"My all-time favorite game would have to be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night by Konami. It is a side-scrolling, action-adventure game with beautiful hand-drawn 2D graphics, a huge castle to explore, and many RPG elements like leveling up, buying new weapons, etc."

Chris Chamberlain: Test Lead (2)

How has the life of a game tester changed since you began? What’s gotten better? What’s not as good? Better pay? Better hours? Better food?

Being a game tester in Microsoft Game Studios is the greatest job in the world. As a tester who has worked at other game companies, I can honestly say that most don’t pay heed or give much credit to testing. It is very often a thankless job. However at Microsoft, being a Software Test Engineer gives you a lot of leeway and say. Your position is well-respected and you alone bridge the gap between the consumer and the company. We find the flaws, communicate them to the developers, and they fix them. We also often suggest things that we think could make the game better. While not every suggestion can be implemented, it is great to see everyone add to the game. There are certain points or features that several testers on the team can point to and say, “I suggested that…and look how cool the developer implemented it!”

In the beginning, it took a long time to learn all the tools and get up to speed on things because I wasn’t very technical. The bar constantly rises and you need to learn new things to stay afloat. Moving the game from Xbox to Xbox 360 was a huge leap forward in power, but at the same time there was so much new stuff to learn in such a short time.

The one drawback to working in this industry is the hours. Near the last few months of a project, you can work several months in a row without a day off. Most of my team has had 5 or 6 days off since June 15…and that is counting weekends! However once the game is done you get time to recuperate and rest.

What is your favorite video game genre?

That’s a tough one…I generally enjoy roleplaying and action-adventure games. RPGs generally take many, many hours to beat (40+) so it is hard for me to make a time commitment like that. However, action-adventure games that fall in the 10-20 hour range are just about right.

What is your all-time favorite game and why is it your favorite?

My all-time favorite game would have to be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night by Konami. It is a side-scrolling, action-adventure game with beautiful hand-drawn 2D graphics, a huge castle to explore, and many RPG elements like leveling up, buying new weapons, etc. It’s my personal favorite because the first stage of the game is actually the last stage of the game that came before it, Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. So you literally had a fantastic first title many years before and then pick up with the action packed final battle with Dracula before moving right into the next title!

Many of the bosses and characters in the game also call back fond memories of previous games in the series that I played when I was growing up. It’s all about the old-school titles!

Close behind that would probably be an old arcade game by Capcom called Strider Hiryu. This was a pretty tough arcade game that dealt with a futuristic warrior with a sweet blade who had to bring down an evil warlord known as the “Grand Master.”  I played it so much, I could eventually (and still can) beat it on the hardest difficulty setting on one quarter.

There are a lot of people who think you have the greatest job in the world. If one of them asked your advice for following your career path, what kind of things would you tell them?

Play lots and lots of video games for starters! Learn to understand how things work and be able to explain different parts of the game in detail. Communication is very important since our developers rely on us to give detailed steps to help them understand exactly what we did to get the bugs to occur. Someone interested in testing should also spend time building and using PCs, reading books to increase their technical knowledge, and working toward a computer-related, four-year degree like Computer Science. The better your technical skills, communication, and sheer knowledge and experience with games all combine to make a good tester.

When you go home after a long day of testing, what do you do to relax and regroup?

Play more games! =)  I’m a big game collector and always enjoy seeing what other companies are doing. Besides playing games, I enjoy watching anime and DVD movies, listening to rock and heavy metal, collecting toys, taking my giant hyper sled dogs for walks with my fiancée…and recovering and sleeping now that Kameo is done.

If you weren’t being paid to work on games, what would you do to earn a living? 

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