Testing, Tuning and Hits: teacher key

How Video Games Are Made, grade 8 edition, written for 8th grade. Testers hunt for bugs, and small changes can change how a game feels. See how early games started as demos, how the arcade and home eras began, and who plays games today.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why were early arcade and home console games simple?
   • Limits in display technology, microprocessors, other parts and memory (answer)
   • Nobody liked games yet
   • Teams had too many artists
2. Which game did Nintendo package with the Game Boy?
   • Pac-Man
   • Pong
   • Tetris (answer)
3. What is a QA tester's job?
   • To find bugs before players do (answer)
   • To draw pixel sprites
   • To sell cartridges in stores
4. What was true of video games in 1970?
   • Millions of people played them in homes
   • There was no video game industry (answer)
   • Atari had sold twenty million consoles
5. In this sentence, what is an indie game? "An indie game is developed by an individual or independent studio."
   • A game made by one or a few independent makers (answer)
   • A game only for old consoles
   • A game with no sound

Words

• prototype: early version
• indie: independent
• testers: bug hunters
• cartridges: game holders
• industry: whole business