Ex Bradford student on what it's like to be a video game tester

During his four years in the role, Harun Ali worked on high-profile titles including Lego Dimensions, Star Citizen and Human Fall Flat 2 before they were made available to the public. 

The role, also known as Quality Assurance (QA), sees testers look for potential bugs within a new game and report them to the gaming company.

These bugs will then be fixed by the developers before the game is officially released.

Harun worked as a video game tester for four years (Image: University of Bradford)Testers can also play the game ahead of its release, giving their feedback on its playability to the developers.

Harun, who graduated in 2015 with a BA (Hons) Graphics for Games degree, says he would often spend all day every day for months playing the same video game prior to its general release.

He now divides his time between Bradford and Tenerife, where he works as an associate producer for No Brakes Games. 

Harun, 30, has now passed on his knowledge in his first book – The Pocket Mentor for Video Game Testing - which gives a guide to getting into the industry. 

He now divides his time between Bradford and Tenerife where he works as an associate producer for No Brakes Games (Image: University of Bradford)He said: “Video game testing is fun. I was testing on Lego Dimensions for six months. That was a fun project. 

“In QA, you are making sure that there are no defects in a game. If you find an issue, developers can reproduce the bugs and fix them. You are that second pair of eyes. You find a bug and report it. A game has to eventually come out. 

“Games testers can be involved in all levels of the game’s production process. Testers are the first and last line of defence for any game. This is to get them ready for the public.

University of Bradford (Image: Newsquest)“The hardest thing to overcome in video game testing is the repetitiveness of it. Games can take five years before they are released.

"If you have to play a game for eight hours a day for five years, it might not be as fun.

"You then have to find unique ways to make the job fun, to keep you motivated to play the same game over and over again. Something added to the game can make it fresh.”

Harun says he hopes people who wish to become a video game tester will be given an insight into the trade after reading his book.