2018 witnessed the success of many phenomenal games such as God Of War, Fallout 76, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Far Cry 5, Fortnite, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey etc.
However, it is indeed a fact that there were games that were an utter disappointment.
They weren’t absolutely terrible games, however, each of them missed to match up to what the gamer’s desire. This year we’ve had a considerable amount of unfortunate game failures from brief snaps of magnificence to straight up to the failure.
For a huge number of reasons, these 15 games didn’t meet players’ deepest desires, and in spite of the fact that fun value can surely be found inside them, they didn’t accomplish the significance they were supposing to offer.
1. Devil May Cry HD
Exposing a shocking similarity to the version of the set of trilogies ported to the PS3 in 2012.
The FMV sequences, as well as, the menus of the game have basically been ripped from their original releases, in fact appearing up in a 4:3 ratio that had been funny.
2. Realm Royale
Aside from a short stretch in the spotlight in June with 100, 00 simultaneous players when over-eager spirits denoted the game as Fortnite’s successor, Realm Royale has relentlessly blurred into gaming vagueness with scarcely 2000 players for each day.
The evacuation of the Forge framework and classes both lead to Realm Royale’s capital punishment and a holding on – for the most negative – steam rating.
3. Bravo Team
Bravo Team was a VR shooting game with an awful camera — something which will murder quickly any VR game. It has been regarded as a highly terrible VR shooter from a proficient players group.
In addition, the game begot a disappointingly little armory of weapons to select from and heaps of inundation murdering bugs.
4. Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR
Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR is what might be compared to the 2001 film, but you don’t get the chance to play as a human in a world inundated by progressively learned apes, rather, you’re one of the apes! Also, the controls make you look dumb.
The game doesn’t show signs of improvement beyond the opening minutes that puts the game itself in the category of crisis. It disappoints to do the absolute minimum to be a better than average VR based game.
5. Monster Hunter World
The globally acclaimed Monster Hunter World was a complete failure. The world is delightful totally, yet the game is criticized for various nagging problems.
The storyline is then altogether not appealing, fundamental parts of the gameplay interaction aren’t clarified to the user, the user interface is a cumbersome chaos, and also, the real monster chasing itself turns into a redundant task sooner or later.
6. Radical Heights
Radical Heights came into the spotlight for a short moment due to the similarities of Dr. DisRespect. The game was free to play, yet a disappearing player base, allegations of being a money grasp, and negative feedbacks climaxed in a somewhat dismal end.
Ex legend designer executive Cliff Bleszinski was compelled to close down Radical Heights studio Boss Key Productions. Servers have been closed and the game is not any more playable.
7. The Inpatient
This game shares the diversifying narrative varieties discovered in Until Dawn yet neglects to recount as a fascinating story. It additionally comes up short on the grisly horror that made the principal title such dismay, rather choosing mind games and psychological fears. The Inpatient failed — and sadly for Supermassive, that is not its first goof of 2018.
8. Mario Tennis Aces
The primary issue with the Mario Tennis Ace is the dismal absence of valuable content on offer. The principle staying point is the Adventure Mode campaign, an activity in disappointment and dullness that powers the gamer through a reiteration of awkward game challenge levels and progressively low wave-based boss battles.
9. The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia
The worlds and characters of Knights of Britannia are presented in 3D, which implied additional time was spent building those choices. That time truly could have been utilized for the storyline, which ended up being super shortsighted and exhausting. That, as well as the characters, don’t adjust to the words they are uttering, and that just serves to remove players totally from the fun.
10. Secret of Mana
First off, the new 3D illustrations are extremely very revolting – looking like a mobile game more than you’ll need to accept – while for all intents and purposes no attempt has been made to stimulate the first game’s jankier and further baffling components in particular wonky Artificial Intelligence.
11. State of Decay 2
Though State of Decay 2 ought to be commended for its aggressive endeavor to one-up the original scale of the game, eventually, it’s lethally kept down by a plenty of glitches and an over-known interactivity loop that frequently embraces feelings of boredom.
12. Lost Sphear
This is a completely disappointing game, seeming like a decades-old, cooked-over entry into the sort eventually to its loss.The new modes mostly seem cumbersome and finicky, the narrative and characters are entirely forgettable, and it appears like a somewhat of a toil.
