Ben Wibberley

By Ben Wibberley
DIRECTOR, GAMES

Back in the dotcom era, there was a mantra that content is king and you hear a lot of people talking about that in games today.

The fact of the matter is that a title can sink or swim based on the refinement of its content. Testing that content is crucial too as any title riddled with bugs will inspire negative customer reviews and result in lower revenues as customers vote with their feet.

The game industry has been in a state of flux for the past three-plus years and the associated growth has been accelerated by the effect of growing connectivity and connected devices. In turn, this drives many new forms of gaming content, including free-to-play (F2P), companion apps, DLC (downloadable content), amongst many others.

There has been an explosion in growth with connected devices that are being used for all the various forms of gaming that exist now — with mobile and tablets being a particular focus. The increased matrix of devices to test against means that what we’re seeing is very similar to the early days of PC compatibility testing, especially when you consider Android.

Because established models are challenged, the lines between the traditional roles of development, publishing, and distribution have blurred. Whilst we don’t subscribe to the idea of the death of the publisher, the games business is moving from a business-to-business (B2B) to a business-to-consumer (B2C) model.

As games are more complex in function and in delivery, the way that we test them is changing, too. Mixing hybrid teams of QA and Player Support after launch, utilizing common knowledge bases, and automation QA are ways we are rethinking testing.

As a games QA company, we view the next generation of platforms and consoles with excitement, not apprehension. We’ve been preparing for it. Our approach is more tailored; each client brings their own unique set of challenges and issues. It’s important to be set-up to test on whichever devices our clients need, to make sure that they play or function as they are intended, to the highest possible quality. (end)

Contact Ben Wibberley by e-mail at BenjaminW@vmc.com. Learn more about Ben through LinkedIn.

Note: A shortened version of Ben Wibberley’s thoughts from this blog post originally appeared in the article “Games QA: A testing road ahead,” which appeared in the May 2013 issue of Develop. Follow Develop on Twitter at @developonline.

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Keep Your Enterprise Collaboration Platform in Tip-Top Shape

Keith Prunella

By Keith Prunella
VMC DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Imagine if you were hooked up to a tool that can monitor your health 24/7. You would never have to call the doctor, as he or she would know when you’re getting sick before you’d even feel it.

Windows Intune does just that for enterprise collaboration platforms.

What is Windows Intune?

Windows Intune is an application that allows business enterprises to centrally manage, secure, and keep their infrastructure (PCs, mobile devices, etc.) up-to-date. Windows Intune can be accessed through the cloud — that is, accessed from almost anywhere.

With it, an organization’s IT department can improve compliance and easily optimize, update, and troubleshoot users’ devices — even employee-owned devices — without having to add infrastructure. This is especially useful for organizations with prominent BYOD (bring your own device) company cultures.

Windows Intune provides a very rich user interface that allows you to add machines into a certain grouping, as well as quickly find or exclude devices that fall out of compliance.

Customization

In my work, we use Intune to manage the overall infrastructure. Through custom development in Visual Studio with the SharePoint Object Model, we build additional new tools or work with your existing tools to tie it into SharePoint to help anticipate and adapt to change quickly. These can be built within SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint Online and link to servers to monitor heath or other metrics to see what is running, what’s down, and what needs service.

These tools are primarily used by our IT departments, but many other groups are able to get status on servers and services that impact our business through a dashboard.

We have used the software to create a health monitoring tool that monitors our network or server infrastructure and then ties that into a coded workflow. This allows the correct people to be notified quickly if something goes offline or falls out of compliance.

This information can be presented within your collaboration dashboard. They can even access the tools in the cloud, assess the situation, and fix it to go back online.

