Hey! My name is Brody. I am currently going to school to become a video game designer(life dream). One of our assignments this term is to get an interview with someone in the field that we desire. So I am looking for a video game tester, or designer, who could answer these questions for me. I'm very eager to learn more for myself as well. Thanks for all your help.
QUESTIONS:
What training and education did you have that lead you to this career?
What other "paying your dues" positions did you hold?
How would you suggest that someone break into this field?
What is a typical entry level salary? are they any benefits?
What graphic arts skills are essential to being successful in this field?
What other skills or qualifications would help you get started?
What do you do all day, everyday?
What do you enjoy most about your work?
What produces the most stress?
Where do you see yourself going from here?
Do you work independently or as part of a team?
How do you get clients?
If you are unable to help, do you recommend any sites to visit that could offer an interview? Thanks again(:
Looking for interview w/ designer or tester
I'll answer them.
1): When I started, I didn't actually go into any "training", I just started looking things up, reading tutorials, etc. and it just got easier and easier as time went on.
2): Don't know what you mean, sorry.
3): If you like doing it, keep on going and don't stop.Also, start small.
4): That's hard to answer, as I'm not working for pay at the moment.
5): If you're a programmer, you don't really need much. But you will definitely have to hire someone or learn, as 3D art is what makes up the actual game.
6): You will eventually probably have to definitely learn some sort of programming, animating, or 3D art.
7): That really depends on what you're doing. If it's your full time job, then you do it all day. If it's a hobby, like me, then I usually spend a few hours a day working on it.
8): The feeling of achievement when you complete something big, even if no one will play it. (My terrible recreation of pong was my first project
).
9): If you have a team, it's definitely getting everyone together and putting everything together.
10): I hope to make this a full-time job eventually.
11): It depends on the size of the project. I'm working on a big one now, so I have a team.
12): I don't have clients, I just make games that I think people will enjoy playing.
Sorry if I didn't answer well, hope I helped! You can read my Developer Journal entries for more.
1): When I started, I didn't actually go into any "training", I just started looking things up, reading tutorials, etc. and it just got easier and easier as time went on.
2): Don't know what you mean, sorry.
3): If you like doing it, keep on going and don't stop.Also, start small.
4): That's hard to answer, as I'm not working for pay at the moment.
5): If you're a programmer, you don't really need much. But you will definitely have to hire someone or learn, as 3D art is what makes up the actual game.
6): You will eventually probably have to definitely learn some sort of programming, animating, or 3D art.
7): That really depends on what you're doing. If it's your full time job, then you do it all day. If it's a hobby, like me, then I usually spend a few hours a day working on it.
8): The feeling of achievement when you complete something big, even if no one will play it. (My terrible recreation of pong was my first project
).9): If you have a team, it's definitely getting everyone together and putting everything together.
10): I hope to make this a full-time job eventually.
11): It depends on the size of the project. I'm working on a big one now, so I have a team.
12): I don't have clients, I just make games that I think people will enjoy playing.
Sorry if I didn't answer well, hope I helped! You can read my Developer Journal entries for more.
Author
Thanks for your feedback. If anyone else wants to fill out the interview then please do! my ideal candidate would be someone who has received pay for working on a title.
By designer you mean game designer ? Or more of an artists, there are even software designers 
Level designer ?
Hope you find someone with industry experiences working in the fields you mentened, good luck.
Level designer ?Hope you find someone with industry experiences working in the fields you mentened, good luck.
Here goes...
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What training and education did you have that lead you to this career?
For good tester, understanding some coding helps, as well as understanding how to make some art assets enough to be able to make some fine looking graphics. So, get training or learning in some C++, HTML, Action Script, and other popular coding always helps. Similar thing for the arts side. Sketching, Photoshop'ing, Blender (or 3DMax and Maya), UDK, and such. For game designer, it's all above plus lots more. Degree in Collage helps. Could be in Communications, Fine Arts, Psychology, Human Behavior, Computer Science, etc etc so on and so forth. Get yourself in Internship really helps too.