13. Vampyr
The much-criticized conflict is the game’s central major disorder and the infuriatingly poor, needlessly complex boss battles don’t quite back either.
That is to state nothing of the plenitude of glitches and generally technical failure, and narrative that comes up short rather rapidly. There are flawless thoughts here, yet you’ll require a virtuous level of persistence to push through past an initial couple of hours.
14. New Gundam Breaker
You’ll without a doubt discover fans of an earlier version of this game. However, there are a whole lot of issues with New Gundam Breaker. The game reviews criticize it for its terrible controls and below average framerate, and additionally a story battle that doesn’t offer much fun.
15. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom
One of the most disappointing arrivals in couple of years. With a gloomy and suspicious absence of voiced dialogue and cut-scenes, an unlikeable hero, and an abundance of stifled side gameplay planned exclusively to stuff things out.
So, with the failures of these games what’s the lesson learned here? Without proper game testing, no game can gain the glory it needs. Failed game testing strategies lead to failed games.
What Strategies to Adapt for Better Game Testing and Successful Game Launch?
During game testing, it’s endeavored to recognize obscure bugs by testing each conceivable movement or option a player may get amid typical interaction.
The tester may even try to get things done that a normal player probably won’t have the capacity to make sense of, for example, hindrance inside the game.
Game testing strategies to follow:
Alpha testing
This is performed by the engineers prior to presenting the game to any user. Any basic issue can be immediately solved by the engineers, as it’s done by their side. Basically, alpha testing guarantees the quality of the game before proceeding onward to beta testing.
Widen the scope for testers
In testing, you get a group of experienced gamers who can present significant opinions. They play the game a lot, and they’re very much employed to disclose you when the fun is being sucked out or when something makes the game more enjoying.
So, don’t confine your game testers to graphical and functional imperfections let them think out of the box. Give them some space to assist you in improving the game.
A tester will note events of these and comparative game breakdowns. Subsequent to locating a bug, he must write a depiction of what occurred alongside guidelines that precisely portray how to see the error in the game.
Then showing this data to the developers, the tester might be taken to test the modified game’s version with the end goal to make a static version.
Load testing and stress testing
It’s additionally imperative to guarantee that the game can deal with sudden episodes of traffic inflow.
There is a load that should be managed when the game is downloaded, and more the load on the game downloading, the more there is a possibility of poor application execution.
Performance engineering
Performance engineering is one level forward; the performance engineer has total awareness of elements that help with giving code reports.
All anticipated execution related bottlenecks are quickly settled from the beginning of the game lifecycle.
This is a practical strategy that recognizes likely situations of disappointment and hopes to settle those situations instantly through software testing.
Conclusion
Game testing is one of the essential steps to prevent your game from any kind of glitch or a breakdown of its model.
Technology evolves constantly, and the game business is frequently on the bleeding edges
. Testing these sorts of software/hardware definitely, require such testing strategies for organizations bracing their business in this territory.
After all, these failed games of 2018 are proof why game testing is crucial.
Category: Game Testing
Blockchain Game Testing: What You Need To Know!
Earlier bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were being talked about by media and other sources. These have experienced a major growth in their business and these cryptocurrencies are known all over the world in a short span of time.
Integration of Blockchain technology is not just limited to crypto currencies. Application of it is wide and has immense potential.
Since gaming has always been lucrative industry. Blockchain is now being integrated to it and lot’s of game are going to hit the market.
Obviously, testing these games is important. Let’s have a look at BlockChain Game Testing
Block Chain Network in Games
Blockchain Game Testing
Block chain games run on Block chain technology which needs special tools and skills for testing. There are various types of tests which can be executed at the different level of game development. Below is the list of different types of BlockChain Game Testing which can be executed to test the quality of Blockchain games.
- Unit Tests: These tests will ensure the coding is being performed correctly at the lowest level of the development cycle. Developers can use this test to determine whether their written code is efficient and performing well for small functions. This also ensures that the bugs and errors are detected at the earliest
- Integration Tests: This test will ensure whether the communication between codes and components is working properly or not. It helps developers and testers to test the behavior of interfaces of different components and their interaction between various software components.
- UI Testing: UI testing is vital to ensure that the user interface from the user’s end is functioning as expected. It will help in uncovering the working of application from user’s perspective. This test will also ensure that user experience is positive or at least is getting correct feedback if the application is not functioning properly.
