• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Confessions of a QA Tester: Acclaim & more!

bigdaddygamebot said:
Definitely. Did the company suck as much as it's games did? I was an EB manager before you started working there but even in the late nineties it was clear to see at "game conventions" that no one there had a clue.
Click to expand...

Why do people always say Acclaim's games were so bad... they weren't. The N64 Turok games were great, for example, and the Extreme-G series is one of my favorite racing game serieses... in fact XGRA was one of my favorite racing games last gen, after only F-Zero GX.
 
Rukes said:
Well since Acclaim was 3 floors, it was the upper floor mostly :)

Bottom was QA, middle was customer service/accounting/producers/PR, etc...

Most of the QA and people related to the QA on the second floor, we all did are hardest to do what we could to make the company do well, but in the end it was all up to the people in the top floor.

I mean we had lots of good things going for us near the end, like having both Burnout and Worms as well as some good upcoming games like Red Steel and 100 Bullets, but the people at the top would just consider them "another game" despite our protests to push them harder than other games.
Click to expand...

With QA separated from the rest of the company like that, did the non-QA employees look down on QA at company functions where everybody mingled?

Also, you mentioned day and night were 11-3, 3-11 shifts. Is that including overtime, or with overtime did you work more than 12 hour days?
 
Eggo said:
With QA separated from the rest of the company like that, did the non-QA employees look down on QA at company functions where everybody mingled?

Also, you mentioned day and night were 11-3, 3-11 shifts. Is that including overtime, or with overtime did you work more than 12 hour days?
Click to expand...

QA usually had thier own parties/events. Company functions for everyone were pretty rare, but they weren't that bad since everyone knew just about everyone else.

Those times were the normal times, overtime could be as few as an extra hour later, or a full extra few hours to bridge a 24 hour testing gap for games that were about to go out.
 
Scrow said:
how many times did you tell a good looking woman at your office that the graphics needed to be tightened up on level 3?
Click to expand...

Most of the women in the company were pretty much in accounting, so that was pretty much impossible to do :)
 
Scrow said:
how many times did you tell a good looking woman at your office that the graphics needed to be tightened up on level 3?
Click to expand...
How many times did you?
I bet I can guess which one

Rukes - what was working with Criterion like? When did you guys know for certain you were all screwed?
 
Rukes said:
Those times were the normal times, overtime could be as few as an extra hour later, or a full extra few hours to bridge a 24 hour testing gap for games that were about to go out.
Click to expand...

Wait, now I'm confused. Your day shift was 11am - 3pm? Only 4 hours? While your night shift was 8 hours... 3pm-11pm?
 
Rukes said:
We didn't know any extent of anything like that until after bankruptcy. We just pretty much all assumed that the higher ups were just idiots out to make a quick buck and tried to do what we can.
Click to expand...

I used to test at Acclaim, but left well before the place shut down. (I was around, however, for the first wave of firings back in 1995...) I remained friends with some of the people who worked there until the company's demise.

These friends swore up and down to me they saw the huge moving vans coming in and taking all the valuables out a few days before the company shut down. The place was systematically looted of valuables while the executives claimed Rome wasn't burning.

At the end, everyone got 15 minutes to clean out his desk. Which was 15 minutes more than some of the workers at Acclaim's studios got.
 
MC Safety said:
I used to test at Acclaim, but left well before the place shut down. (I was around, however, for the first wave of firings back in 1995...) I remained friends with some of the people who worked there until the company's demise.

These friends swore up and down to me they saw the huge moving vans coming in and taking all the valuables out a few days before the company shut down. The place was systematically looted of valuables while the executives claimed Rome wasn't burning.

At the end, everyone got 15 minutes to clean out his desk. Which was 15 minutes more than some of the workers at Acclaim's studios got.
Click to expand...

This is 100% true. The executive management of the company laid off 600 people (the entire company) with no warning, no severance, no benefits and no place to go. Meanwhile, millions in operating revenue were being funneled into shell companies owned by... executive management and their family members.

