Qaulity Design

QA (quality assurance) is very important for many reasons, mainly for making sure the product is as solid and stable as it could possibly be.

I've been doing QA testing for 3 years now, I've worked with 2 major publishers and I'm currently working with an independent studio (Ninja Theory) and I've come to the conclusion that QA is very much closely connected to design.

As an aspiring designer I've been able to take advantage of my QA background in order to work in design, which I'm currently fulfilling. We all know that QA is a stepping stone for anyone to get into the industry with many testers going on to become producers, programmers, artists and designers.

I believe that the QA process is so fundamental in not only achieving stability but to ensuring enjoyment.

Many designers do not have the time to play what they've designed and that's where QA comes in, the unfortunate situation is that QA often gets ignored when it comes to the design process, this is not always the case but I believe there is far more room for improvement between QA and design relationship.

As someone who has recently made the transition between QA to design I sympathise with testers, because they play the game 100 times over. Who knows more about the game itself then they do?... the answer? not many! that's where my acronym comes in QD (Quality Design)

I believe there should be a QD role inside every studio. This role I think is crucial for many reasons mainly for ensuring that the game is fun! the advantage of merging the two roles mean that a QD can not only play the game many times over but also implement smaller changes into the design process while leaving the larger changes in design to the senior designers.

Only by playing the game many times over can you see the potential in every aspect of the game, which sometimes designers cannot see because they are too deeply involved in the design of the game.

QD is the future!!