- Application Programming Interface Testing: Application Programming Interface or API testing will ensure the interaction of software components with external APIs. This will help testers to generate API requests which are formatted and handled correctly and verify whether the requests and response are validated by the application or not.
Blockchain games also use a similar type of technology called smart contracts. This technology will enable testers to use the same testing procedure for testing APIs.
What are Smart Contracts?
Smart contracts are an essential part for validation of Blockchain games. It is a set of rules written in lines of code that is self-executing when the predefined conditions are met.
Although smart contracts are similar to API, they cannot call to external web APIs. It has a public function which can be requested by any user in the Blockchain network.
So, are you wondering why testers are essential in Blockchain games? It is because once these contracts are deployed in the network it cannot be changed again.
Thus, the testing which has to be performed on the application should be of a high level which covers almost every aspect of testing.
If any defect is found in production, contracts cannot be changed thus, a new version has to be created and deployed.
Not only this, existing data cannot be transferred to the new version and developers have to initialize this data manually into a new contract.
Hence, this increases the complexity of the development cycle and becomes important to run complete BlockChain Game Testing before it reaches production.
Skills Required to Perform Testing on Blockchain Games
Although Blockchain games are new to the development industries, there are a various set of skills which a tester should possess.
Testers can hone their skill sets and implement them while testing Blockchain games. Skills required are listed below:
- Critical Thinking: Blockchain games follow in-game transactions which can sometimes cause the problem to the people. Testers should think about questions like what will happen if there are various transactions pending simultaneously. What will happen to transactions if a, b, or c are not done? Will the user be able to get feedback if transactions are not executed? Testers should be easily able to tackle these types of the question with its ability to analyze critically and think around problems.
- Test Design Techniques: Testers are already familiar with test design techniques. This technique will help to understand the inputs and outputs of the game better. Testers can easily think around problems like how will the application execute if the input limit is exceeding predefined value? What will happen if the entered limit is exceeded, does the transaction will still execute? With this ability, testers will be able to tackle and test boundary value or equivalence portioning of the application.
- Automation: BlockChain Game Testing requires strong automation skills. Lower-level or high-level unit tests, integration tests, API tests, and UI tests skills would be required for a proper testing of Blockchain games. It will ensure to find major issues as soon as possible in the development cycle before going into production.
- Manual UI Testing: Manual testing is also needed for UI testing of the game. The tester can generally put their main concern on the issues which can be found easily by implementing manual exploratory tests. Tester with ability to work independently, trying to find detects by focusing on weak areas of the applications or exploring various areas of application. Despite, a lot of testing has been automated now still there is a need to improve manual testing skills to perform specific tasks.
- Learn New Tools Quickly: As technology advances, the list of tools used for testing also advances. The tester should be able to learn new tools quickly in order to grow their skills for testing Blockchain applications. It becomes vital to know how tools are used to detect any issue in Blockchain network.
What do you need to Test?
You’ll need to focus on certain aspects while doing BlockChain Game Testing. They are:
- Block Size: Testing block size during BlockChain Game Testing will ensure how many limits does each block contains. This will test the limit of the transaction in each game’s block.
- Chain Size: Testing of the block creation functionality and performance as the length of the chain is increased.
- Load: How much of transaction Blockchain game can handle simultaneously? This test will ensure the capability of the transaction load.
- Performance: How much time will it take for the query to look at every individual blocks in the chain? This will ensure the performance of the game.
- Security: Does the transaction in Blockchain games are secured enough? It will ensure the security of the application.
- Data Corruption: This test will ensure that there is no data corruption in the database.
Top 10 Game Testing Companies In India
The gaming industry has changed a lot in the past few years in India. With the advancement in technology, the game testing companies in india have seen an unexceptional boom in the industry with so many games developed and launched in the market globally.
There is no doubt that the demand for interactive games has increased a lot in the recent times.
The rise in the gaming companies is the major show point of the increment that is using the demand in their favour at every turn.
However, with development comes testing that is one of the most crucial points of the gaming.
Here are the top game testing companies in india that are making their names in the national as well as international market.
1. Testbytes – Pune
With Pune as their home ground Testbytes has managed to gain good reputation within a short span of time.
They have a pretty decent track record and have clientele spread around the world.
