QAuDHD Weekly

That title is a quote! Don't hate me... Now then - normal service resumes this week, as I'm finally over that horrible cold (the audio version of last week's episode has been added for anyone who needs it - sorry for the delay!). This week I'm talking about how things can get easily lost in translation, both at work and in general, following a particulalry akward encounter with a member of staff a...

Apologies for the delay in getting this one live! I've been bedridden for the past few days after an intense week, so there's no recorded version (yet) of this week's newsletter - I've also thrown the 500 word rule out the window for this one, but you'll see why. The spicy topic this week is about having a very "problem solving" oriented brain, while the actual topic is (mostly) about close collab...

Happy Monday everoyone! This week I'm talking about some confusing posts I've seen online recently and how my logic-driven brain struggles to process what seems like some pretty illogical arguments. I also talk (and at one point sing) about irony a lot too. The main topic this week is then about the benefits of forming a strong working relationship with game production! As always: please share, dr...

Good Monday everyone! So last week I was feeling a little overwhelmed and ended up having an anxiety attack. Since the point of QAuDHD is to provide my lived experience, I thought I'd share a little bit about what that's like, and follow it up with a quick chat about what can happen when bugs slip through the net and find their way into launched games (something that gives me anxiety by itself). A...

It's QAuDHD Day (aka Monday), I've calmed down a bit this week - which is ironic, because the topics are about overwork and having a busy brain. I even do a (terrible) Bane impression. What more could you want from your weekly dose of spicy-brained videogames/QA chat? As always: please share, drop in comments and let me know your thoughts/suggestions for future topics. Thank you for reading/listen...

Good Monday one and all! This episode is... a bit of a rant. It's not aimed at anyone in particular, and I didn't realise until I'd chosen the topic just how much I felt I needed to get off my chest. Hopefully it's still useful and interesting information, but at the very least, I feel better now! As always: please share, drop in comments and let me know your thoughts/suggestions f...

And we're back to the Monday routine! Which is appropriate, because this week's QAuDHD is all about routines and consistency, both in terms of the calming effect they can have on my autistic brain (countered by the boredome felt by my ADHD brain) and their importance when it comes to game quality efforts. I hope you enjoy this week's issue and, as always: please share, drop in comments...

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry for the delay (I was ill)... This week's QAuDHD is all about planning, because as Jim always says, it's better to be pre-pre-pre-prepared! I'll be talking about my tendency to plan even mundane interactions ahead of time like I'm writing dialogue trees in an RPG, and the importance of conducting risk analysis as part of your test planning efforts. I ho...

Happy Monday everyone! This week's QAuDHD includes a belated celebration of my own birthday (that's how bad I am at remembering these things), a few thoughts on the importance of finding your "tribe" and a long list of ways in which your game quality teams are probably adding value that you hadn't even realised! I hope you enjoy this week's issue and, as always: please sh...

Good Monday everyone! In this week's QAuDHD I'll be talking about the importance of downing tools taking some time for yourself (and why that's a concept that many of us spicy-brained folk struggle with), and also explaining (because apparently it's still something some people don't understand) why "cruch" is bad! I hope you enjoy this week's issue and, as always:...

This week's QAuDHD is about accessible marketing and game demos. But first, as a newcomer to the games accessibility advocacy space, I wanted to address the upsetting and confusing events that have taken place in the last few days. I won't go into detail on any of it, I just wanted to stress the importance of allyship and support at a time like this. People with disabilities are marginalis...

I've got a new job (don't worry, I'll still be doing QAuDHD)! As part of my onboarding, my manager was asking about how I work best, types of communication that suit me and so on, and it brought me back to a topic I've touched on previously: communication. I've then coupled that with a follow-on from last-weeks section on representation in games, with a quick breakdown of some...

The UK and USA are having a particularly bad time of it at the moment, especially when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Or at least, people's perception of it. With equal representation of male & female athletes at the Olympics, you might think this is indicative of increasing equity between these two genders, but sadly that's still very much not the case. So called "g...

Given how hot it's been lately, this latest QAuDHD episode feels especially appropriate. The main spicy topic this week is about burn-out and why it hits us harder than most. The other topic (less of a link this time around, sorry everyone) is about some additional considerations that often seemed to get overlooked when test planning.

This week, I discuss my personal experiences as someone who supposedly can't do empathy, but in reality empathises too much, and ask the question: are videogames "art"? Although, spoiler alert, I don't have a good answer!

This week I discuss two deeply philosophical questions that I've had people ask me recently: how neurodivergent is neurodivergent enough and what is “fun”?

Ten episodes! 🥳🎉 Thank you so much to all my readers, listeners and subscribers. For this exciting milestone I thought it was high time that I actually explained what neurodivergence and QA (in the games industry at least) actually ARE.

This week I talk about masking: what is it and why do people like me do it, as well as imposter syndrome within the industry and how I've coped with it before - and continue to cope with it now!

This week I'll be talking about the "language barrier" that can exist between neurotypical and neurodiverse people and why keeping things fresh for your quality teams is a great way to get the most out of them! Trigger warning: bad pronunciation of a language I'm still learning!

This week I break down some of what it's like actually living with both autism and ADHD, and how these two distinct parts of my brain sometimes team up to make me awesome and sometimes join forces to make me useless. I also talk a bit about the "Holy Grail" of games quality through probably the best analogy I've ever thought of!

As you might have guessed, this weeks topics are about verbal communication vs written communication (from my AuDHD perspective) and UX design in videogames.

A few weeks ago, I did a Discipline Deep-Dive on QA for IntoGames as one of their Videogames Ambassadors. Unfortunately we didn't have time to answer all of the questions that people had, so I scrolled back through the YouTube comments and made sure to answer the ones we'd missed.

This week I'll be discussing how I cope with change as someone who stereotypically struggles with it, while also advocating for a change in how (or more accurately, when) QA is utilised in videogames - oh the irony!

This week I'm basically covering the same topic from two perspectives. Initially I'll be talking about why remote working suits me down to the ground and then I'll be talking about how to make the most of your remote QA teams.

This week I'm talking a little bit about my autism/ADHD diagnoses and how it made me feel to finally put a label to the weird things my brain does, as well as covering (not for the last time, I suspect) Accessibility within videogames.