Hi everyone, welcome back. Do you like to play video games and wish you could make money playing them? If you said yes, then playtesting may be something to look into. But this is not something that can replace your daytime job and make you a millionaire, this is more for side income.
So what is playtesting? It’s a method that game developers use to test a new game. The game developers will have playtesters to try their game, and the playtesters will give their feedback on things such as usability, design improvements, and overall enjoyment of the game. This is different from a video game tester, where their job is typically to do things to try to break the game to find bugs and glitches. Playtesting can be done on a computer, mobile device, or gaming console. This will vary depending on the game.
How can you get into playtesting? There’s a few different ways to get into playtesting. The big gaming companies such as EA and Ubisoft have playtesting programs. If you are located near one of their on-site facilities, then you could go there for playtesting, if not then they will occasionally have remote playtests that can be done from home. Another option would be to go through playtestcloud. Playtestcloud is all for remote playtesting, mostly for mobile games. Last option would be to register as a playtesting freelancer on Fiverr or some other freelance website.
So how does playtesting work? Playtests can range from 5 minutes to an hour and the amount you earn will vary by test .When a playtest is ready, you will be notified. Then you can download the playtest onto your device. When the playtest is downloaded, it will also install a screen and voice recording program to see where you’re at in the game and gather your feedback as you’re playing. During the playtests you will be given tasks, such as “complete the first level and give us your thoughts so far” or “pick up this weapon, use it, and tell us what you think about it.”
There’s all sorts of different things you could talk about during a playtest, though whenever you are working through a new task, it’s good to repeat the task so the developer or whoever is looking at your feedback will know where you are at. Talk about how enjoyable the game is, how easy or difficult it is. Is the game easy to understand, are the controls smooth. Is it visually pleasing or are there any design suggestions. Are there any suggestions on things to add or things to remove. This is all your feedback that can help developers improve their game.
After you finish the playtest, you submit it, it gets reviewed and sent to the developer, and you get paid. Yay! So this was my intro on playtesting, hopefully this may help you and again, this isn’t something that can replace your daytime job, but more for side income. Thanks for reading.