Testbytes offer wide range of testing services and game testing one among them. They have a big team of testers who has got years of experience and exposure to various test scenarios and can perfectly and professionally manage testing procedure with ease and efficiency. Their test environment is also equipped to carry out any sort of testing.
2. SuperSike Game – Delhi NCR
They are the government registered privately held software development company that is famous for their design, development, testing and on-time delivery of the gaming software and application for India based platforms of smartphones.
19 Studios are providing their services in the Unity 3D Game Development, Mobile Game Design Services and Game Testing Services.
They have managed to set out their footprint in the global market that is power-driven by the best and experienced brains.
19 Studios have its headquarters in Delhi but are widely spread in the global market due to their best gaming solutions.
They deal in core services of Game Testing Services, Augmented Reality Development, 3D Modeling & Animation, Web Application Development, Unity 3D Game Development and many more. The games under their achievements are See and Match, Paint Ball Game, Treasure Match, etc.
3. Rolocule – Pune
It is one of the reputed game development and testing company that is in the market for over decades.
They are backed off by some of the leading investors including IIM Ahmedabad, Blume Ventures and Mumbai Angels.
The games that fall under the name of Rolocule development are well-known in over 110 countries.
Their headquarters are in Pune with the consistent delivery in the international market with the top-quality that is loved by millions of heart.
They deal in design, 3D development, testing and Modeling and animation. The games under their name are Flick Tennis, Dead Among Us, Dance Party, etc.
4. Ironcode Gaming – Dehradun
The Ironcode has experienced, creative and professional members that deals with developing unique games. In addition to this, they provide full service for the concept development of the games and testing.
Once, everything is set, they even deploy the gaming application. They have already written names on multiple platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS.
In addition to this, you can find them on Appstore, Steam, Amazon, Google Play, AOL, BigFish Games, and Yahoo, etc.
The headquarters of the company is in Dehradun with their own cross-platform gaming development services even though they have a third-party engine for the consumertasks.
Their team provides services such as Unity 3D Game Development, Game Designing, Lastman Standing Games, Riotball, Angkor, Turbogems, Pahelika Series, and 2D/3D art.
5. Ingenuity Gaming – Noida
Ingenuity is in the gaming sector for over 13 years and has managed to evolve the sector at a drastic rate.
They are now a multi-channel development studio whose aim is to offer services for the e-gaming and land-based sectors.
The industry has proven their worth with the rating record of their 500+ games that are amazing customers at a global rate.
Also Read : Top 7 Test Automation Companies In India
They are focused on providing gaming solutions in such the way to provide the best solution to the customers.
The headquarters of the industry is in Noida with approximately 250+ team members that workmeticulously with HTML5 Conversions, Game Art, Testing, Compliance, and Engine Development.
They have games such as Trip Trap Trolls, Diamond Fortunes, and RollemRollem, etc. under their name.
6. Mango Games – Hyderabad
The smartphone game building company – Mango Games deals in several platforms such as Android, iOS, Cloud Games and Windows.
They deal in all the gaming solutions in-house with many services including development, designing, promotion, testing and publishing.
In addition to this, they deal in a different type of games such as turn-by-turn multiplayer, single player and multi-player.
The headquarters of the company is in Hyderabad that hasa firmbelief in persuasive games that are enjoyed by global customers.
Their core services are Game Design Services, Android Game Development, Game Development, Game Testing Services, Unity 3D Game Development, 3D Modeling and animation. The games under their names are Teen Patti, Mumbai Mobsters, and Social Rummy, etc.
7. Synqua Games – Mumbai
Synqua Games falls in the category of the top-rated games in India. They deal in providing services for game development in many platforms for tablets and mobile such as BB10, Android, iOS and Window Phones.
Till today, they have over 60 games that are played by the customers. The download count of the games is approximately 30 million which is still in counting.They are still developing a number of games with are extremely loved by the clients. In addition to this, the gaming studio is redefining their strategies to achieve goals.
The headquarters are located in Mumbai that is working to complete their dream of achieving award-winning gaming applications.
They deal in the Game Design Services, Game Development, Unity 3D Game Development, Android Game Development, 3D Modeling and Animations and Game Testing Services. Their games are Rescue Monster, Snowball Baseball and Tap Baseball.
8. Zapak Digital LTD – Mumbai
They are the leading gaming website that deals in online games with a category that is widespread with multiple categories including the dress up games and action games.
