Cerise Magazine

Robyn Bremner, a game tester for Capcom Interactive Canada (the North American mobile division of Capcom Inc.), is a regular on the Iris forums, where she goes by the name Twyst. She’s been a gamer since early childhood (at age seven, she was offered the choice of a birthday party and lots of little presents or one big present. Her choice, the big present, was a Nintendo entertainment system, and she’s been hooked ever since), and jumped at the chance to be a game tester when she saw a job posting advertising the position. I was pleased to have an opportunity to interview another Robyn-with-a-y (there aren’t that many of us out there!), and hope that you’ll find her answers to my questions as interesting and thought-provoking as I did.

Robyn Fleming: What does your job as a game tester involve, on a day-to-day basis?

Robyn Bremner: Since I have been at the company longer than any other tester, and have shown initiative and enthusiasm for other projects, I don’t only test, but have taken on some technical design responsibilities. We are currently working on some games that are established IP (intellectual property) and therefore I have been doing research into those games. Right now we are in the middle of releasing MegaMan II (it’s already been launched on Verizon and T-Mobile), and that involves putting the game on every single handset that the carrier has, and making sure that it works properly.

We test the buttons and functionality, and make sure that the game conforms to various standards set out by the different carriers (i.e. one carrier will require that there is a confirmation screen asking if you would like sound on or off before the game starts).

So right now, a normal day consists of coming into the office, and testing the handsets that have the game loaded on them that have been provided by the compiling department and reporting any bugs in the game or problems with the compilation to either the developers or the compilers.

RF: What kinds of games do you test, and how do you do it?

RB: We test the games that have been developed in-house. This means that when a new handset comes out on a carrier, we put all the games that we have previously provided that carrier on that phone and test them, to make sure that they are functioning properly (this is called ‘backfilling’). This also means that when a new game is coming out (like MegaMan II) we put the game on every phone we have for a particular carrier and test them.

When we are testing on the phones we look for particular problems with the phone, we make sure all the buttons function properly, as expected, and that the controls make sense for that phone. We of course are also looking to make sure that the game functions properly and looks as expected.

When a game is in the earlier stages of development, before it is ready to be tested on handsets, we play the game on emulators on the computer.

RF: How did you get into game testing?

RB: I graduated in 2003 with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Communication from York University. In that I did a double major, that meant that I had to produce two theses at the same time, and I focused on the papers instead of lining up a job. Luckily I had a friend who worked at IBM who got me an interview there. I accepted a job in their call centre, and had various jobs there for three years. It wasn’t a good place to work. I was very unhappy. I finally made the choice to stop complaining about my job, and find a new one. I started looking for any job that was available. I had some interviews for various admin roles, and realized that I didn’t want to do that either. I decided to look for something I really wanted to do, and that was when I came across the Capcom posting for a games tester. In my excitement, I wrote an email saying that I was a quick learner, and compared my skills at IBM to games testing. I was granted an interview, was given the offer and didn’t look back.

RF: Is there anything you aren’t required to evaluate in games that you’re testing that you think should be evaluated?

RB: We’re still very early in establishing the development process at Capcom. We’re a new company and day by day become more organized and formalized. Off the top of my head I cant think of anything that I feel should be evaluated that isn’t - we have a very open process and we do have access to the developers and the studio head, so were that situation to arise, I am sure that we would change the process to incorporate any new suggestions. We’re encouraged to bring our ideas forward.

RF: Do you find that your job has affected the way you approach gaming for fun? In what ways?

RB: It’s funny, everyone always asks if I find gaming less fun now, in my leisure time - but I don’t. Now that I work with a whole bunch of gamers, I actually play games more, and enjoy them more. I laugh when I find a bug in a game that I play in my spare time (Puzzle Quest for the DS is loaded with them). I didn’t really have that many friends that gamed before, so in that I can share experiences, past and present, it makes it more enjoyable.

As well, you look at a game differently when you are testing it versus when you are playing it. And I don’t generally play that many cell phone games in my spare time, my Wii would get jealous.