Facts about Windows Intune:

—    Supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8 Enterprise and Professional; Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, and Professional; Windows Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, and Business, Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3

—    Supports Windows Phone 7 and later, iOS 4.0 and later, Android 2.1 and later

—   Manages up to 5,000 users in a single account

—   An annual subscription

Windows Intune is a great tool that can monitor your business infrastructure. Building those additional tools to integrate with your SharePoint dashboards provides that extra help to allow your business to keep moving at a faster pace. (end)

Contact Keith Prunella by e-mail at KeithPr@vmc.com. Learn more about Keith through LinkedIn. Read more of Keith’s blog posts here.

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THIS WEEK IN GENERAL TECH:

“Software out, hardware start-ups in” via USA Today
Excerpt: Investors and entrepreneurs avoided hardware for years because the space was just too risky, but that’s changing … (read the entire article).

“Student Entrepreneurship Is Humming At Elite Universities” via Forbes
Excerpt: What if university-age entrepreneurs are psychologically more scalable or flexible than mid-aged counterparts? On average, I think so … (read the entire article).

“Whatever happened to the ringtone?” via CNN
Excerpt: Despite the enormous growth of smartphones, mobile audio products such as ringtones and ringbacks (which is a song that plays while a caller’s waiting for an answer) brought in only $167 million last year … (read the entire article).

THIS WEEK IN GAMES:

“When Computer Games May Keep the Brain Nimble” via Wall Street Journal
Excerpt: Cognitive-training games … are designed to improve brain functions and are at the center of a growing body of research looking at their effectiveness as scientists strive to find ways to ward off the cognitive declines that usually come with age … (read the entire article).

“How can I make my games more inclusive?” via Gamasutra
Excerpt: In my ideal world, people would approach my games with an open mind and if something sticks, great. What I find can happen instead is that I blindly duplicate standard video game fallbacks and in the process accidentally and needlessly alienate people I really respect … (read the entire blog post).

THIS WEEK AT VMC:

“The Challenges of Localizing on Super Speed — AND How to Get Into the Games L10n Industry“
Excerpt: We recently caught up with two localizations managers and picked their brains on how they overcome challenges in their work. We also asked them about what they’re looking for when scouting for localization talent … (read the entire blog post).

“Games QA: A testing road ahead” via Develop
Excerpt: Established models are being challenged, which is blurring the lines between the traditional roles of development, publishing and distribution. Whilst we don’t subscribe to the idea of the death of the publisher, the games business is moving from a business-to-business to a business-to-consumer model,” [VMC's] Ben Wibberley tells Develop … (read the entire article).

VMC Job Openings this week
Remote Data Center/Operations Manager (Redmond), Client Solutions Executives (Redmond, Pacific Northwest, Bay Area, and Indianapolis), Customer Care Team Managers (San Antonio and Fargo)

Follow VMC Consulting and VMC Game Labs on Twitter. Like VMC Consulting and VMC Game Labs on Facebook. Follow us on LinkedIn.

*The articles we linked to may not necessary reflect the exact opinions of VMC Consulting or VMC Game Labs. We still think they’re worth reading and pondering over, though.

We recently caught up with two localizations managers and picked their brains on how they overcome challenges in their work. We also asked them about what they’re looking for when scouting for localization talent.

Galina Kramer

Galina Kramer is the Senior QA Manager of Localization at Zynga games, which reaches nearly 300 million monthly. Zynga is perhaps best known for its FarmVille 2, Texas HoldEm Poker, CityVille 2, CastleVille and Empires & Allies games. Galina has 14 years of software testing experience and joined Zynga in 2010. She is originally from Russia.

Alvi Islamaj

Alvi Islamaj is a Localization Project Manager at VMC Game Labs, a leading partner for games quality assurance and support. Alvi has more than 16 years of experience in QA and is fluent in 7 languages (and currently learning Hindi). He is originally from Albania.

VMC: Zynga develops really popular social games for mobile devices—what are the challenges in maintaining quality and efficiency when it comes to games QA?

GALINA: We at Zynga have a very high quality bar for our games and we constantly work on elevating it. International team is under the same expectation – to make our games seem natural for every supported language/culture because we know that playing games in your native language [results in] a more meaningful experience.