They are dealing in the services including Android Game Development, Game Development, Unity 3D Game Development, 3D Modeling and Animation, and Game Testing Services.
The games that are famous under their names are Speedway Racing, Super Boxing, Stealth Sniper, etc.
9. T&A Solutions – Chandigarh
One of the big shots in game development and testing. They are a pioneer in rendering the Solutions in multiple domains including HR professionals.
The game testing is their forte in which they have managed to develop a name with the great efforts and amazing work.
They are in the business world for many years and have a strongholdin the gaming industry.
The headquarters of the company T & A Solution is in the Chandigarh with the aim to provide the best services to their valuable customers. They work for the quality and not quantity.
10. Indium Game Testing Company – Bengaluru
It is a leading software testing Services Company that is focusing on multiple domains. They are not only making a name in the national market but in the international market as well.
The company aim for the perfection and quality of the games in multiple domains. Their business is widely spread in many locations including Bengaluru and Chennai in India market and in USA, Georgia, California, etc.
They provide a number of services that includes the software testing of Games, Technology, Banking, Retail, Education, Life Science, and Healthcare.
In the present time, they are aggressively working in the field of cloud agenda, mobile and social platform with many emerging paradigms.
15 Common Misconceptions About Game Testing Careers And Testers
When you were in school, you must have heard your parents saying that playing video games is a waste of time. Well what if you were told that playing games is actually a career? Interesting right? This field is called Games testing.
But like any other new concept there are a couple of misconceptions about game testing and Game Testing Career. That is what we will discuss in this article. But first we must ascertain what is game testing.
The primary function of game testing is to find out game defects and its proper documentation. To run a gaming program or application successfully, game testing is required as it helps to find game bugs, and makes sure that the game is fit to use.
So now that we understand the concept of game testing, let us check out a couple of misconceptions people have regarding this field:
1. Game Testing doesn’t Require Brains:
It’s a common assumption that a game tester doesn’t need to apply his brains, perhaps because a tester may have to run a game multiple times, making his job monotonous .
But that’s not true because for running a game successfully a game tester has to really apply his brains to find out the bugs in the game in hand. A tester can also find out a new approach for Game testing so that his job doesn’t get monotonous.
2. A Game Tester can Perform any Test:
This assumption is generally made from the developer’s side as he expects a tester to perform game testing in all scenarios, that is whether the game is an initial stage, or midstage, or in the finishing stage.
The truth is that the testers always make efforts to address game testing in all scenarios, provided that the developer supports the tester requirement at all stages of game development, otherwise it may be difficult for a tester to fulfill the expectations of the developer.
3. The Myth that Testing gives Accurate Results
This assumption is a hint that a developer expects a tester to deliver a hundred percent bug free game product. The truth is that a tester might fail to give accurate testing results due to lack of infrastructure or a limited time period to do the required testing.
Also Read : What Are The Requirements To Be A Game Tester?
Testers can find out bugs in game but they cannot ensure that the particular game will not have bugs in future. This can be explained by an example in context of life critical systems, which have an application in fields like medicines or planes.
Let’s take the example with reference to planes. Planes have to initially go through some testing procedures before they are put to actual use to ensure that the testing give effective results, despite this a tester may not give accurate results in terms of actual altitude the plane should be able to fly or the wind speed required on a particular day. As such the tester is not able to define what exactly the flight may have to endure once the plane is put to use.
4. A Tester’s Job is to Find Bugs Only
Again it is believed by some people that a tester is just required to find bugs in the game and to handover the report to the developer.
But this not true in reality as a testers job is just not limited to the extent of finding the bugs in a game, in addition to this profile a tester needs to study the architecture of the product, which enables them to fulfill the requirements for running a test and to give feedback to developer for improving a game and to make necessary amendments to make it user-friendly for the end user.
5. Testers did not Value to the Game
Giving importance to this assumption would be like degrading a tester’s value in an organization, maybe because of the assumption that a tester role is limited in an organization.
Let’s Have a Look at the Video Representation by SmashJT to get an Idea about How it actually Likes to be a Game Tester
But that’s not true again as a tester is well versed in his work, and has an overall knowledge of the product, as compared to the developer who only works on specific areas or components in the game. So obviously since a tester has the required skills to run app tests all stages of a game test, he naturally adds value to the game.
