Media Molecule makes AAA games with one of the smallest AAA teams out there. They are currently developing the crazy game that is 'Dreams'. Such a huge and unique project is made possible with the continuous support of the internal QA team. Despite a studio size of roughly 50-60 employees it has maintained 5 or more people (currently 8) in QA throughout the development of ‘Dreams’ as well as using external QA services.
QA is commonly thought of as something done near the end of development and specifically in terms of finding bugs which makes it seem counter intuitive to bring QA on earlier in development. At Mm there are QA assigned from the earliest prototype and they serve as more than just bug-finders. The advanced levels of support Mm enjoys wouldn't be possible if QA had a high turn over of staff or if they were only brought on near the end of development or for short periods. At Mm, QA serve as a repository of knowledge on all aspects of the game and the studio reaps many benefits from having QA who have been working on the title for years.
Good QA is an amazing boost to any game development studio and seems under-utilised by studios of all sizes. So let’s take a deep-dive into the QA workflow, and processes at Mm. We’ll explore how the QA team enhances all parts of how Mm makes games and take a look at what QA can look like at a studio that has made a long term commitment to internal QA.