VMC: Alvi, is the kind of work you do is complementary to the kind of work that Galina does at Zynga?

ALVI: Yes, we work with our clients to ensure that their titles meet rigid standards when it comes to localization through QA testing. As Galina mentioned, it’s very important for players from different geographical locations and cultures to have the same experience as the players in the game’s original language.

VMC: There’s a faster turnaround with social games, right? How fast?

ALVI: More complicated social games may take a year or longer but localization for a social game on a mobile device may take as little as one or two days.

GALINA: Zynga’s [daily] game [release] cadence is the fastest I have ever seen and fitting localization testing into this short timeframe can be a fun challenge. However, we have great internal and external partners who help us make it happen.

ALVI: The key — and I think my team is very good at this — is building flexibility into the process and the people, so that the team can ramp up and down with very short notice. Some companies may need to know about any increases at least 48 hours in advance. There have been instances when my team has ramped up in only a few hours.

GALINA: Scaling rapidly and scaling with quality must come together to achieve good results. We never stop when the process works — we constantly try to optimize it and push the limits. Well-built partnerships are essential in order to make this work.

VMC: You’re saying that people are very important in game localization. So, what advice do you have for people who want to get into games localization?

GALINA: My advice is, “Do it!” Game localization is a lot of fun, and you get to really affect millions of players that will play your game. It feels so good to prevent a disappointment, whether it’s a culturally offensive picture or a poor translation.

ALVI: Localizing well is so more than just supplying a good translation. Similarly, finding qualified people for this work is more than just finding really good translators. It’s important for people to be an expert within a niche. We don’t just look for people with video game experience, but those who have specific genre experience.

Believe it or not, a person who works on first-person shooter games most of the time cannot switch over easily to a children’s game!

VMC: Finally, what’s your secret to managing people in QA and localization?

ALVI: For me, it’s about having a dedicated team model and a strict project manager who is accountable to both the client and his or her team members. And — having lots of fun! We laugh a lot at Game Labs. When people are happy, they do better work.

GALINA: Get a good trusting team of people and motivate them. That is your key to success and really applies to any team, testing or not. I believe in knowing what is important to your people and letting them know that you care. That goes such a long way.

I believe that every team plays a vital role in making our games a success, no matter if it’s internal or external. It’s just as important to set external team’s expectations, tell them what’s working and what’s not working, and especially praise them for a job well done. (end)

For more information, visit www.vmcgamelabs.com or www.zynga.com. For more information about Galina Kramer, visit her LinkedIn profile. To contact Alvi Islamaj, email him at AlviIs@vmc.com.

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THIS WEEK IN GENERAL TECH:

“21 Tips for Supercharging Your Cloud Storage” via CIO
Excerpt: Cloud storage isn’t just for files and photos. With the right tools and services, you can do much more: organize data, or automate uploads and downloads … (read the entire article).

“Getting your employees to share their best ideas on Yammer, Chatter, and Enterprise Social” via Fast Company
Excerpt: As it turns out, employees are the same online as they are off. They need to be enthusiastic about engaging, unafraid to share what they have to say, and eager to work through whatever they’re looking to collaborate on … (read the entire article).

“How Smart Data Boosts Customer Lifetime Value” via Wired
Excerpt: Smart Data technology turns large volumes of data into a living, breathing asset that allows businesses to communicate uniquely with every customer, increasing customer lifetime value … (read the entire article).

THIS WEEK IN GAMES:

“What do you suck at?” via Develop’s blog
Excerpt: Being aware of the gaps in your skills is, in my opinion, one of the most important skills you can have. It’s not a fun skill, it’s never pleasurable to look at where you’re lacking, but it’s vital … (read the entire blog post).

“Riot: Don’t ban your players, reform them” via GamesIndustry International
Excerpt: Player behavior in multiplayer online games has been a problem since the beginning of the genre. … Riot Games has been working on changing that using scientific methods, and the results are part of the reason League of Legends has become so popular … (read the entire article).