6. Test Automation Can Take Place of Human Testers
This assumption is moreover like a rumour, which is expected to be spread over by test automation experts to discourage game testers, that the testers don’t have a future, because one-day test automation will replace them.
This myth can be completely discarded due to the following fact, that long time back it was a belief that when computer-aided game will emerge, computers would start writing the codes which will make human programmers jobless, but this didn’t happen.
This fact provides evidence that test automation won’t be able to replace human testers. As a matter of fact, as humans are the end users of a game product, so obviously only human testers will be expected to run the game app.
Test automation tools which are used by automation experts, let us check whether the colors, layout, and fonts on a screen are per the requirements of the end user or not. But they don’t ensure that the tools would be user-friendly or not. So this may be another reason that automation testing cannot replace human testers.
7. Testers are Believed to Break the Developer’s Code
It is a belief that testers work in an organization to break the developer’s code and hence put them at fault, which again is not the truth in reality. whatever may be the stage of game development if the codes get broken the tester always make efforts to find out errors at any stage. The tester also helps the developer to find out if he may have missed any coding at any stage of the game development stage. So it’s not correct to hold a tester liable for breaking the code.
8. Testers and Developers Cannot be Friends
A friendly relation between the developer and tester is of utmost importance for a sound health of an organization.
So this is not true as even the organization cannot afford this, as both complement each other for the successful running of an app. The tester can always give innovative ideas to the developer and a developer can also give important clues to the tester for the testing process.
Must Read : Game Testing Tutorial: All The Information is Here!
9. Testers may be People with Weak Coding Skills
This is again not true, as testers do the coding in various ways. It may be
- In the form of SQL series
- Maybe for converting code from one database to another
- Or maybe required to write scripts in Java or other coding languages.
So a person with weak coding skills would not be to perform so many activities
10. Reporting to Developer’s Lead can be an Obstacle for a Tester
Generally it’s assumed that the developers have their own lead to follow for game development, and the testers have their own separate leads to follow for implementing game testing.
But sometimes the situation may be different. In other words a tester may have to follow the developers lead and is entirely dependent on the developers lead to run the game test, which might affect the performance of a tester in giving effective test results.
But in reality such a situation should not pose a problem for the tester because he is well versed with his work. A tester is capable enough to implement any changes in testing which are required as per the developers lead.
11. Testers Come into the Picture Only When the Product Test Enters the Post Development Stage
An organization needs to bring a tester in the picture right from the beginning stage of product life cycle, in order to ensure the delivery of product to the end user without any defects.
This fact is important as the tester requires a time frame to make necessary requirements for running a test, so the organization needs to keep the tester updated at every stage for obtaining effective test results.
12. Testing is Clicking at Random Places
It’s an assumption that a tester just clicks on the user interface randomly, but in reality the tester has the responsibility to explore the user interface in detail and check whether all the tools on the user interface are working properly to makes sure that the app runs on all user platforms effectively.
13. Tester does not have a Career on Management Side
Management side is a different field altogether and a tester has nothing do with management side, but a tester can still acquire the management skills for example cost management, or managing people.
Basically this assumption does not carry much weight age as far as management is concerned still if it’s required to manage, a tester can do so.
14. Testers Do not Get Much Fame
Testers should not assume that their work is not valued by the organization or may be the clients they are working for.
No doubt it’s true that if they get any appreciation for their work from the organization or clients they would definitely get motivated, so it’s better for the testers to let their work speak for them.
15. Are Growth Opportunities Similar For Testers and Developers
The growth opportunities for both may differ on the grounds of their individual abilities, and the amount of efforts they can put in? Developers have an opportunity to go for the post of manager or a business analyst which again depends upon their qualifications.
A tester on the other hand may go for test managers, test leads or even a business analyst.
So finally after going through the given misconceptions as mentioned above we are able to get a clear insight about game testing which is definitely valuable for an organization to give productive game testing results.
Also Read : A Guide on Game Testing Methodology
Do not Miss These While Testing a Game!
Gaming, be it mobile games, PC games or console games, is a multi-million dollar industry. Interesting as it sounds; testing video games is one of the most fascinating jobs every professional dream about. Hence, high-end level game testing is crucial to any game out there.
A well tested and executed game not only meets and exceeds the expectations of the player but also throws a lot of challenges towards the tester to make the game more interesting. It must also be tested for compatibility with the cross-platform without compromising on the player’s privacy and security.
