Features � Staff Diaries: Dan Waldron
Dan Waldron
Production Assistant
A day in the life of the Quality Assurance Department.
First off, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dan Waldron and I work in the QA department here at Pivotal Games. Along with two other guys I help to make sure that the game does what it is supposed to and that it does it well. But before I get deeper in to that, let me tell you how I got started in the games industry.
I started my working life washing dishes in a local restaurant kitchen. Then one fine day in the summer of 2000 I happened across an advert in the local paper looking for people who like to play games. After two interviews over the course of a week, I found myself working in the QA department of Hasbro Interactive (now a part of Infogrames). Since then I have worked as a QA technician for Hothouse, Confounding Factor and finally for Pivotal Games, where I am currently enjoying my second year. During my time in the industry, I have worked on games such as Grand Prix 3 2000 Season (Hasbro Interactive/Infogrames), Sky Sports Football Quiz (Hothouse) and Galleon (Confounding Factor), as well as three of the four games published to date by Pivotal Games; Conflict: Desert Storm II, The Great Escape and Conflict Vietnam.
So on with a day in the life of a Production Assistant...
I start work at 9:30am and the first job of the day is to check for e-mails and to discus with the lead tester the plan for the day. Our current project is still in the early stages, so it seems like slow going compared to the frenzy of activity and overtime at the end of Conflict: Vietnam just a month ago. But there is always something to test, so armed with a debug PC version of our latest title, I begin to work my way through levels 1 and 2. My Producer has requested that QA look through the first two levels for art issues, so that is what we do. Many screenshots are taken of any bugs found and a document is created for the Producer. Later in the project, we will be entering individual issues into our bug database as they arise.
At Pivotal we are fortunate enough to work in a fairly informal atmosphere, so it is not long before the usual banter begins. One or other of us is sure to be ribbed about one thing or other before the clock reaches 11.00. And at some point during the morning there is the toot of a horn as the sandwich van arrives, followed by the usual mad rush for the front of the queue!
I started my working life washing dishes in a local restaurant kitchen. Then one fine day in the summer of 2000 I happened across an advert in the local paper looking for people who like to play games. After two interviews over the course of a week, I found myself working in the QA department of Hasbro Interactive (now a part of Infogrames). Since then I have worked as a QA technician for Hothouse, Confounding Factor and finally for Pivotal Games, where I am currently enjoying my second year. During my time in the industry, I have worked on games such as Grand Prix 3 2000 Season (Hasbro Interactive/Infogrames), Sky Sports Football Quiz (Hothouse) and Galleon (Confounding Factor), as well as three of the four games published to date by Pivotal Games; Conflict: Desert Storm II, The Great Escape and Conflict Vietnam.
So on with a day in the life of a Production Assistant...
I start work at 9:30am and the first job of the day is to check for e-mails and to discus with the lead tester the plan for the day. Our current project is still in the early stages, so it seems like slow going compared to the frenzy of activity and overtime at the end of Conflict: Vietnam just a month ago. But there is always something to test, so armed with a debug PC version of our latest title, I begin to work my way through levels 1 and 2. My Producer has requested that QA look through the first two levels for art issues, so that is what we do. Many screenshots are taken of any bugs found and a document is created for the Producer. Later in the project, we will be entering individual issues into our bug database as they arise.
At Pivotal we are fortunate enough to work in a fairly informal atmosphere, so it is not long before the usual banter begins. One or other of us is sure to be ribbed about one thing or other before the clock reaches 11.00. And at some point during the morning there is the toot of a horn as the sandwich van arrives, followed by the usual mad rush for the front of the queue!
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