TT Games production chief: Kids are the best video game testers

Ooo Look fun child labour

Because they don't mind working for peanuts?

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I don't think I'm in the mood to play games that were tested and approved by eight-year old children.

"They get to it quicker than anybody else, because they'll just say if something doesn't work. The smallest things could ruin something, and they'll get bored and move on."

I just remembered something: I never managed to get past world 4-4 on Super Mario Bros (NES). Granted I was probably five or six then, but I do remember spending two+ hours staring at the screen wondering when that awful level would end. That was when I defected to Sega.

is it me... or does that pink ds fat look cool?

I think he needed to clarify his statement. Sure, they're good for games aimed at their demographic, but even then there are things kids won't notice. LIke "Hey, the anti-aliasing drops out at this point" or "the physics feel floaty". For that, you need experienced testers.

Obvious child labour laws and pedobear posts aside, this is actually completely true. Children have no preconcieved notions of what they can and cannot do. If a child can understand the basic game mechanics, they will cover more special cases and find more bugs than anyone in QA will dream of finding.

I have heard many stories from people, both coming from the internet and other people in computer science, where their parents would bring home the game or software they were testing and let them "play around with it". The dad or mom would sit their watching their kid, taking notes or have them tell them what happened when something crashed.

Do you think Missingno in the original Pokemon was found by a 25 year old man who hacked the game? Or a 9 year old kid who found out that he could get 99x rare candies by continuously going through the same sequence of events?

I must have been terrible as a kid then because I put up with a lot of crap games back in the day >_

"They get to it quicker than anybody else, because they'll just say if something doesn't work. The smallest things could ruin something, and they'll get bored and move on."

I don't agree with him. Kids seem to have a high tolerance for bad games or bad aspects of games. Although I didn't typically play bad games as a kid, I had much more patience with them than I do today. Now, If there's anything that just doesn't work in some game, and the rest of the game doesn't make up for it, I just stop playing it right there.

This certainly explains the substandard quality of games coming to retail the past couple of years. I've been saying they either don't listen to their testers or don't have good testers working for them, but the truth might be that the eight year old child labor testers just aren't qualified to be true game testers....

You couldn't have asked for a more sterotypical photo - cute little girl playing on a pink DS and (presumebly) slightly older brother wearing "cool" kids clothing and playing on a PSP.

I don't know, I enjoyed some terrible games back when I was a kid. I didn't pay attention to bugs and the like, I was just excited to have something to play.

Oh so that's why games nowadays seem to have more and more bugs than ever!

Good luck getting proper feedback from an 8 year old....

Computer and video game development is a fast-growing entertainment field, with a lot to offer you professionally and creatively. Your enthusiasm is crucial, but you'll also need skill and qualifications.
games tester

Video Game Tester may sound glamorous; however it can at times be a tedious job. As a tester you would be required at times play through the same levels many, many times over. Sometimes it can take this long just to identify all different bugs in the game.