THIS WEEK AT VMC:

“Are We Undergoing a QA and Localization Renaissance?“
Excerpt: New game companies appear every week; established models are being challenged, blurring the lines between the traditional roles of development, publishing, and distribution … This presents a unique challenge to those in games QA and localization (read the entire blog post).

“What is a Cloud Broker? (And How Can You Benefit From One?)“
Excerpt: Cloud computing is a fast-growing industry, with such a high number of providers offering platform as a service, infrastructure as a service, software as a service, and other specializations. This is a challenge for any company —the more services an organization incorporates, the more exponential the challenge grows … (read the entire blog post).

Yay!: VMC Game Labs Nominated for Best Service Provider in 2013 Develop Awards
Today, we learned that VMC Game Labs (VMCGL) was nominated for the 2013 Develop Industry Excellence Awards in Services … Notably, VMCGL took home the prize in 2012 … (read the entire blog post).

VMC Job Openings this week
Remote Data Center/Operations Manager (Redmond), Client Solutions Executives (Redmond, Pacific Northwest, Bay Area, and Indianapolis), Customer Care Team Managers (San Antonio and Fargo)

Follow VMC Consulting and VMC Game Labs on Twitter. Like VMC Consulting and VMC Game Labs on Facebook. Follow us on LinkedIn.

*The articles we linked to may not necessary reflect the exact opinions of VMC Consulting or VMC Game Labs. We still think they’re worth reading and pondering over, though.

VMC Game Labs team members holding the 2012 Develop Award for best service provider

In the last year, VMCGL has embraced new business models like Free To Play, with live games support. We’ve built test automation services to further assist with live games development. We created comprehensive support with QA and localization, player support and live game operations — for better quality and improved time and cost efficiencies. And, we’re proud to have created an Independent Game Developer program to support indie developers with a consistently high level of service.

“VMC focuses on providing solutions with high quality end-to-end games service solutions for QA and testing, localization, live game operations, and player support,” says VMC Game Labs Director Ben Wibberley. “And, outside of remaining agile, we listen to our clients’ needs and challenges, first and foremost. Then, we work in partnership with them to provide real solutions that work for their businesses — enabling quicker time to market with better games that generate more revenue.”

According to Develop, there are 100 studios and companies listed as finalists, vying for 19 main prizes. The awards feature the best European games development and will take place on July 10 during the Develop Conference, at the Brighton Metropole Hotel in Brighton, England.

“It is a privilege to receive this nomination from our clients,” said Linda Lemieux, VMC Consulting Director of Development, QA and Integration. “At VMC, we truly are an extension of our client’s teams and we are honored that they consider us a valued business partner.”

“The Develop Awards is one of the key events on the game industry calendar,” added Ben. “Outside of the excitement of being involved and nominated, I think that we’re simply humbled and honored to be considered for this by our peers.”

Pertinent links:

Blog post: “Develop Awards 2013: The finalists are…”

Nifty video from last year’s event (VMC Game Labs appears at the 30-second mark): http://www.developawards.com/homev

Some photos of VMC Game Labs from last year’s awards ceremony, from our Facebook album

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Chuck Hobart

By Chuck Hobart
VMC ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

Much like a mortgage broker or an insurance broker, a “cloud broker” is an unbiased third party that sifts through the growing number of cloud service providers and seeks the best deal for the customer, matching the customer’s wants and needs with the best solution available.

Cloud computing is a fast-growing industry, with such a high number of providers offering platform as a service, infrastructure as a service, software as a service, and other specializations. This is a challenge for any company —the more services an organization incorporates, the more exponential the challenge grows. The value of cloud brokerage is to advocate for the customer, helping the customer make a guided decision when moving into the cloud.