What other "paying your dues" positions did you hold?
How would you suggest that someone break into this field?
3 best ways to break in, 1) Tester, 2 Level Designer, 3 Artist. As a Tester, it's usually easier to break in if you don't have lots of skills, but there are lots of other people doing the same thing as well, so you must be lucky. Also, it's mostly contract job, so it's not permanent, you will have to jump ships from one project to another. Until you have a few years of testing when you might be getting an in-house testing job with some companies. Level designer and artist will require more skills to get in, but usually once you are in, you are usually in for good, unless they fire you. For this to happen, get yourself a kickass portfolio. Work on indie project to get credit for your work. Once you are in for a few years, you might be able to move to Game Designer.
What is a typical entry level salary? are they any benefits?
Could be ranging any where from $10/hr - $16/hr for Tester. No benefits usually. Or maybe some crappy health insurance. Artist and Level Designer could be making more.
What graphic arts skills are essential to being successful in this field?
For Artist and Designer: Sketching, Drawing, screenshot mock-up creation, 3d modeling, character and environmental and hard-surface and organic and high poly and low poly and so on and so forth +.+
What other skills or qualifications would help you get started?
University Degree !
----------------------
What training and education did you have that lead you to this career?
For good tester, understanding some coding helps, as well as understanding how to make some art assets enough to be able to make some fine looking graphics. So, get training or learning in some C++, HTML, Action Script, and other popular coding always helps. Similar thing for the arts side. Sketching, Photoshop'ing, Blender (or 3DMax and Maya), UDK, and such. For game designer, it's all above plus lots more. Degree in Collage helps. Could be in Communications, Fine Arts, Psychology, Human Behavior, Computer Science, etc etc so on and so forth. Get yourself in Internship really helps too.
What other "paying your dues" positions did you hold?
How would you suggest that someone break into this field?
3 best ways to break in, 1) Tester, 2 Level Designer, 3 Artist. As a Tester, it's usually easier to break in if you don't have lots of skills, but there are lots of other people doing the same thing as well, so you must be lucky. Also, it's mostly contract job, so it's not permanent, you will have to jump ships from one project to another. Until you have a few years of testing when you might be getting an in-house testing job with some companies. Level designer and artist will require more skills to get in, but usually once you are in, you are usually in for good, unless they fire you. For this to happen, get yourself a kickass portfolio. Work on indie project to get credit for your work. Once you are in for a few years, you might be able to move to Game Designer.
What is a typical entry level salary? are they any benefits?
Could be ranging any where from $10/hr - $16/hr for Tester. No benefits usually. Or maybe some crappy health insurance. Artist and Level Designer could be making more.
What graphic arts skills are essential to being successful in this field?
For Artist and Designer: Sketching, Drawing, screenshot mock-up creation, 3d modeling, character and environmental and hard-surface and organic and high poly and low poly and so on and so forth +.+
What other skills or qualifications would help you get started?
University Degree !
University Degree !
Yep, Math is a bitch, even when you tell it to get lost, it always comes around again in anything tech related.
If you want to be a game designer, knowing about usability, designing GUIs, getting feedback on it, etc. may be helpful. Those two fields have similar concepts and thought processes.
Do you know what a game designer actually does in a professional environment? I don't want to sound patronising, I wouldn't be sure myself ;).
Thinking back when I started going into IT, the first internship I applied was not in the field I am currently working in. It also wasn't what I imagined. As you, my dream was to make games. But since I live in a country with practically no game studios, I didn't even knew of different roles and what they include.
When you want to go into this industry, IT will be a big part of it. Don't make your future path too narrow, maybe you like something completely different in the field of Computer Science. Many laymen don't know that, you don't just "work in IT", there are many different jobs and with that, many different ways to have fun
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