My experience as a QA/QC Tester @ Ubisoft

Preface

Ubisoft is a renowned global video game company with a rich history in the gaming industry. Established in 1986, Ubisoft has grown into a powerhouse, consistently delivering high-quality and innovative gaming experiences. With its headquarters in France, the company has expanded its reach worldwide, with offices and development studios in various countries. Ubisoft is recognized for its diverse portfolio of critically acclaimed franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Tom Clancy’s series, among others.

As a leading player in the gaming industry, Ubisoft prioritizes the creation of immersive and engaging worlds for players to explore. Their games feature captivating narratives, stunning visuals, and cutting-edge gameplay mechanics, ensuring an unforgettable gaming experience. Ubisoft’s commitment to excellence extends beyond the games themselves, as they actively engage with their player community, fostering a strong bond and providing ongoing support through regular updates and additional content. The company’s dedication to player satisfaction has earned them a loyal fanbase and numerous industry awards.

Ubisoft’s commitment to innovation extends beyond traditional gaming platforms, as they continue to embrace emerging technologies and trends. Their focus on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences showcases their forward-thinking approach. Moreover, Ubisoft places great emphasis on inclusivity and diversity, with initiatives aimed at promoting a more representative and inclusive gaming industry. With a global presence and a passion for creating memorable gaming experiences, Ubisoft remains at the forefront of the industry, continually pushing boundaries and setting new standards for interactive entertainment.

My position at Ubisoft

During my time at Ubisoft’s Bucharest studio, the largest Ubisoft studio outside of France, I had the privilege of working in the Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) team. This crucial team plays a vital role in ensuring the high quality of games developed by the studio.

Working at Ubisoft was an invaluable opportunity for me to gain extensive knowledge about the video game industry and the QA/QC process. It was here that my passion for software quality and development flourished, as I learned firsthand about the intricate details of ensuring exceptional gaming experiences.

Being part of Ubisoft’s Bucharest studio enabled me to be immersed in a dynamic and collaborative environment, surrounded by talented individuals dedicated to delivering top-notch gaming products. I am grateful for the experience and the valuable insights I gained, which continue to fuel my drive for excellence in software quality and development.

I had the privilege of being part of a talented team of 6 individuals within the larger Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora project, which involved over 100 people. The project was led by MASSIVE Entertainment, a Swedish video game studio owned by Ubisoft.

Being involved in the project from its early stages was an incredible opportunity, especially at the beginning of my career. It allowed me to gain valuable experience and insight into the development process, contributing to the success of this ambitious project.

The Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora project utilized the proprietary Snowdrop game engine, developed by MASSIVE Entertainment. Built for optimal performance and crafted using C++, this cutting-edge game engine played a pivotal role in bringing the immersive world of Pandora to life.

Details about my role

Here is a table that objectively described my role characteristics:

My experience at Ubisoft

When I started in this role, I was transitioning to my 2nd year of university (summer break between years). I was studying Computer Science at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.

I was extremely excited to start working at Ubisoft, because I was a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and I was also a huge fan of the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six franchise. I was also excited to start working in the video game industry, because I was a huge fan of video games in general.

When I first started working at Ubisoft, I had a period of approximately 1 month where I was trained by two senior QA/QC testers. I was recruited in a batch of around ~11 other QA/QC testers, and we were all trained by the same two senior QA/QC testers.

The training period was extremely valuable, because I was able to learn a lot of things about the video game industry, and about the QA/QC process in general. I’ve learnt a lot about how to identify software bugs, read stack traces, and how to write detailed bug reports.

In the training period, we were tasked with finding bugs on an old build of a specific video game. We were given a list of bugs that we had to find, and we had to find them in a limited amount of time. Furthermore, we could also find additional bugs and report them, for extra credit.

At the end of the training period, I was able to find all of the bugs that I was tasked with finding, and I was also able to find additional bugs, which I reported for extra credit. The score board of reported bugs, glitches, artifacts, etc. was public, so I was able to see how I ranked against my peers. It looked something like this:

….

This was a huge achievement from my end, and both the senior QA/QC testers were proud of me. After the training period, I was assigned to the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora project, which was in the early stages of development.

The last 5 months at UBISOFT were rather uneventful, but, being assigned to a project in the early stages of development, I was able to amass a lot of experience in a short amount of time. I am truly grateful for this opportunity.

My team (me and 5 other colleagues) was tasked with testing the game on the PlayStation platform. It was a very interesting experience, because I was able to see how a video game is developed from the ground up, and I was able to see how the game evolved over time.

At the end of these 5 months, here is how the bug report score board looked like:

As you can see from the table, I’ve had fun competing with my other colleague, A. He was the type of person to always try to be the best, and I was the type of person to always try to be the best, so we were always competing with each other.