Matchmaking

Finding the right cloud service provider includes finding the right infrastructure, the right security solution, the right service levels, or more — all at the right price. There are so many cloud service providers to choose from that it can be overwhelming for an organization to attempt to navigate all of the providers and everything they do — as well as what they do behind-the-curtain — while conducting existing business processes.

Thus, a cloud broker’s job is really about matching the customer’s requirements to the provider that can meet those expectations. An effective cloud broker must know what is out there and monitor the current technologies, because searching for providers for each new customer would be tedious and inefficient.

To learn those requirements, a cloud broker’s first job is to perform an assessment, looking at the customer’s infrastructure and applications, as well as their business needs.  When looking at this, we need to evaluate what is right for the cloud, and then, what are the architecture and application adjustments that are needed to migrate these client technologies so they can work well in the cloud.

Finding an agnostic broker

Some people cringe when they hear the word, “brokerage.” Far from the image of the greedy middle-man taking a cut from all parties, reputable cloud brokerage services should be vendor agnostic, keeping the best interest of the client at the forefront of all recommendations — this is a huge differentiator over other companies who have cloud service provider partners. With no financial incentive to recommend a particular partner over another, clients of a good cloud broker get fairly evaluated recommendations of the best cloud service providers to fit their specific needs.

This ultimately means the cloud brokers should provide an unbiased assessment, looking at the organization both from a business process standpoint, as well as from a technical standpoint. They also need to address migration issues, including data applications and process fees. A monitoring component will help clients recognize the amount of value that they are paying for with each service, and lead to a better recognition of ROI. (end)

Contact Chuck Hobart by e-mail at ChuckH@vmc.com. Learn more about Chuck through LinkedIn. Read more of Chuck’s blog posts here.

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How advancing mobile technologies, digital platforms, and new consoles are pushing QA and localization to new reaches

Ben Wibberley

By Ben Wibberley
DIRECTOR, GAMES — VMC

One of the biggest challenges we currently face in the games industry is how fast it’s moving and changing. New game companies appear every week; established models are being challenged, blurring the lines between the traditional roles of development, publishing, and distribution.

This growth is being accelerated by the effect of growing broadband penetration and mobile, which in turn, is driving many forms of new online content, companion apps, DLC, and community management. This presents a unique challenge to those in games QA and localization.

Staying Competitive

Agility is key to staying on the leading edge of understanding customer needs. Games are continually becoming more complex in function and in delivery and, as a result, the way that we work on them is changing, too.

Outside of remaining agile, focus on providing high quality services is paramount. It’s important to listen to the clients’ needs and challenges, first and foremost. Then, work in partnership with them to provide real solutions that work for their businesses.

For example, at VMC Game Labs, we’ve created an Independent Games Client Program to help our indie clients and their unique business challenges, while continuing to provide a consistently high level of service to our traditional customers. We’ve also had great success in mixing hybrid teams of QA and player support.

By providing higher quality service and customized solutions, we’ve see fewer rounds of testing, localization, and integration. We see quicker time to market with better products that generate more revenue for our clients.

Growth and Changes

Making games is both a creative and technical software development process, so wishing for less intensive or compacted schedules is unlikely to ever happen. What continues to help this sector is focusing on strategies and methods to balance the time, quality, and cost continuum. We achieve this by utilizing Six Sigma and Agile disciplines within the actual solutions that we provide for our clients to create more efficiencies.

Increasing the use of localization tools, development tools, and QA automation is the direction that the industry needs to head.

I think that there is a move, within QA at least, to embed testers into development teams and this is an extremely effective way of working. QA and Localization are starting to be recognized as crucial disciplines within game development. By utilizing tools and technology, testing and localization can only become more efficient and valuable. You are seeing this for example with the inclusion of the Games QA Summit at GDC this year.

Trends

Everything is connected and online so now you have to view games “as a service” or as being “live.” Gone are the days when you ship a title and forget it.

