to Become a Tester?

So can anyone become a tester? My answer would be No. It is not an easy job because you require a lot of technical knowledge.

• Understanding of Games – You need to know various types of games, its features and how to play them. About the UI, functionality, game rules etc.

• Communication Skills – You got to communicate with programmers and designers if you have to report a bug or an error.

• Game Algorithms and Codes – A little bit of coding knowledge can also come in handy.

• Years of Experience – You need some experience before you think of becoming a tester.

How Much Money Can You Make?

How much money can you make depends upon your role as a tester.

For the beginner the pay is very low. It could go up to $16 to $20 an hour. However you will start with only $10 an hour.

However if you get to take part in focus group then you can make up to $150 an hour.

If you play for reviews of a new game then you can make between $5 and $20 each hour you play.

A tester on an average makes around $40000 per year.

If you work hard then you can make up to $30 an hour.

Advantages and Disadvantages Being a Game Tester

Well there are advantages as well as disadvantages being a tester.

Advantages

• You get to do what you always wanted to do.
• You can start with a tester and later on write reviews in newspapers and magazines.
• The money is also not that bad keeping lack of jobs in the mind.

Disadvantages

• Very difficult to find a job because the industry is too small.
• The jobs are on contract basis. So you are not sure whether you are going to work permanent or not.
• You have to work your butt off at least 12 to 13 hours a day.
• You may not like the team you are working with like programmers and designers.

How Do You Get Started?

Finally how do you get started if you want to be a game tester?

The problem with getting started is many sites on the internet are just scam. You have to be on LinkedIn and look for HRs who are recruiting testers.

You can also look to regular job sites for openings as a game tester.

You have to stay in loop if you want a tester job because the recruiting agencies are few in numbers.