Game Testing

[anwserman]

Hey everyone,

Just a thought on video game testing.  How do you do it?  I'm looking online about software testing methods, and it seems like few apply to a game - they're more business-oriented.

Only thing I can think of is focus on a feature, and attempt to break it someway within playback.  But this seems like a highly inaccurate method of testing; for instance, for games that use the FPS as a basis for movement (timeElapsed), slower FPS can result in errors with collision detection for stuff.

what have you all done regarding the testing process?

[Hypnotron]

I think for independent developers, the most important type of testing to perform is hardware and OS compatibility and configuration testing.  These are the bugs that become a technical support nightmare for you and your users.  Unfortunately, system testing is hard for independent developers to do right.  Too many developers fool themselves into thinking that a small group of beta testers can provide enough hardware coverage.  On the other extreme, a really big + extended beta test can leave a huge segment of potential customers disillusioned and frustrated early on and over time potentially over saturated with playing your game and wont buy when the time comes.

There are companies on the web that offer testing services but I've never tried any of them so I don't know how good they are or how affordable. 

The second most important type of testing is usability testing.  This pretty much requires a new batch of testers with a fresh set of eyes and with varying ranges of game playing experience to play your game from install to uninstall and to tell you what parts were intuitive, what parts were fun, and what parts were annoying, confusing, boring, etc.  You need outside perspectives from people who aren't all tech savvy or hardcore gamers.

I was a professional software tester for 3 years and I know that independently developed games don't get 1/10 of the testing that professional games do.  It's sad.  A lot of potentially good independently developed games die sudden deaths when bad word of mouth starts to hit the review sites and community forums.  You only get one chance to make a good first impression.  Make it count.

[beyonder]

What I did - am doing - is I opened a small forum on my site and released my software as an Alpha/Beta. That way any bugs that undoubtedly come along are "ok" because its in beta. Customers don't freak out and seem to actually enjoy the process of helping "hunt bugs".

In our case the beta costs 33% less than what version 1 stable will be... so you're still getting cash flow. Then once your version 1 is ready to go... you can mass market.

seems to be working great...

[micmanos]

Merphs law No26 .... "If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop."

Before, asking people to test something make sure you have 2 things.

1. An easy way for them to send feedback or even better, make the application send feedback.
2. An even easier way of sending patches and fixes back to them, once you fix a bug.

I always remember that testing is not a one-time procedure but a continuous process in which people that test my stuff (without payment) are volunteers that are doing me a favor.