This is true even on the console side of the business. Team sizes per project, for the most part, have reduced, but the length of time working on the game has been extended, as once a game launches and is live, content and features continue to be added. Testing and localization teams have had to adapt to this. The transferring of those knowledge bases to the customer support or live game operation teams is crucial as well, and we’ll see these disciplines become more and more integrated with QA and localization.

I also see a future in the automation of testing. VMC Game Labs is actually doing a lot of work in this area with some very high profile clients.

Test automation is often sold as a “silver bullet” to solve all manner of software development problems. However, our teams view test automation as a tool used by talented, creative people to support the development of quality games. With it, repetitive tasks are automated to free up valuable developer or tester time for more critical tasks.

Ideas about effective offshoring or outsourcing are standard practice now and that will not go away — but more bodies isn’t always better. The most agile organizations are moving towards tools and test automation at pace. This is the future and the future is now. (end)

Note: A shortened version of Ben Wibberley’s thoughts from this blog post originally appeared in the article “Questions of quality,” which appeared in the Feb. 15 issue of MCV, a trade news and community publication for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market.

The issue is available for online viewing, with purchase. Follow MCV on Twitter at @MCVOnline.

Contact Ben Wibberley by e-mail at BenjaminW@vmc.com. Learn more about Ben through LinkedIn.

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(Video source: GameSpot Spotlight on YouTube)

When asked about whether Quality Assurance (QA) is one the “coolest” routes to break into the games industry, VMC Game Labs’ Senior Test Manager Scott Ferguson said, “Definitely one of the coolest ways to get in. [You get to experience] lots of games from different development stages, different aspects — to see the ins and outs of the industry. You get to make a lot of network connections. You kind of get to see things from early concept stages to that final post-post-release stage and [support] it.”

Scott discussed this with GameSpot during the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which took place in San Francisco from March 25 to 29 this year. Scott’s career began seven years ago, as a tester at VMC Game Labs.

“How easy was it? It was as easy as applying,” Scott said. “There’s always a need. It’s a growing industry as long as you have an interest and an aptitude for the industry. The career path is very streamlined. … It’s something I have a passion for. It’s something I have an interest in. And it’s something that’s given back as much as I’ve given to it.” (end)

To those interested in applying for a career in games QA, visit this page at the VMC Game Labs website. For more videos from GameSpot Spotlight, visit their YouTube channel.

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In the last blog, I discussed how localization testers examine tone and context of a game. It’s also important to note that testers also examine subtler linguistic nuances that might not translate well between two disparate cultures. Key to the quality of localization is being really informed about the target audience.  Most people realize that language in children games cannot be vulgar – but going a level down, the localization team also needs to be careful not to put in terminology that teaches something bad.

We use specialists to do the translation in children’s titles. You’d be surprised at how difficult it is for to translate and write from the point of view of a child. It’s widely acknowledged that translators who have rarely translated children’s game will have a very hard time with it and will likely do a poor job. Children’s games can be very technical and detailed; we are challenged to convey concepts in very few words. We are careful not to use words that are not in the target audience’s vocabulary.  Also, some younger age groups are not fast readers, so there’s an ideal rhythm and flow in a good translation.

All the countries have their own rating system, which is something our localization team is very aware of. To be able to release a children’s game, a client has to pass certification. A good localization team can bring their expertise to the table be an ally in getting certified.

Here’s a funny story: Our localization team was translating a children’s game from English to French. Acorns had a big presence in the original game. Translating acorn from English to French proved very difficult, because any way you translate it, acorn in French is slang for part of the male anatomy, which is very inappropriate in a children’s game.  We caught that and made acorn another nut. It’s an imperfect solution because there were picture of acorns all over the game and acorns look distinctive, not like any other nut. The lesson we passed onto our clients is to never have acorns appear in children’s games.

Oftentimes, the human perspective and experience digs out nuances and that machines and those with less experience overlook. When it comes to localization, what lengths will you go through to ensure that there are no unfortunate double entendre in your title?

Alvi Islamaj can be reached at alviis@vmc.com. Go here for more posts about localization.