one mission

to be the best games quality agency in the world

 

DAQA specializes in player-centric test programs, live quality operations and in-depth games research, providing custom built, technology-driven solutions for game studios.

Tailor Made Solutions

DAQA is the Concierge of Game Quality

Focus & Play Testing

Highly specialized and customized testing, designed to deeply assess the player experience and provide valuable, actionable data to tune and polish gameplay.

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Scaled Beta Testing

Next generation scaled testing, delivered by a powerful, interactive data reporting system.

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Live Quality Operations & Functionality QA

On-demand QA experts, comprised of elite staff members with extensive games QA experience. Specializing in live quality operations.

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Player Research & Analysis

Deep analysis using cutting-edge tools and technologies to fully understand the player sentiment and experience.

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Release Management

Leverage our in-house expertise in console, cloud platform, and mobile submissions to get your game to market hassle-free.

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Accessibility Testing & Advisory Services

Game evaluations utilizing specialized talent, representing the true player base across core Accessibility categories.​

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Quality Program Development

Building world-class, high performing QA organizations to meet the ever-evolving needs of game quality.

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DAQA has crafted services that feature unique capabilities, delivered by an industry-experienced team.

The DAQA Difference:

  • High touch interactions with DAQA leadership, every step of the way.
  • Innovative, flexible services with no retainer fees or minimum contracts.
  • Custom-built solutions to meet the unique needs of each studio & project.
  • One-of-a-kind technologies that add depth and meaning to project outcomes.
  • Veteran test community, compensated above market.
  • Extensive experience transitioning to and managing live quality operations.
  • Interactive, configurable real-time data reporting.

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How We Work

DAQA supports clients in building the required foundation of industry leading global production operations, with the future-proofed ability to scale and flex as your studio requirements grow.

Executive Counsel

Providing analysis and strategy to studio quality leadership to apply right fit solutions.

Studio Enablement

Hands on evaluation, planning, and implementation of quality and test services.

Team Empowerment

Providing complimentary systems, processes and best practices to enhance game studio QA capabilities.

Case Studies

Case Study

Player Research for Global Marketing & Brand Management Company

Scope

Conducted 500-person player research studies, with participants across North America and Europe, with highly targeted player cohorts. Performed in-depth data-centric analysis, including surveys panel discussions to evaluate game concept appeal and viability. Assessment of visual concepts, in game assets, marketing copy, and stack ranking of core game features, as well as pricing analysis for F2P assets. Comprehensive written report, including interpretation of player data, product recommendations, and market positioning

Case Study

Focus Testing for Global Game Publisher

Scope

Performed series of focus tests on each published title during development phase. Delivered in-depth data analysis on usability, difficulty curves, game controls, story arcs, and general design/gameplay, augmented by player recordings. Worked directly with development teams to implement recommended design updates.

Case Study

Scaled Beta Tests for Multi-title Self-publishing Company

Scope

Large-scale, global beta testing of up to 2,000 simultaneous players for multiple AAA multiplayer titles on current and next generation consoles as well as PC. Identified, triaged, and determined root cause of multiple critical blocking issues before games were released.

Case Study

Accessibility Evaluation for Indie Adventure Game Studio

Scope

Evaluated Accessibility features within the game with a representative cohort covering all accessibility categories: Motor, Vision, Hearing, and Cognitive.​ Performed competitive analysis of similar games with Accessibility features. Delivered actionable, voice-of-the-player recommendations to improve accessibility throughout the game.

 

Title achieved 85 metacritic at launch with critical acclaim for accessibility features.

Case Study

Live-ops QA for Live Mobile Game Studio

Scope

Deployed dynamic and skilled development QA teams prior to each monthly live game release. Identified critical defects and quality issues, allowing for a smooth launch of live content.

Case Study

Quality Strategy for Indie Game Publisher

Scope

Ensured clean, successful launch of live game, provided tailor-made end to end solution relating to beta and live-ops testing. Proposed solution included set-up, remote team management, platform and data analysis, providing a holistic view of player-related live quality issues. Solution enabled robust, efficient live-ops QA once the game was live and fully operational.

