Game Testing 101: Essential Tips and Strategies

Testing games is the exciting part of the process their development… There are a huge number of amazing video games on the market, but they all went through rigorous testing procedures before being released. During this process, testers try to identify bugs and shortcomings such as invisible walls, distorted characters, incorrect network code, missing textures, unbalanced weapons, holes in the map, long load times and sluggish controls. Quality assurance is a very important part game development processbecause it ensures that the gameplay is smooth, fun and free of annoying glitches.

Stages of the main game testing process

To successfully identify bugs in a game, testers follow a few basic steps.

Test planning and development. This is the first step in the game testing process.

TIP: to complete this step, you can help yourself with questions such as: What has changed in the design spec since the last build? What new configurations will the game support? What additional test cases have been added? What features have been cut?
Prepare for testing. Game owners or publishers prepare the documents and test environments that testers need to start testing the game.
Test it. Test suites are run with a new build. If an error is found, run as many tests as possible in its environment to find out about all the details that will then be recorded in the report.
Report results. At this stage, a report is drawn up with all the errors and shortcomings found.
Bug fix… The found error is discussed by the entire testing team together with the game development team, and the right solution is found.

Go back to step 1 and retest.

TIP: To make the game testing process easy and successful, proceed as follows: take notes, take your time, follow the procedure, always check the correctness of the tested version, and do not get distracted from the game.

Strategy planning

Like any other stage game development processtesting requires some planning to get the best results. The role of strategic planning is to identify probable problems in the game testing process and possible scenarios for dealing with them so that positive results are obtained as easily as possible. In addition, during the planning phase of the game testing strategy, the roles of the team members, the tools, and the documentation that will be used are determined.

TIP: For the best results possible, try to make your planning as detailed and thorough as possible.

Game testing methods and strategies

The game testing process can be done in several ways, and these methods can be called strategies. The most common strategies used by game testers are:

1. Ad-Hoc testing

Ad-Hoc testing is free-form testing. This technique requires the game tester to be relaxed, forget the checklist, and feel at home playing on the computer. The only difference, however, is that it focuses on finding bugs and bugs. Ad-Hoc testing allows you to find bugs that would not otherwise be found.

“ Ad-hoc testing is very important for the types of games that Obsidian makes. I’ve noticed that using test plans and checklists can reveal obvious bugs on the surface of the game, but the nastiest bugs seem to be discovered during ad-hoc sessions.Brandon Adler (QA Lead, Obsidian Entertainment)

2. Testing functionality

The role of this technique is to show if the final game works as originally specified. Typically, common graphics and user interface errors, sound, or mechanical problems are tracked. This stage does not take into account whether the game is fun or not, but focuses on the basic elements that should be functional.

3. Testing for compatibility

This method of testing games shows whether a game is optimized for all different screen sizes and whether the final product meets the basic requirements of software, hardware, and graphics.

4. Progressive Testing (Pass Test)

When using this technique, they try to get to the end of the game without any interruptions. Game testers look for crashes and freezes during linear gameplay. Roughly 99% of the breaks in the run are caused by script problems. The remaining 1% is caused by particularly nasty places to get stuck in.

5. Regression testing

Once the developers fix a bug, it gets fixed forever. … in a perfect world. But the reality is that even if a bug is fixed, it can easily give rise to other bugs. To get rid of this problem, regression testing is great. Game testers use this technique to look for old bugs in current code. While this kind of testing doesn’t seem like a big deal, regression testing can solve the annoying buzz-causing problems.

Partner with the best professionals to test your games effectively

If you want your video game testing to be truly effective, partner with real professionals in the field. With over 10 years of experience in the video game industry, Starloop Studios provides QA testing services for multi-platform games during prototyping, development, soft launch, and after release. It is very important to make sure that your game is as bug free as possible before launching, so if you need QA testing services that exceed all expectations, boldly contact us…