According to a new report from GlobalData, the worldwide gaming market is predicted to reach more than $300 billion by 2025, thanks to the expansion of breakthrough solutions like cloud gaming and mobile gaming. With the game industry’s ongoing growth and spread around the world, industry leaders like AltSpaceVR and BigScreenVR are driving a virtual future perhaps faster than many people expect. However, it is critical for gaming companies to concentrate not only on emerging developments but also on identifying the demands of their users. Delivering a finished game product with mistakes and problems may elicit negative feedback from customers, resulting in a significant drop in unit sales.
Even the most successful game developers will be unable to survive without understanding who their gamers are and whether or not their gaming application is ready for usage. Game testing is an important step in ensuring maximum performance and quality in the final output. Such intellectual services provide a critical eye to the development process, focusing on constant searches such as errors, thoroughness, bugs, bottlenecks, inconsistencies, consistency, and so on.
1. The Most Common Techniques of Game Testing
Whatever technique is employed, the main goal of game testing is to find and document any software flaws. Bugs are a term used to describe these problems. The goal of game testing is to find problems and keep track of software products. It can be carried out in six different methods, including:
1.1 Functional Testing
This type testing is performed to verify that the finished product meets the criteria. Functionality QA testers look for issues including game asset integrity, stability issues, audio-visual issues, and game mechanic faults in the game or its graphics and user interface. Performance constraints such as freezing, crashing, and advancement obstructions are just a few of the things that skilled game testers examine when testing interactive applications. User interface (UI) testing, on the other hand, ensures that the game is user-friendly. The goal of UI testing is to emphasize two important aspects: content kinds and graphical elements. In addition, the game’s localization testing should be covered.
1.2 Combinatorial Testing
This technique allows you to quickly test the game in its early phases. The first step is to figure out how much testing your game will require. As a result, you can use this type of testing to verify whether the game meets specific requirements or functions without bugs. It also analyses and scrutinizes all of the game’s outputs and inputs so that you can get a clear picture of many possible combinations and results. It is mostly used to generate test cases for commercial software testing. Combinatorial testing strategies increase the efficacy of test execution, quality, phase confinement, and cost in video game testing.
1.3 Compatibility Testing
Compatibility testing identifies any issues in functionality and determines whether the final product fits the software, hardware, and visual requirements. After all, it’s necessary to keep the game’s users satisfied. This type of test allows you to see if the game’s UI (user interface) is optimized for different screen sizes and devices. For both mobile and PC games, this is performed. For example, with mobile games, this would be used to see if the game works properly across a variety of Android devices. This method can be used to determine whether your game is compatible with various gaming systems.
1.4 Ad-Hoc Testing
Ad hoc testing, also known as “generic testing,” is a less systematic procedure of testing that is performed at arbitrary on any part of the gaming application. In particular, there are two forms of ad hoc testing. This type of testing employs the “error guessing” technique and does not necessitate any documentation, process, or strategy. Errors will not be linked to test cases because ad hoc testing tries to detect defects or errors using a random manner with no documentation. The advantage of this sort of testing is that it ensures thoroughness of testing and detects hidden mistakes or problems.
1.5 Clean Room Testing and Tree Testing
The clean room test ensures that the gaming software is consistent and reliable. The goal of this clean room testing is to generate a product with very few defects. Tree testing is a game testing technique comparable to usability testing that supports the organization of test cases and the precise selection of tests most appropriate for a specific set of code modifications. The benefit of this technique of testing is that it does not require any content preparation because it can be done utilizing activities (instructions) and trees (menu).
1.6 Regression Testing
It is used to test the functionality of the gaming application’s entire set of features. Here, test cases are re-examined to ensure that the app’s prior functions are performing properly and that the recent changes have not caused any new mistakes or vulnerabilities. The goal is to double-check whether the app’s functions are working properly, or to see if any changes have introduced any new problems or caused any issues. This is critical for maintaining end-product quality control and spotting faults early in the product development process. A developer could use this crucial game testing strategy to re-run previously done tests and analyze the old vs. current findings to see if any problems exist.
1.7 Performance Testing
Performance testing is used to assess an application’s overall performance in real-world circumstances. This form of testing ensures that the current infrastructure is capable of supporting the game’s smooth operation. Load testing, in particular, is used to see if an application or system can handle a certain amount of traffic. The primary goal of performance tuning is to improve product speed. During performance testing, the following important criteria are examined: graphic performance, processor and memory restrictions, network connectivity, battery usage, and response time.
1.8 Load Testing
It is a type of performance testing used to determine the performance of a system under real-time loads. Load testing shows how an app reacts when multiple users use it at the same time.
Key Characteristics
- Determine whether the current infrastructure is adequate for the smooth operation of the game.
- Examine the app’s viability under peak user load.
- Determine the number of users an app can support and its scalability rate to support more users.
- Supports performance management methods.
1.9 Play Testing
Playtesting is a technique for testing video games that involves playing them to examine non-functional qualities including enjoyable elements, levels of difficulty, balance, etc. Here, a chosen group of users tests the workflow by playing the game’s unfinished versions.
Key Elements
- It is a crucial component of game design and is frequently used in PC games and role-playing games.
- It is more important to judge the game than the statistics.
- The basic objective is to determine whether a game has a concrete foundation.
2. CONCLUSION
So, should game testing be primarily concerned with reality or vision? In today’s world, a game development team must devote more time to testing processes than any other app development technique, as the process can grow more complicated as a result of the various components. In this current era, technological advancement is a constant, and the games industry is frequently at the forefront of technological advancement.
However, one must first recognize the need for these tests, as they will aid in the correction of key faults and make one’s life easier.
As a result of TestDel testing activities, the Client got a clear understanding of what issues are typical for certain devices. In addition, the QA team submitted thorough problem reports (including logs in the event of an app crash), videos of the testing process, test engineer feedback, and suggestions for improvements from experienced gamers.
The detection and correction of the defects greatly improved the user experience on a variety of devices, resulting in increased customer loyalty.