RF: What’s it like to be working in game testing as a woman? Do you think that women are well-represented in the field?

RB: I work in an office of 16 people, 14 of whom are men. I don’t think that my experiences as a woman testing games is any different than any other woman working in an office that is largely men (though perhaps being in the game industry results in a certain atmosphere that you don’t find in other offices). My only really specific experience being a female tester actually occurred outside the office. I went to a party with a few girlfriends of mine, and we were hanging out in this guy’s living room. His slightly drunk roommate came in and sat down with us, and was talking about his modded Xbox. My friend mentioned that I was a games tester and the dude stood up, and in a sort of offended manner, yelled at me, saying that he could “kick my ass at any game ever made.” I didn’t bother humouring him, because I don’t really make it my business to waste my time with fools, but I was so taken aback by the anger in this guy’s voice. It was so sudden and so unexpected. I didn’t, and still don’t, understand.

From what I can tell, women aren’t very well-represented in the field. I am pretty new in the industry as it is, and I am in a pretty specific segment of the industry - mobile games. There are four other women at Capcom Interactive that I deal with, one of whom is our president, none of whom are testers. To my knowledge, I am the only female tester that we have (there is another group in the US that does testing, and as far as I know, they are all male). To be honest, even within the whole gaming industry, I am hard pressed to come up with names of other women.

RF: There’s a sort of common understanding out there that most games aren’t exactly designed with the woman gamer in mind. Do you think that’s true? Does it impact the way you approach your work?

RB: I don’t believe games are designed with women in mind. I think women are still dismissed as “casual gamers” (a term that I believe is misused).

Working in the mobile space is a little different from working in consoles, there are of course restrictions on the size of the game, and how much we can do. So far, my studio has made games that are either puzzle games, or established series. When there is room to push for stronger female characters, and more even-handed representations of women, I do. So far, I haven’t worked on very many games that have female characters. The only one really is Street Fighter II for the mobile, which is soon to be released. I was actually able to influence Chun Li’s game ending a bit - but you will have to play the game to find out.

However, I have to say, that working at Capcom, I feel proud. They have made some great female characters - Jill Valentine, Ada Wong, Morrigan (I know I know, she’s a succubus, but she’s still awesome) Chun Li…

RF: What’s the best thing about your job? The worst?

RB: The best thing about my job is that I don’t mind waking up and going to work each day. Of course that answer incorporates all the other things about my job, I like what I do, I like the people I work with. Mobile is a growing market, and we are doing some exciting projects. Hopefully I will be able to take on more responsibilities, and take on more of the technical design aspects of the job. I enjoy testing, however, I really want to be more involved in the actual making of the game, the actual creating of something new, I find that exciting. As well, the good thing about mobile games is that the development cycle is pretty short, it takes a shorter amount of time to make a cell phone game than it does a console game, so there is always something new coming soon, which keeps things interesting.

The worst thing right now is feeling like I am the bottom of the totem pole. There is a bit of an attitude that people are “just testers” and I find that a little bit frustrating. However at the same time, I get where it comes from. Testers are very important to the process, but they become important after the game already has the art from the artists and at least some of the code from the developers. I think the perception is that testers don’t really have specialized skills, although I would disagree.

RF: What kind of advice do you have for women who are interested in working as game testers?

RB: Going on my own experience, I think that interest in the first place is an asset. A degree in computer science is probably a great thing to have as well, then you can move into more areas of the company, and understand what’s going on in the code as a game runs (I am an exception in that I have an Arts degree). I had some very detail-oriented jobs at IBM. They involved process flow, tracking, attention to detail, which are all important when you’re testing a game. You have to have the patience to thoroughly and completely exhaustively examine all areas of a game. Most importantly, you have to like playing games!

RF: Do you hope to use your experience as a game tester to move on to other things in the video game industry? What are your ultimate goals, professionally?

RB: In that I am not an artist, and I am not a coder, I hope that I will be able to do more writing and technical design, perhaps even PR in the future. It depends how the company grows, and what needs arise. I do enjoy testing, and perhaps could presume being head of the QA department when that need arises.