Allison Terry: From Graduate to Game Designer

We were first introduced to Allison Terry when she was a game design major in her sophomore year at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. During her time at GMU, Allison was the recipient of the Generation Google Scholarship for women in gaming for the 2021-22 academic year.

Allison has since graduated with academic honors (magna cum laude) with a bachelor’s degree in Game Design and a minor in Graphic Design and Japanese (class of 2022). She is now working for a software development company in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Here, Allison updates us on her post-graduate life and what she’s got planned for her future.

1. First, congratulations on your bachelor’s degree and your academic honors! Now that you’re in the working world, tell us what you do. Is there such a thing as a typical day?

Thank you. Right now, I am working as a quality assurance tester for a AAA (pronounced "triple A") company. As a quality assurance tester, my job is to test specific parts of the game to make sure they are running properly. If we find an issue, then we do bug reports to send to the developers to fix the problem. These issues can range from hardware and audio to story beats. 

2. Was there anything that surprised you or that you had to get used to in the working world as opposed to student life?

While college teaches you a lot, there are some things that you will only ever learn in the field. Triple A companies work a lot differently when making a game versus a small group of people making a game, which was how we operated in college. At a big company, things take more time to be processed and developed, which has its own ups and downs. One of the ups is that the quality is better because of all the channels an issue goes through to get fixed. However. this also leads to longer development and testing time. 

3. When we first met you, you talked about diversity – or rather the lack thereof – in the game design industry. What has your experience been so far in this regard?

While I believe the industry as a whole has made great strides in becoming more diverse, I do believe that there are still some issues, specifically with pay disparity and making the gaming environment more welcoming for people of color – especially women. However, I am very grateful that the company I am with has been very welcoming to me. 

4. Any future professional/educational plans?

I am currently exploring graduate school to further my skills and research in game development!

5. What do you like to do in your spare time? (Besides play video games!)

In my spare time I like to create YouTube videos, draw and read!