In the huge world of game development, it is paramount to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience for all players.
That’s why QA testing comes into game development.
This process acts as a savior to ensure the games meet high quality and standards. It helps identify and address any issues or bugs before the game is officially launched to the public.
In this article, let’s delve into the importance of QA testing and explore how it contributes to the overall game’s success!
Bugs and Their Impact on Player Experience
No matter how carefully game developers put their effort and attention into crafting a game, there are still likely to be video game bugs that can sneak in and cause trouble.
They can come in different forms and affect the game player experience as a whole.
As these bugs are common and can affect game player experience, it’s crucial to tackle bugs before the game’s launch to avoid negative impacts for video game publishers.
Game popularity bugs, such as frequent crashes or glitches, can be annoying for players who are experiencing the game, which results in bad reviews and negative feedback.
This can damage the game’s reputation and decrease the number of people engaging in the game as they read the previous negative reviews.
Furthermore, these unresolved technical issues can lead to a decrease in the number of players purchasing games.
All players desire entertainment and relaxing moments when choosing games. So, if the game has lots of technical problems, there is no surprise that they might not want to buy it.
This means a reduction in game development revenue and sales for game publishers.
6 Common Game Bugs
Here are some common types of bugs:
Interface Bugs
These bugs affect the game’s overall appearance and the way players interact with the game’s menus and buttons.
The graphics of the game might be misrepresented, which leads to confusion or frustration.
Technical Bugs
These gaming bugs can disrupt players while they are playing the game.
They are related to the game’s underlying code that causes crashes, freezes, or the game doesn’t work appropriately.
Localization Bugs
These bugs impact the game’s translation and localization efforts, resulting in text or audio that is incorrect.
For example, you might encounter placeholder text like “germany_text_001” instead of proper translations.
Compatibility Bugs
These game bugs impact when critical errors in the game only support one device, not others, even though it’s designed for most devices.
Performance Bugs
These bugs cause the game to slow down, with a noticeable drop in frames per second (FPS) when characters perform attack animations on high-end devices.
Balance & Logic Bugs
These bugs disrupt the game’s balance or logic, making things happen that don’t make sense or giving some players an unfair advantage.
Comprehensive Guide to the Game Testing Process
Ensuring the quality of games is essential for video game success, as game developers aim to deliver the most enjoyable gaming experiences to all players.
So, the importance of game testing in the game development lifecycle can not be overlooked.
Here are the specific stages of the typical game testing lifecycle:
1. Plan and Design The Test
During the pre-production phase, a software testing plan is developed by game developers.
They outline the testing objective, scope, and required resources.
If there are any changes or new test cases, planning documents will be updated constantly.
2. Prepare For Test
What do video game testers do in this step?
They set up their tests and environments to conduct the testing activities. The development team provides the necessary test code for QA game testing.
3. Perform The Test
Game testers execute the planned tests and identify any bugs or defects in the game.
4. Report the Results
The QA game tester documents detailed information about each bug, including steps to reproduce, severity, and priority.
5. Repair the Bug
This step requires a close-knit connection between the development team and the testing team.
The developers take the information from the testing team and fix the bugs in the game code.
6. Repeat Step 1
Once the bugs are fixed, it’s time to start the testing process all over again with a new version of the game.
They keep doing this until the game is perfect and ready to be played by everyone.
Exploring Various Game Testing Methods
Game QA testing involves various methods to ensure that games meet quality standards and provide an enjoyable experience for players.
Here are some common types of game testing:
Functionality Testing
This type of testing focuses on ensuring that all game features and functions work as intended. QA testers check for stability issues, game mechanic glitches, and any differences in the graphics and content.
They can conduct thorough examinations of various game elements, including menu structure, font sizes, screen resolutions, and animation quality.
Compatibility Testing
It’s necessary to make sure the game works well on various devices, operating systems, and platforms.
So, testers need to verify if the game performs stably and effectively on PCs, consoles, and mobile devices, without any compatibility issues.
If the game is available on various gaming platforms, this means it can extend its player base, resulting in increasing revenue.
Localization Testing
Localization testing ensures that the game is adapted to different languages, cultures, and regions. This is really necessary as the game is targeted at the global markets or multiple countries.
Gaming testers verify the accuracy of translated text, audio, and visuals, ensuring that the game is culturally appropriate and accessible to players worldwide.
Security Testing
If the gaming app incorporates third-party codes, it is compulsory to conduct this type of testing to ensure that sensitive user data remains protected from potential threats and maintain the integrity of the gaming environment.
Testers need to assess the game’s resistance to hacking, data breaches, and unauthorized access.
Compliance Testing
Compliance testing ensures that the game complies with industry standards, legal regulations, and platform requirements.
If the game violates any regulation, there is the possibility that the video game can be rejected. This means developers have to spend more money to fix the issues and resubmit the game.
So, testers need to verify carefully if the game meets guidelines for content ratings, accessibility, privacy, and other compliance criteria.
Installation Testing
The installation process should be as easy as possible so that everyone, whether beginner or experienced players, can install and access the game.
This is because the complex process can make people lose interest and look at other titles with simpler installations.
Moreover, testers need to ensure that the installation process runs smoothly on various devices and platforms without any errors or complications.
Regression Testing
Testers check to see if new features or fixes haven’t caused any issues.
They use previous tests to make sure everything still works well. This helps maintain the game optimization and keeps it running smoothly.
Pros and Cons of Game Testing
One big challenge of game testing is that games these days are super complicated.
They often come with intricate gameplay mechanics, detailed graphics, and expansive worlds, which, by far, make it difficult for testers to examine every aspect of the game.
Another challenge lies in the time it takes to do games testing.
Testing all features, levels, and mechanics of the game might require a significant amount of time and effort. As a result, this can sometimes cause a delay in the time of game release.
Despite all these above challenges, the game testing process still holds a lot of benefits.
Firstly, this process brings players a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience as mainly bugs and issues are identified and fixed.
Secondly, testing helps developers gather valuable feedback and refine their games before their release.
As games are released to the market at high quality, game publishers can receive positive reviews and boost the game’s reputation in the gaming market.
The Vital Role of QA Testing for Game Success
Game QA testing ensures that the game works well and provides an enjoyable experience for all players, which, ultimately, sets the stage for a successful game launch.
Without a QA testing process, games might likely be riddled with bugs and technical issues. That’s why it is necessary for game developers to conduct the game testing process thoroughly to fix any issues before they affect players.
In the competitive world of gaming, QA testing can help developers release their games with confidence, making sure games stand out and keep players coming back for more fun.