Quality Assurance

Bethesda® AAA Game Projects

Bethesda® AAA Game Projects

Bethesda® AAA Game Projects

Overview

Discovering and cataloging odd bugs, console certification, black box, PC compatibility, along with so many other types of testing can all be put in the day in the life of a quality assurance tester. Communicating effectively with the most concise wording and tag words becomes the most important tactic to success when entering issues into project databases. Even more so when working with international teams where English may not be the first language for developers on your team.


My time in QA with AAA games was spent on much more than just cataloging bugs in Jira, Hansoft, or Confluence however. It grew from general testing to certification testing having games approved for major console releases, early testing on different hardware such as VR headsets, and eventually into directly assisting into early iterations of game design with the development teams.

Game Titles Worked On

Primary

  • Dishonored 2

  • Prey

  • The Evil Within 2

  • Prey: Mooncrash

  • Prey: Typhon Hunter VR

  • Rage 2

Additional

  • Quake Champions

  • The Elder Scrolls Legends

  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind

  • DOOM Eternal

  • Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset

  • Fallout 76

  • The Elder Scrolls Blades

Key Roles

Key Roles

Console Certification Testing

When releasing games onto Xbox, Playstation, and Switch consoles, each has a very specific set of guidelines that must be followed in order to qualify the game to release on the platform. Beyond the game simply running well on the console hardware, everything from the controller icons to dialogue within the game must meet all guidelines specified by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Required Duties

  • Reading and fully comprehending of all requirement documentation for each major console. This includes extreme or edge case scenarios where best judgement comes into play.

  • An eye for detail as some small issue may fail a certification submission costing the company potentially massive losses due to certification costs and game release delays.

  • Meticulous written communication skills when cataloging issues in bug databases.

  • Knowledge of console hardware, software, and firmware for testing on dev kits as well as retail devices.

Black Box Testing

In most situations QA is not asked for design feedback and simply the role is to provide only issues to the developers that require fixes. When doing black box testing at Bethesda my duties instead involved early testing of gameplay to provide feedback on mechanics and design within gameplay as well as UI/UX for the HUD.

Required Duties

  • Provide design suggestions and feedback to developers and artists during game testing.

  • Understanding principles of game design and concept prototyping.

  • Iterating on core gameplay mechanics to mitigate feature creep and improve the player experience.

Compiling Builds & Smoke Testing

Exporting builds properly from game engines with the most up to date changes daily for testing is essential to ensure no time is wasted during projects. Errors when doing so can provide false positive bugs or crashes that hinder the rest of the team from testing during the workday.

Required Duties

  • Compile builds properly each morning with all changes included in the change list from teams.

  • Smoke test the builds on a particular platform to ensure everything was correct and ready before the team arrived for the day to begin full testing.

  • Knowledge of console SDKs in order to push builds to devices and running diagnostics.

Tools Used

Project Management

Project Management

  • Jira

  • Hansoft

  • Confluence

  • Git Hub

  • Microsoft Office Suite

Game Engines

Game Engines

  • Creation Kit

  • Unreal Engine 3

  • Unreal Engine 4

Hardware

Hardware

  • PC [various builds]

  • Xbox One

  • Xbox One S

  • Xbox One X [prototype]

  • Playstation 4

  • Playstation 5 [prototype]

  • Oculus Rift

  • Playstation VR

Console Certification Testing

When releasing games onto Xbox, Playstation, and Switch consoles, each has a very specific set of guidelines that must be followed in order to qualify the game to release on the platform. Beyond the game simply running well on the console hardware, everything from the controller icons to dialogue within the game must meet all guidelines specified by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Required Duties

  • Reading and fully comprehending of all requirement documentation for each major console. This includes extreme or edge case scenarios where best judgement comes into play.

  • An eye for detail as some small issue may fail a certification submission costing the company potentially massive losses due to certification costs and game release delays.

  • Meticulous written communication skills when cataloging issues in bug databases.

  • Knowledge of console hardware, software, and firmware for testing on dev kits as well as retail devices.

Black Box Testing

In most situations QA is not asked for design feedback and simply the role is to provide only issues to the developers that require fixes. When doing black box testing at Bethesda my duties instead involved early testing of gameplay to provide feedback on mechanics and design within gameplay as well as UI/UX for the HUD.

Required Duties

  • Provide design suggestions and feedback to developers and artists during game testing.

  • Understanding principles of game design and concept prototyping.

  • Iterating on core gameplay mechanics to mitigate feature creep and improve the player experience.

Compiling Builds & Smoke Testing

Exporting builds properly from game engines with the most up to date changes daily for testing is essential to ensure no time is wasted during projects. Errors when doing so can provide false positive bugs or crashes that hinder the rest of the team from testing during the workday.

Required Duties

  • Compile builds properly each morning with all changes included in the change list from teams.

  • Smoke test the builds on a particular platform to ensure everything was correct and ready before the team arrived for the day to begin full testing.

  • Knowledge of console SDKs in order to push builds to devices and running diagnostics.

Tools Used

Project Management

  • Jira

  • Hansoft

  • Confluence

  • Git Hub

  • Microsoft Office Suite

Game Engines

  • Creation Kit

  • Unreal Engine 3

  • Unreal Engine 4

Hardware

  • PC [various builds]

  • Xbox One

  • Xbox One S

  • Xbox One X [prototype]

  • Playstation 4

  • Playstation 5 [prototype]

  • Oculus Rift

  • Playstation VR

© Michael Svabek. 2024