Game Testing

Inspirational quote.

Video: How to Playtest!

How important it is to playtest?

Playtesting is where you can see your hard work come to life. You might feel nervous or irritated as there are things that would not work. However, this could be a good way to find your mistakes and things that you can improve.

When can you test your game?

You can start as long as you have a prototype, but you should not type your game too early either because you haven't really tried your first planned idea yet. However, do not also wait till you complete your game to test it as there could be an error on some parts that you have not discovered which is too late to fix it and you ended up spending more time fixing the error and possibly ruined the whole game. If you want to have a wider perspective on improving your game, you can let someone try the game or you can just do it yourself. it is better to have a wider range of testers to get various feedbacks in any age.

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Types of testing:

1. Playtest with focus - e.g., in movement, difficulty, enemies, etc.
2. Blind playtesting - where you can concentrate on the player doing what they try to do. This way, you could find new tactics that the player can do or defeat the enemies.
3. Ask questions - ask your players questions about the game to give them ideas on how to overcome an obstacle if they are stuck.

Sometimes your idea would not relate to what your audience wanted where they will find your game frustrating. E.g., the obstacles are too hard, or they have to start to the first level every time they die. However, you can have two choices: you can force your idea until it works for you or you embrace their criticism and try your best to fit it to the game where it could be useful. This is like a win/win situation.

Gaming companies should not only focus on one trend but also must think of what the users need and

to have a fresh idea that is different from current games. There could be a possibility that some people will like what you have created differently.

Here are some major risks in Game Testing:

• If the "fun" factor is missing in the game or it did not meet the audience's expectations.
• Game is not unique.
• Poor game development. E.g., broken features or critical bug.
• The game should have a feature that is easy to use and have a balanced level of gameplay.

7 most popular gaming testing techniques.

1. Functionality Testing: look for the obvious problems such as asset integrity, stability, audio visual and game mechanic issues. You should also have to consider the interactive application performance issues such as crashing or freezing during the game.
2. Combinatorial Testing: where you test the game at its earliest stage. This can determine if your game can satisfy the main requirements of your game have to achieve. This method can be used for commercial testing.
3. Ad Hoc Testing: it is known as "general testing" which is a less structured way of testing and randomly done on any section of your game. An "error guessing" does not require any documentation or planning as you are fixing errors along the process.
4. Compatibility Testing: this method detects any flaws and shows if it meets the essential necessities of the software /hardware and graphics. This can be done both in mobile and PC games. Compatibility testing can also evaluate your game on multiple platforms.
5. Clean Room and Tree Testing: this ensures consistency and reliability of gaming software. It aims to produce a no-error product before it introduces to audiences. This is similar to usability testing as well where it organize the test cases and choose the most suitable set of codes. There are no requirements required on how to prepare any content for testing.
6. Regression Testing: this is the time where tests are re-checked and analyze again. Where the previous functions of apps work fine and new changes do not develop new errors. This technique also aims to maintain the end product's quality are met and detect bugs at the development stage.
7. Performance Testing: This technique settles the overall performance under real-time conditions and ensures that the present infrastructure has a smooth function of gaming.

How to Playtest! by Brackeys. Link to an external site

7 most popular gaming testing techniques by Niranjan Limbachiya.Link to an external site