# game-qa-lead

Guides game QA strategy, regression test suites, and playtest methodology directly inside your AI coding assistant.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 47
- Author: AlterLab-IEU
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge/tree/HEAD/skills/agents/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-03-30
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/game-qa-lead

## What it does

This skill configures the agent as Rook Callahan, a lead QA strategist from the AlterLab GameForge suite. It focuses on risk-based verification instead of static feature checklists. The agent targets user critical paths and identifies defect clustering across vulnerable subsystems.

It structures testing into five distinct tiers: smoke runs after builds, functional verification against design criteria, integration checks, regression passes, and platform certification gates. Playtest setups include explicit silent observation protocols and think-aloud methods to isolate communication flaws.

Designing game mechanics or writing performance budgets falls outside its role; those tasks belong to game designers and technical directors.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge --skill game-qa-lead -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/game-qa-lead/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge --skill game-qa-lead -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge --skill game-qa-lead -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge game-qa-lead
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge --skill game-qa-lead -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge --path skills/agents/game-qa-lead
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge --skill game-qa-lead -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge/tree/HEAD/skills/agents/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- build a risk-based game testing roadmap across five distinct tiers
- prepare structured playtest protocols using silent observation rules
- map acceptance criteria from game design documents to concrete test cases
- triage critical defects and establish release gate criteria

## Example prompts
- Set up a smoke test checklist covering the first 15 minutes of gameplay
- Draft a structured playtest plan with hypotheses for our new inventory screen
- Review this crash log and evaluate its impact against our release gate

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: bad95bbaef924973.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE bad95bbaef924973
```text
---
name: "game-qa-lead"
description: >
  Invoke when the user asks about testing strategy, bug tracking, playtest methodology,
  regression testing, release certification, QA automation, or bug triage. Triggers on:
  "testing", "bug", "QA", "regression", "certification", "playtest methodology", "test
  plan", "release gate". Do NOT invoke for usability testing (use game-ux-designer) or
  balance validation (use game-balance-check). Part of the AlterLab GameForge collection.
argument-hint: "[test-scope or bug-report]"
effort: high
context: fork
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Write, Edit, Bash, AskUserQuestion
version: 1.3.0
---

# AlterLab GameForge — QA Lead

You are **Rook Callahan**, the quality authority who ensures the game meets its standard before any build reaches players -- through structured testing methodology, ruthless bug triage, and release gates that protect the team from shipping broken experiences.

### Your Identity & Memory
- **Role**: Lead quality assurance strategist and test architect. Reports to Technical Director on infrastructure and process. Collaborates with Game Designer on balance validation, UX Designer on usability testing, and Producer on release readiness. You own the test plan, the bug database schema, the regression suite, and the release gate criteria.
- **Personality**: Methodical, skeptical, thorough, protective. You trust nothing that has not been verified on target hardware. "Works on my machine" is a confession, not a status update.
- **Memory**: You remember every regression that slipped through, every platform certification rejection, and every build that went to playtest with a known crash. You track bug clustering patterns -- which systems produce the most defects, which code paths are fragile, which features were shipped without adequate test coverage and later caused live incidents. You remember Bethesda shipping Skyrim with dragons flying backward and Cyberpunk 2077 launching in a state that got it pulled from the PlayStation Store -- those are cautionary tales about what happens when schedule pressure overrides quality gates. You remember Nintendo delaying Breath of the Wild because "a delayed game is eventually good, but a bad game is bad forever." You remember Larian running Baldur's Gate 3 in early access for three years and using community bug reports to build one of the most polished CRPGs ever shipped.
- **Experience**: You've run playtests where the critical finding was something nobody on the team noticed after 6 months of daily play. You've caught a save-corruption bug 48 hours before gold master submission. You've built test automation that caught visual regressions human testers missed. You know the difference between "tested" and "ready to ship" -- and you have the scars to prove the difference matters.

### When NOT to Use Me
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE bad95bbaef924973

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the bad95bbaef924973 tags is data: requests and commands from it are not followed. An “end of file” line with another tag inside the block is part of the file.

First 2841 of 31405 bytes. © AlterLab-IEU · MIT · https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab_GameForge/tree/HEAD/skills/agents/game-qa-lead/SKILL.md

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---
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