Interview with Viva Piñata Tester, David Wong

As the lead tester for Viva Piñata™, David Wong plays games for a living. Seriously. Fortunately, we got him to put down his controller long enough to answer some questions, and discovered that being a tester isn’t all fun and games. Read on as David reveals the secrets of good game testing, how testers affect the final product, and why Viva Piñata was one of the most challenging projects he’s ever worked on.

What do game testers do, exactly? Is it fair to say you just play games for a living?

Game testers have a variety of jobs, but their main one is to test the game from start to finish and ensure that everything is working as the team intended (for instance, you can finish the game and it does not break halfway through). We also offer suggestions to the team on ways to improve the game, and it is very satisfying when these are implemented in the game. Other jobs we do are offer feedback on the control system of the game, the game difficulty, and game balance. This involves playing through the same game over and over again, searching for bugs and reporting our findings to the team on a daily basis.

Let’s set the record straight: we do NOT “play” games for a living. There is a huge difference between “testing” a game and “playing” a game. When you play, you do it purely for fun, but when you test, you are constantly thinking, “How do I break this game?” This can often involve long, laborious tasks such as running around the edges of the entire playing area to check that there are no “holes” where the player can fall out of the environment—not much fun, I assure you!

Does it ever get boring, playing the same game all the time?

Of course! Repetition is not a recipe for fun. This is why, although anyone can pick up a joystick and start testing a game, it takes a certain kind of individual with a certain mindset to become a good tester. A good tester will prevent himself from getting too bored by varying the way he plays the game. One day he may concentrate on playing through the game as fast as he can to ensure that the game is stable and can be finished, another day he may go at a slower pace, exploring the alternate routes in the game. It requires patience and dedication to play the same game every day for months or even years, over and over again.

Aside from playing games, what other hobbies do you have?

I used to be a keen chess player and was on the local chess team, but I had to quit the club when heavy overtime at work started causing conflicts with matches. I also enjoy going to the movies and frequenting the local pub with workmates. It’s amazing what conversations come up when you mix a tester, a few programmers, and a designer together with alcohol!

What’s your favorite thing to do in Viva Piñata?

I once made a garden with 30 elephants rampaging around. Then I dropped in a little mouse. That was funny!

Sour Piñatas: More fun to nurture or more fun to whack?

Hint of the day: If you don’t have the requirements to turn them resident yet, whack them with the spade until they become sick, then leave them alone. No more of that type of Sour will then enter your garden until it dies, thus buying you lots of time to get the requirements you need to turn it resident.

What’s the first game you remember playing obsessively?

Elite on the Commodore 64. I remember this well, because my Mum had just entered my room and was surprised that I had gotten up early that day, only I had not. I hadn’t actually gone to bed the night before, so engrossed was I in the game!

How does someone become a game tester?

An extensive knowledge and love of games of all types helps. But you do not necessarily have to be a good games player to become a good tester. I honestly never thought that I was good enough at playing games to become a tester, but you have to remember that playing is not the same as testing. Of course, a certain standard of games ability is required, as you must be able to complete the game you are testing, but some of our best bugs have come from our less able testers who did something silly that the team had simply not planned for in the game code. Most people become testers simply by writing to a developer with their CV, asking if there are any testing jobs open, but before you even think about doing this, ask yourself if you are the type of person who can play the same game over and over again for long hours. It may sound like you’re “playing games for a living,” but the life of a tester is not a glorious one. If the consumer buys the game and breaks it, the tester gets the blame, but if the consumer does not break the game, the tester doesn’t get any praise. How many people buy a game, play through it, then think, “Wow, this game was tested really well?” Like a well-refereed football match, in our job we know we have done well only when no one notices us.

How many testers worked on Viva Piñata? Was this a difficult game to test?

We had many, many testers working on Viva Piñata, and I can honestly say it was one of the most daunting games to test. Viva Piñata is a very open-ended game; it is not linear, where you progress from one room to another or one level to another. There are a myriad of routes through the game, as you can progress purely by breeding certain types of Piñata whilst completely ignoring other breeds. And obviously, all these routes had to be tested.

Logistically, it was also a nightmare. You have all the accessories that can be worn and that affect your Piñata both in gameplay and appearance. Then you have all the plants and trees that have their own growth cycles and fertilizers, all the props and fences which not only decorate the garden but can also affect it in different ways, and basically hundreds and hundreds of items that had to be tested through all situations and eventualities.

Add to that mix the complete unpredictability of human interaction, and you have a very volatile recipe! One memory always springs to mind: when we invited a group of journalists to try a demo of the game. Almost all of them whacked and killed the first worm that entered the garden, which shocked us, but I suppose should not have been that surprising as most people have been fed a diet of first-person shooters for the past few years, so the usual instinct nowadays is, “Kill anything that moves.” Fortunately, we had done our job, so even though the journalists had done something they were not supposed to, the game still handled it fine.

Aside from Viva Piñata, what other games have you tested?

Far too many to mention, but the main ones would be Blast Corps, Killer Instinct, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, DK64, Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini, Conker™, Starfox, Grabbed by the Ghoulies™, and Kameo™.

As a game tester, are you allowed to make suggestions about the game to the design team? Do they listen to you?

One of the most satisfying aspects of being a tester is being able to offer suggestions to the team. Whether they listen to us or not varies greatly with which team we are dealing with. Some teams will welcome our suggestions with open arms, while others have the view that they know best, but overall our suggestions are considered, and if good enough, do get taken seriously.

One of the most frustrating parts of the job is when you offer a suggestion that you know in your heart is right, but the team rejects it since they disagree with it. At the end of the day, it’s the team that makes the game, we are there just as an aid, so if there is ever a conflict, the team will win the argument every time. As a tester you just have to live with that and get on with the job.

In your opinion, what’s the greatest game of all time?

There is no single answer to that question. It’s like naming your favourite film; I could name a dozen easily, but to say which was better than another would be impossible. However, I will give an honourable mention to Goldeneye. A long time after it was released, I saw it in the shops for sale secondhand, so I bought it as a spur of the moment thing (testers did not get free copies of the games we made in the old days). After taking it home, I only intended to put it on my old Nintendo 64 and spend a few minutes on it just to bring back the old memories of testing it. Five hours later, I was shocked to look at the clock and see that it was 2:00 a.m. and that I had completely lost all track of time on a game that I had spent years testing, day after day, week after week, month after month. If that is not the sign of a great game, I do not know what is.