Let us discuss some important things that you shouldn’t miss while testing a game.
1. Random Number Generator Evaluation (RNG)
Arguably the most important component for the gaming platform is the Random Number Generator, which determines the outcomes for a game. The component adds unpredictability to the game an maps its outcomes based on the user’s data.
The tester is expected to first identify the game algorithm to validate and verify the predefined rules of the game. The RNG must be adequately tested to avoid predictability which exists towards the outcome of a game.
2. Break the Game
Yes, you read that right. As a video game tester, you will have to find loopholes in your program by breaking it into parts. You want to root out any possibilities that might hinder the working of your game. For achieving this, you will have to be a little unconventional in playing and testing.
Games like VainGlory, which involves millions of combinations of player actions, will require you to interact with various objects and characters, with an endless sequence of the environment. Game testers must be keen in understanding these combinations and think outside the box.
3. Measure its Social Presence.
It wasn’t too back when Facebook introduced the first social media games. In 2013, with the launch of Wii U (and Miiverse that came with it), it was obvious that social media was going to play a crucial role in the Video Games industry. Today, video games are almost connected to every social media on the internet.
Must Read : 9 Different Types of Game Testing Techniques
Social media can act as a double-edged sword for the video game testers. If used intelligently, it can serve as a platform for bringing like-minded people together and in a close-knit community. So make sure that as a game tester you have to measure the proper social media presence which may bring some interesting demographics that your game is targetting.
4. Keep the Secrets.
Being a game tester, it is required that you honor the non-disclosure agreement and demonstrate the ability to keep secrets. Many times, a game tester posts an alpha version of the game which is in violation of the NDA. This might lead to cancelling the project and cutting the company’s losses.
If by any chance you happen to appear for an interview that asks you to describe a question regarding the security of its game, you may straight away refuse as it’s under the NDA.
5. Evaluating the Game Rules
Testing any video games requires you to verify the game environment and behaviour. It also includes the game texture, elements, stability and games messages. As a tester, you need to evaluate how every aspect of the game including how each one interacts with the other. This is often neglected by majority thinking these are issues beyond the development phase.
The game needs to be thoroughly evaluated to deliver maximum gaming experience for end user. Hence, the testing phase focuses on some crucial part and breakdown to achieve realistic game behavior.
Conclusion
No product is perfect without testing for the product to the launched in the market and it applies to video games testing as well. With the enormous network of games emerging in the market every day, your game has to be tested to see how it withstand real-time concurrent load before released. Game testing is done to achieve consistent performance across all hardware/software/platform/device combinations that your target audience might use.
Technology never stops evolving and the gaming industry is always at the forefront. Hence, when recruiting for a gaming tester, the employer usually specifies what he is looking for in the desired position. So if you have the passion for games and a good understanding of various testing methods, it isn’t difficult for you.
Video Game Testing – Play Games and Earn Money
Everyone dream of a way in which they can make a lot of money just by playing games. Who won’t love to earn by sitting on their couch and simply enjoying video games? Whenever you will choose a career path, it is the first sentiment you will have deep in your heart. To solve it all let us ask you a simple question. Do you love playing video games? It would be amazing to actually make some bucks while playing video games.
Well, now is the time to do so. However, like any other work, it is now everyone’s cup of tea. There are people who give up after a few days or months because there comes a point when work will overweigh all the fun. There are so many failure stories on every success story of making money by playing games.
The main thing is that it takes a lot of time and a high level of commitment to gain something. Here are the few things through which you can gain a lot of money with the right level of commitment.
Guides
If a person is new to a particular game, they will go through the guide to learn the concept and important keys of the particular game. Especially, if the game is for multiplayer or (PvP) player-versus-player games then they require a set of guidelines to understand the game. You can upload guide video on YouTube, write blogs explaining the concept or even publish the eBooks of the guide. If you are not a fan of ads then go for the eBook option.
Also See : How To Make Up To $40,000 Per Year – Become An Online Game Tester
Video credits : DeBroyTechnical
The point is that in order to make living you need to opt for the popular games. If the game is more popular then so will the guide. However, there are so many guides, hence; you need to make sure that you are adding something unique and new in your guide. This will require a lot of time and effort on your part to make sure your investment is successful.