More here:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=11290
 
A Black Falcon said:
Why do people always say Acclaim's games were so bad... they weren't. The N64 Turok games were great, for example, and the Extreme-G series is one of my favorite racing game serieses... in fact XGRA was one of my favorite racing games last gen, after only F-Zero GX.
Click to expand...


Those aren't the games that ran them out of business (actually Turok specifically helped save them from bankrputcy previously).

It's hard for a company to release as many games as they did over the span of time they did without having any worthwhile titles, but clearly the company put a low priority on quality, especially towards the end.
 
gutshot said:
Ah ok. I'm trying to break into the gaming industry here in LA right now. I'm hoping that there is way other than QA, because it would be literally impossible to support my wife and kid on the average tester's salary.
Click to expand...

Yikes a wife and kid on a QA tester's salary? Don't you have any skills?

Pacman2k said:
Confessions of a QA Tester: Insomniac Games

I was a tester on Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal. It was actually pretty fun and I liked it.

Now I'm still here and a programmer in the Tools department. And I like it more.

Success.

<3
Click to expand...

Nice. I noticed on their website application process they ask what fields you're interested in. I guess if they had hired me as a tester I would've had a shot at moving into programming like I wanted.

Rukes said:
I haven't been on IRC since I worked for GA, did they name a bot after me? :P Or was it just that I was idle so much back then, hehe.
Click to expand...

Someone named the bot after you.
 
Were your comments about the game actually taking into account? I mean, if something was broken/boring, did you tell the producers and they would check it and maybe change it?
 
Pacman2k said:
Confessions of a QA Tester: Insomniac Games

I was a tester on Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal. It was actually pretty fun and I liked it.

Now I'm still here and a programmer in the Tools department. And I like it more.

Success.

<3
Click to expand...

could you please tell us how you got there? Also do you need to go to big named collages to be in Q&A?
 
FitzOfRage said:
Those aren't the games that ran them out of business (actually Turok specifically helped save them from bankrputcy previously).

It's hard for a company to release as many games as they did over the span of time they did without having any worthwhile titles, but clearly the company put a low priority on quality, especially towards the end.
Click to expand...

What games are you referring to, exactly? XGRA was one of their late titles, and it was amazing.
 
Gazunta said:
How many times did you?
I bet I can guess which one

Rukes - what was working with Criterion like? When did you guys know for certain you were all screwed?
Click to expand...

Criterion was great. In specifics to Burnout? When we would tell the higher ups repeatedly that this was an amazing title and we should push it more than any other game. Fell on deaf ears. When we got #2, we repeated that, and they didn't care.
 
Eggo said:
Wait, now I'm confused. Your day shift was 11am - 3pm? Only 4 hours? While your night shift was 8 hours... 3pm-11pm?
Click to expand...

Oh, d'oh, brain fart. Both shifts were 8 hours, so day shift was 7 - 3 PM
 
Quazar said:
Have to go to work soon is it ok to PM you some questions later?
Click to expand...

Sure, although i they are good questions I dont see why you shouldn't post them here so everyone can see :)
 
{Mike} said:
Were your comments about the game actually taking into account? I mean, if something was broken/boring, did you tell the producers and they would check it and maybe change it?
Click to expand...

Yeah, we were great at finding bugs, almost to the point of overwhemling the developers. The big problem was for us to find as many bugs as possible and them to fix as many bugs as possible, they always had "the game must go out at this date" hanging above everyone's heads to rush the game out "on time". So as it got closer, of course the smaller issues stopped being fixed and it got all the way down to only anything game-stopping towards the end. As long as it passed certification, that's all that mattered.
 
Rukes said:
Not offhand, the name doesn't sound too familiar...
Click to expand...

Ah OK, he worked for Acclaim for a number of years, working mostly on the sports titles (baseball, legends of wrestling, etc) So I was just curious :)
 
did you guys ever receive my petition letter for Mortal Kombat 2 to include blood on the SNES version? I asked about 10 neighborhood friends to do the same.
 
underfooter said:
How were NDAs handled, and to what extent would you follow them (with close friends, other insiders, etc).
Click to expand...