Case Study

QA Transformation for Licensed IP F2P Studio

Scope

Complete QA transformation on behalf of studio leadership, including long-term vision and road map. Provided full quality program implementation for test process & coverage, mapped workflows, defined team set-up and structure.

 

Recommendation then operationalization of best practice for all quality disciplines including console certification, device performance testing, live-ops QA, third party QA and computer assisted testing/test automation.

Case Study

Embedded Technical QA for AAA MMORPG Studio

Scope

Deployed “virtually embedded” QA team into live game studio. Testers worked directly with developers on new game content, creating a highly efficient early defect detection process.

 

Results demonstrated a 20% increase in testing velocity, 40% increase in bug closure rates, and a significant annual cost savings from previous vendor. After initial successes, studio adopted DAQA test teams across all internally published titles.

Who We Are

DAQA is a team of game industry veterans, who understand the unique challenges faced by game studios to launch and maintain hit games.

Faye Hudson

HR, Payroll, and Office Manager (She/Her)

Faye has a long history of management, being a leader in the restaurant industry for 30+ years, in stores earning over 100 million in revenue, and even meeting Dave Thomas!

Faye has a long love of games, having actually met her husband online, and mostly plays puzzle and strategy games. She joined DAQA a year ago and in addition to managing DAQA's HR needs, she is also one of our Project Leads, with a specialization in mobile tests.

When not working, you will find Faye working on a puzzle, gardening, or spending time with her family; husband, two daughters and two sons...and way too many cats!

Grant Efland

Data Analyst (He/Him)

Customer service and account management professional, with 20 + years of experience across multiple Fortune 500 Companies, including management of multi-disciplinary teams of varying sizes.

Grant has enjoyed gaming from the Atari 2600 system to the current generation of consoles, testing games for the past 15 years. He graduated with a B.B.A from Northern State University.

Grant is a car enthusiast and regularly participates in the annual SEMA convention in Las Vegas.

Zoey Palmer

Associate Program Manager (She/Her)

Zoey has been obsessed with technology ever since she was old enough to sit at a keyboard or hold a joystick. Combined with her voracious reading habits, she quickly developed a passion for the limitless potential of storytelling in games, from expressive action to visual novels.

She sharpened her analytical skills in the US Air Force and at the University of Washington where she studied journalism with a focus on stories about diversity and politics. In her spare time she tested games for Microsoft, Harmonix, Bungie, and others.

Zoey joined DAQA as a tester in 2022, and in 2023 graduated a Lead role. In games, her passion is narrative design—how gameplay and story can work together to craft a rich, compelling experience.

James Lewis

Associate Program Manager (He/Him)

James has been in the games industry for over 13 years, with extensive FQA experience in various companies such as CD Projekt RED and Dambuster Studios. He has a keen interest in games quallity and how it impacts the success of game launches.

James has been playing video games since the original Half Life on Windows 98. He has a desire to work towards building a successful Accessibility testing program and has a keen interest in enabling all players to enjoy the stories and experiences games can bring.

Jonathan Williams

Program Manager (He/Him)

Jon is a 20-year veteran of the video game industry, with a distinguished career focused on Quality Assurance and production.

As the founder of the QA department at SquareSoft, he led teams on such franchises as Final Fantasy VII–XI and Kingdom Hearts. Highlights of his career include a 98% success rate on all first-time submissions to SCEA for the Final Fantasy series (VII-X) as well as additional titles submitted from 1996-2002.

Jon also founded the QA department at Sammy Studios where, in addition to managing QA, he created internal and external Focus Group programs for evaluating titles in development, and coordinated testing schedules with production teams and assets for the PR and Marketing departments. In addition, Jon was handpicked by the Sammy Studios CEO to direct and manage a core team of six production staff while also maintaining his role as the Senior QA Manager.

