Kameo: Elements of Power Interview: Lead Tester Chris Chamberlain

Chris Chamberlain has worked at Mircrosoft for nearly six years, first as a tester, then as Test Lead. He has a B.S. in Business Administration and has taken many Computer Science classes as well. In 1980, he picked up his first video game and began a lifelong, loving relationship with games on many platforms.

Chris’s first games job involved testing on Destruction Derby at Looking Glass Studios in 1999. He moved on to work on Crimson Skies at Microsoft Game Studios. He says with a smile, “My dad always wanted me to be a pilot, so testing a flying game was a good compromise.”

We managed to stop Chris long enough to get him to answer some questions for us about his career, and specifically, about his contribution to Kameo™: Elements of Power™.

What other titles have you shipped?
After Crimson Skies, I went to San Jose to help Bungie finish up their anime action title Oni for the PC, Macintosh, and Playstation 2. I then got to help with the original Halo on Xbox before becoming a Test Lead and shipping Blinx the Time Sweeper with former Sonic Team member Naoto Ohshima and his company Artoon. I’ve helped to ship several other titles since then like Phantasy Star Online from Sega in addition to Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conker: Live & Reloaded from Rare.

When MGS first joined forces with Rare in 2002, I volunteered (and pleaded) to work on Kameo. I had lots and lots of fond memories playing Rare titles as a kid (Battletoads, R.C. Pro-Am, Wizards & Warriors, Spider-man, etc.) and REALLY wanted to work with them, so I was thankful when I moved onto the title.

How long have you been working on Kameo?
I’ve been working on Kameo since Microsoft joined up with Rare in 2002, so that makes it about 3 years. The team at Rare originally moved the game from Gamecube to Xbox where we worked really hard on it for several years. The Xbox version was approximately 80 percent complete before we moved it over to Xbox 360 and rebuilt it from the ground up—adding the Badlands level, tons of new quests, co-op play, fully voice acted characters, day and night cycles, and a fantastic score by Steven Burke, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and King’s Choir.

What were the biggest challenges getting Kameo ready for release?
Learning the new Xbox 360 hardware has probably been the biggest challenge! Many of the tools we had for testing, automation, and development on the original Xbox were not available or ready yet on 360. A lot of things we had to either re-learn or create new tools entirely. The scope of the game also increased immensely when we moved from Xbox to Xbox 360, so we had to hire more people to help test everything.

What is your favorite part of Kameo?
I think the game as a whole is fantastic package—there really is something for everyone in there; action levels, a scoring system that will let hardcore gamers unlock some really neat stuff, an adaptive hint system that helps newer or younger gamers, some unique questing in the towns and villages, fantastic graphics, and a brilliant musical score! If I had to pick my favorite thing from the title, it is that the game contains 11 different characters that you get to play as. Each Elemental Warrior and Kameo control and play completely different and it is the combination of quickly switching into various Warriors and pulling off chain attacks that I enjoy most. Nothing makes me feel better than punching a Troll up into the air as Pummel Weed, smacking him with a few rocks from Rubble, freezing them with an ice spear from Chilla, and then watching them shatter when they hit the ground.

How has the life of a game tester changed since you began? What’s gotten better? What’s not as good? Better pay? Better hours? Better food?

Being a game tester in Microsoft Game Studios is the greatest job in the world. As a tester who has worked at other game companies, I can honestly say that most don’t pay heed or give much credit to testing. It is very often a thankless job. However at Microsoft, being a Software Test Engineer gives you a lot of leeway and say. Your position is well-respected and you alone bridge the gap between the consumer and the company. We find the flaws, communicate them to the developers, and they fix them. We also often suggest things that we think could make the game better. While not every suggestion can be implemented, it is great to see everyone add to the game. There are certain points or features that several testers on the team can point to and say, “I suggested that…and look how cool the developer implemented it!”

In the beginning, it took a long time to learn all the tools and get up to speed on things because I wasn’t very technical. The bar constantly rises and you need to learn new things to stay afloat. Moving the game from Xbox to Xbox 360 was a huge leap forward in power, but at the same time there was so much new stuff to learn in such a short time.

The one drawback to working in this industry is the hours. Near the last few months of a project, you can work several months in a row without a day off. Most of my team has had 5 or 6 days off since June 15…and that is counting weekends! However once the game is done you get time to recuperate and rest.

What is your favorite video game genre?

That’s a tough one…I generally enjoy roleplaying and action-adventure games. RPGs generally take many, many hours to beat (40+) so it is hard for me to make a time commitment like that. However, action-adventure games that fall in the 10-20 hour range are just about right.

What is your all-time favorite game and why is it your favorite?

My all-time favorite game would have to be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night by Konami. It is a side-scrolling, action-adventure game with beautiful hand-drawn 2D graphics, a huge castle to explore, and many RPG elements like leveling up, buying new weapons, etc. It’s my personal favorite because the first stage of the game is actually the last stage of the game that came before it, Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. So you literally had a fantastic first title many years before and then pick up with the action packed final battle with Dracula before moving right into the next title!

Many of the bosses and characters in the game also call back fond memories of previous games in the series that I played when I was growing up. It’s all about the old-school titles!

Close behind that would probably be an old arcade game by Capcom called Strider Hiryu. This was a pretty tough arcade game that dealt with a futuristic warrior with a sweet blade who had to bring down an evil warlord known as the “Grand Master.” I played it so much, I could eventually (and still can) beat it on the hardest difficulty setting on one quarter.

There are a lot of people who think you have the greatest job in the world. If one of them asked your advice for following your career path, what kind of things would you tell them?

Play lots and lots of video games for starters! Learn to understand how things work and be able to explain different parts of the game in detail. Communication is very important since our developers rely on us to give detailed steps to help them understand exactly what we did to get the bugs to occur. Someone interested in testing should also spend time building and using PCs, reading books to increase their technical knowledge, and working toward a computer-related, four-year degree like Computer Science. The better your technical skills, communication, and sheer knowledge and experience with games all combine to make a good tester.

When you go home after a long day of testing, what do you do to relax and regroup?

Play more games! =) I’m a big game collector and always enjoy seeing what other companies are doing. Besides playing games, I enjoy watching anime and DVD movies, listening to rock and heavy metal, collecting toys, taking my giant hyper sled dogs for walks with my fiancée…and recovering and sleeping now that Kameo is done.

If you weren’t being paid to work on games, what would you do to earn a living?

I really can’t imagine doing something outside the games industry, but perhaps writing or working on films would be interesting too. I might explore being a pilot as well… =)