#031 is a special episode for us, as it consists entirely of an interview with Greg B. Jones, Director of the Games Test Organization at Microsoft Game Studios. Chris & John speak with Greg about his vision for the GTO, where he thinks the future of games testing lies, and some games too.
We’ll be back very soon with a standard show–in the meantime thanks to Greg for his time, insight, and strong support of this show.
-John
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6 Comments
Hey. Just downloaded the show and listened to it on the way back from a meeting. Really, really great interview. Greg sounds like a really great boss – visionary, wants the best for his staff (even if it means outside of MGS) and passionate about games. Does Greg have a Twitter account/blog – I’d like to read more about his thoughts and ideas.
I don’t know how possible it would be, but I’d like to hear more from your development studios and how MGS has changed their approach to test. I’m in the UK and used to do some 3rd party work for Cyberlife/Creature Labs (behind the Creatures series of PC games) back in 1998-2000 and I’d like to hear a bit about how the approach to test has changed. Lionhead were taking off back then – in fact I know a couple of guys moved from Creature Labs to Lionhead.
So I’d find anything from Lionhead, Ruffian and Rare interesting, partly because they’re UK based (And I love both Crackdown, Fable and Viva Pinata in near equal measure), and partly because I know how test used to be over here. Plus your methods of communicating with teams over a huge time difference must be interesting.
Good show guys.
Ali,
I encourage you to go back into our archive, as we’ve had episodes where we go fairly in-depth on some of our techniques for titles you mention–particularly Fable 2.
We promise to tell you more about Crackdown 2 as we get nearer to release, but it’s always easier to go deep after the game ships
Thanks for listening!
-John
Thanks. I had listened to those podcasts when they first came out, but it’s always nice to here about the evolution of your partnerships now you guys are onto new titles.
Keep up the great work guys.
Hey guys great show. Loved the interview, keep it up!
Greg mentioned that there are several testing books directly related to games but doesn’t call them out by name. Anyone care to extract a reading list from him?
Thanks!
I just wanted to chime in that I really liked listening to this particular episode. Being someone who has worked as a Verification Tester for all of my “Professional” life, thus far, I found the discussion interesting, and in parallel to how our test organization has grown and is growing.
Very good stuff to hear that different businesses that aren’t in the same space still have verification doing “smart” things.
Thanks!