Above all, Jon embraces opportunities that enable him to, “Help when I can, where I can,” as this is his core philosophy.

Andre Reis

Program Manager (He/Him)

Andre's 10+ years of Remote QA experience and years of Computer Science study have led him to find good company in DAQA's technical, talented, and experienced team.

As a lifelong gamer whose earliest memories go back to the NES and BBC Micro, his interest is in gaming as an industry and storytelling medium.

He looks forward to the technological and narrative innovations that are still to come in this rapidly-evolving industry and assisting game developers in navigating new challenges and exploring exciting possibilities.

Jake Hamilton-Daynes

Principal Engineer (He/Him)

With a focus on performance measurement and analysis on both mobile and desktop systems, Jake has been at the forefront of games industry tooling and R&D since 2013 when he helped to found GameBench. He's spent more than a decade providing tooling and services for clients such as Samsung, Blizzard, Rovio, Google, and Zynga; Most recently he could be found developing cutting edge testing methodologies and tooling for the renowned Linus Tech Tips' Lab.

Jake has worked with DAQA as both a client and contractor over the years, andis currently leading the development of DAQA's game testing platform.

Jake built his first PC at age 10, and wrote his first line of C code less than two years later. Outside of work, he can be spotted walking and hiking with his wife, daughters, and Samoyed Lorek across the lower mainland of British Columbia.

Adam Testerman

Sr. Software Developer (He/Him)

Adam Testerman is a software engineer with over 10 years of experience developing websites, apps, and games of all kinds. His love of video games has proven beneficial throughout his time with DAQA tests, while his skills in programming continue to produce tools for DAQA's clients.

Selena Emrey

Program Manager (She/Her)

Selena’s love for video games brought her into the world of quality assurance. She is a champion at QA, with over six years’ experience under her belt. She has tested many types of games across all platforms including phones, tablets, consoles, and PC.

As part of the core team at DAQA, Selena leads projects, writes project reports summarizing player feedback, reports game defects, and performs data analysis of trends that occur during testing. Selena holds a Foundation Level ISTQB certification which augments her experiences in DAQA.

Selena attended community college and received an AAS in business, as well as a certificate in professional baking and cake decorating.

Tim Hudson

Partner (He/Him)

Tim Hudson is a data analyst and program manager with experience working in Fortune 500 companies.

Professional highlights include leading the DSL rollout for Earthlink in Washington State and Oregon. Managed Tier 1 and 2 support for AOL, Lexmark, and Stream Global Services for corporate clients.

10-year beta QA tester for numerous game studios. A+/N+ certified, with extensive knowledge of data automation, analysis, and real-time reporting tools.

Devin Seto

Managing Partner (He/Him)

Game development professional with a career spanning over 20 years of shipping critically acclaimed titles across multiple platforms. Career highlights include Head of Studio for a groundbreaking blockchain game company, VP of Product for a patented mobile health technology platform, and Executive Producer at Zynga for FarmVille and Texas Hold’em Poker. He was also Head of Operations for LucasArts, working primarily on Star Wars branded titles.

Devin managed quality assurance for multi-platinum console sports games at Electronic Arts Canada. Whilst there, he also set-up the QA computer assisted and automated test program, which was widely adopted across all studios globally.

He taught the QA course for the Vancouver Film School’s prestigious game design program. In addition Devin is an Agile and business Coach for various software startups, a Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner.

Ben Wibberley

Non-executive Advisor (He/Him)

Founded DAQA and has over 20 years’ experience in the video games industry primarily in global production support BPO. As a co-founder of Babel Media, he took the company from concept to being one of the largest game multi-service providers.

At DDM, he set-up up a virtual services network for self-publishing AAA game studios. Then at VMC he took responsibility for business development and account management for games and entertainment.

Having signed, grown and managed $100m’s of production support deals for QA, localization, player support and external development, Ben has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices through his work with some of the most prominent names in the industry.

Get In Touch Today

Find out how DAQA can help your studio succeed!