It was just a basic NDA when you were hired saying not to say anything. Because we all loved or job and wanted to see everything succeed, I don't think we ever discussed anything outside of our job that was job related, at least for me. Except now of course, since the company is long gone :)
 
Giant Robot said:
did you guys ever receive my petition letter for Mortal Kombat 2 to include blood on the SNES version? I asked about 10 neighborhood friends to do the same.
Click to expand...

Rukes said:
Joined Acclaim as a QA tester in 2000.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for not reading. Care to try again?
 
Thanks for answering, I got a quick question.

Can you remember any specfic game or games that you guys in testing knew was absolute garbage? Is it harder to test crappy games?
 
RunWhiteBoyRun said:
Thanks for answering, I got a quick question.

Can you remember any specfic game or games that you guys in testing knew was absolute garbage? Is it harder to test crappy games?
Click to expand...

Most of the rushed ones, yeah. I mean Shadowman 2 took forever to get finished.

It's a bit harder to test crappy games, of course, since it's not as fun to work. At the same time, it usually means more bugs to find, so you end up balancing it with doing more work.

Probably the worst thing I ever dealt with was at 2K for the Ford Vs Chevy game. They had a pre pre alpha build which was literally a car with no track or enviroment graphics, just the backgrounds. They actually made us test that. Something completely untestable, wasting our actuall skills to test a real game. That's how bad it was, and when I knew I had to leave.
 
Did the company ever look into publishing some games in NA that had only been released in japan by another company?

I always thought the big boys like EA should get into niche publishing just as an act of goodwill towards their hardcore critics.
 
Dr. Kitty Muffins said:
Did the company ever look into publishing some games in NA that had only been released in japan by another company?

I always thought the big boys like EA should get into niche publishing just as an act of goodwill towards their hardcore critics.
Click to expand...

I think so. I think I got a Dreamcast GD-ROM disc which had some japanese golf game on it, so i'm assuming it was being looked at. Nothing major like good titles that hardcore gamers would kill for.
 
Rukes said:
Probably the worst thing I ever dealt with was at 2K for the Ford Vs Chevy game. They had a pre pre alpha build which was literally a car with no track or enviroment graphics, just the backgrounds. They actually made us test that. Something completely untestable, wasting our actuall skills to test a real game. That's how bad it was, and when I knew I had to leave.
Click to expand...
How long did they have you test that for?
 
Rodeo Clown said:
How often did you test a game and then play the retail release of it?
Click to expand...

A few times, notably Burnout 1 and 2, and Worms. Those were always fun.
 
Man God said:
Was there ever a bug that would just not go away?
Click to expand...

Of course. We cound find a bug, give perfect directions, and the developers would have no idea where it is. Or say its fixed, and it wouldn't be.
 
Dr. Kitty Muffins said:
Did the company ever look into publishing some games in NA that had only been released in japan by another company?

I always thought the big boys like EA should get into niche publishing just as an act of goodwill towards their hardcore critics.
Click to expand...

Some Western publishers do do this (Ubisoft too for instance), and Acclaim did sometimes... some Saturn stuff for instance, but later on they also published the Bust-A-Move games in the US from Bust-A-Move 2 through Super Bust-A-Move on PS2. Their N64 version of BAM '99 was one of my favorite puzzle games of the generation...
 
I would wonder they company still kept you with an NDA that says you can't talk about what you actually did for "so" company.
 
Tideas said:
I would wonder they company still kept you with an NDA that says you can't talk about what you actually did for "so" company.
Click to expand...

Was that english? :)

You do realize it's been about 4 years since I even worked in the videogame industry?

NDA's are for current stuff, not stuff so old that is has no bearings at all, especially for a company that no longer exists.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Fallout 4 QA Tester Says AI Could Never Be as ‘Professionally Stupid’ as Him
Opinion Game Dev 
6
218
poppabk replied
Kidbash: Super Legend by Acclaim - Trailer
6
80
IAmRei replied
Acclaim is back??????
Event 
39
1K
MrCunningham replied
Gaming Confessions
2 3
110
3K
Valonquar replied
Square Enix says it wants generative AI to be doing 70% of its QA and debugging by the end of 2027
News 
12
567
Zacfoldor replied
Top Bottom