In total, our team found and reported around 1800 bugs in the span of 5 months. This was a huge achievement, and we were all proud of ourselves.

We need to remember: finding bugs is a good thing - it allows us to identify problems before they reach the customer.

By finding bugs, we were able to help the developers fix them, and we were able to help the customers (gamers) have a better experience with the game. Bugs are inevitable, but we can always try to minimize their impact. This is why QA/QC is such an important part of the development process and of the software development lifecycle.

Overall, the experience was extremely valuable, and I am truly grateful for this opportunity to work at UBISOFT.

The interview process

The interview process was not that hard, but it was interesting. I applied for this position via an ad on Facebook. I remember this because that year was the year when I decided to deactivate all of my social media accounts, including Facebook.

To offer a timeline, I applied for the position in June 2020, I started working in the following month, and in August I’ve closed my Facebook account, alongside all of my other social media accounts.

The interview process consisted of 3 stages:

1. In the first stage, I was tasked with identifying bugs in a video game trailer. I was given a video game trailer, and I had to identify as many bugs as possible. I had to write down the bugs in a document, and I had to explain how I would reproduce the bugs and why I would consider them as bugs. I had to do this in a limited amount of time, and I had to send the document to an online form.
2. In the second stage, my English language skills were tested. I had to write two essays, one argumentative and one descriptive. I had to do this in a limited amount of time, and I had to send the essays to an online form. The subject of the essays was related to the video games industry - what was my favorite game (descriptive) and how I would identify and fix bugs in a video game (argumentative).
3. In the third stage, I connected with the hiring manager (which ended up being my manager as well) and with a recruiter. The hiring manager asked me a few questions about my previous experience and then gave me three different scenarios regarding quality assurance and quality control, with a theme in video games. The scenarios were fairly easy to talk through, as I had a burning passion for video games at that time, since I was still a “teenager”, being 20 years old at that time.

What I considered valuable about this experience

I consider my time at Ubisoft valuable, because of several qualities that I was able to develop in the time that I was there.

I’ve managed to be one of the top performers in the team, and I’ve managed to be one of the top performers in the project, which was a huge achievement for me, especially since I was a junior at that time and this was the entry point in the software development industry for me.

I was able to develop my communication skills, because I had to communicate with a lot of people, from different teams, and from different countries. This, especially in the context of a junior, was extremely valuable, because I was able to learn how to communicate with people that are more experienced than me, and I was able to learn how to communicate with people that are less experienced than me.

I was able to develop my technical skills, because I was able to learn how to use a proprietary game engine, and I was able to learn how to use a proprietary bug tracking software.

I went the extra mile and I participated in several company-offered trainings regarding topics such as unit testing, quality assurance, quality control, and software development in general. I’ve became a certified advanced JIRA user, and I’ve became a certified advanced Confluence user.

Most importantly, though, I consider the experience of QA / QC - testing, in general, extremely valuable, because it taught me how to think like a developer, and how to think like a user, at the same time. This is a skill that I consider extremely valuable, especially in the context of a software developer.

I’ve seen countless times, in my experience, that developers tend to think like developers, and they tend to forget that they are building software for users, and not for developers.

What I did not like about this experience

Working in a small team, in a large project, can be challenging, especially when you are a junior. While my work experience at Ubisoft was overall positive, there were some things that I think (as of writing this article), could be improved.

The first thing that comes to mind about the experience is that, while we were a team of just 6 people, working under a very strict NDA, we had to work in a very cramped office space, that was hidden in one corner of the building. Unfortunately, the Ubisoft office at that time, in Bucharest, Romania, was an ex-parking lot turned into an office building, and the office space was not that great. I did not feel very comfortable working in that office space, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (it was great that we could work remote!).

The second thing that comes to mind about the experience is that there was a period, near the winter holidays (Christmas and New Years) where the development studio, MASSIVE Entertainment, based in Sweden, was closed for the holidays, but the QA/QC team, based in Romania, was still working. This could have been an ok-ish experience, however, it felt like we were getting cabin fever - we tested the exact same thing, over and over again, for a period of 2 weeks. It was not a great experience, and I think that it could have been avoided if the QA/QC team would have been given a break as well.

For this second point, some readers might argue that I could have taken a break myself, perhaps take some days off, but I did not want to “waste” my holiday days just to avoid getting cabin fever. I believe that holiday days are for you to enjoy yourself, to relax, and to recharge your batteries, not to avoid “working”.

Why did I leave Ubisoft?

Even though I’ve got a promotion and an offer to continue working at Ubisoft, I’ve decided to leave the company, because I wanted to pursue a career in software development, not software testing.

Another factor that made me leave Ubisoft was that I was accepted to work at Microsoft and at Intel, and I honestly could not keep up with 3 jobs and a university degree at the same time 😊

Document revision history