Write a Review or an Opinion
There are many people who actually go for a game after going through video game reviews and rating. The best thing is that you can write a review about your favourite game and talk about the game as much as you want as a marketer. However, it is still required for you to play that particular game.
You can do it at your own time and pace as there is no rush. It is essential to write an appropriate and relevant review. You can link this method with online businesses that sell their goods on the big e-commerce websites. Most of the game fanatic already knows about the game but they still go through the review column to see that they have not missed an important point. It is one of the most scalable, stable and profitable methods.
Coaching and Boosting
This method is not highly used as compared to others methods. Other methods require some knowledge but this option is completely dependent on the gaming ability of an expert. There are so many people that actually pay a hefty amount of money just to learn about video games. The only thing to keep in mind is to reiterate the same thing that is what coaching is all about.
Also Read : 9 Different Types of Game Testing Techniques
However, every individual can’t do that. It is only opted by the people that are highly trained and are known to be the best in their field. You can go through Google to check for the coaching details and advertise your coaching work. This takes us to boost which is not much known to people around. This is usually referred to assisting players while they play any sort of multiplayer game. You can help them to reach the highest point of the leaderboard. However, it is considered as cheating that makes it not so popular practice.
Game Testing
When the game is in development phase then it has to go through a number of levels including multiple testing. However, when the completion of the game is almost done then they look for an outsider person that can help them in testing. When the game goes through the eyes of a new person then there are chances that they will be able to see new things which are missed by you.
As a video game tester, your task will be to test each and every module that is developed by the developer that includes finding the bugs. Once, you collect the bugs or issues then you can document them so that developers can understand where the problem is.
To face the truth, it is not actually difficult to be a tester. However, it is a sort of work that will numb will mind due to the high level of concentration. If you are not in the internal team in a company then you will most probably get the offers for mobile game testing. It is not easy to be a tester in a company as they look out for someone who is highly experienced. But it is not that difficult.
There are no particular resources that you will require as all the things are provided by the company. However, the main things that you need to keep in mind are:
- Skill and Abilities: For making a career as a video game tester, you need to have important attributes such as quick understanding, easy to grasp, experience with video games, etc.
- Personal Traits: Testers always have a huge amount of details regarding all the types of genre and games. They can easily identify small details that can help out a developer to give their best.
- Knowledge: It is beneficial to have experience or certification of software development, game design, software testing, graphic communication, computer programming, etc.
The bottom line is that your passion can actually earn a hefty amount of money for you. On top of that, you are not going anywhere.
What’s The Role of a Computer Game Tester?
Computer Game Tester is quite a new field which is much in demand nowadays. People in present time usually go for this career option if they have great love and passion for games.
What is a Games Tester?
A Games Tester is actually a dedicated kind of Software Quality Assurance Engineer. The designation also knows by the name Games Testers, Beta Game Tester, Video Games Tester, etc.
A Computer Game tester is someone who basically works for video game production companies to carefully test video games prior to the final version which is given to the public. Also called as beta game testers, game testers receive a report of a game that is close to its final stages. They must actually play the game a number of times, from beginning to finish, in order to uncover the bugs or glitches which are present inside the game.
Without Computer Game tester, bugs and glitches would actually increase in games, perhaps building them to an unplayable stage and disturbing the status of the video game production company.
For every platform and genre, game testers are required. Prior to the location and the company, testers will play games on XBox, Playstation, Nintendo Wii and PC platforms. Role-playing games, particularly multi-player online games, action games, and knowledge games are just some of the genres of games that a game tester must play and carefully assess prior to release.
What Does a Game Tester do?
A Computer Game tester gets advanced copies of games in order to cautiously test the game before it goes for the public release. They must navigate all the menus to make sure that everything works appropriately and takes the player to the accurate sub-menu or stage in the game.
If the game offers more than one means of play, such as learner, in-between or advanced, the tester must play through each of these means from beginning to finish exposing all the glitches if present. If the game allows playing as more than one type of character, the tester must also play the end to end game with each personality or avatar.
During the gameplay, there are attempts by the tester to discover hidden bugs by trying every possible move also analysis the choices a player might make during normal gameplay. The tester may even opt for certain things within the game that an average player might not go for, such as trying to get stuck in a wall or obstruction within the game. This type of bug is called as clipping. Once the character is stuck, the player is repeatedly unable to free the character, causing further gameplay impossible. Testers note occurrences of these and same kind of game malfunctions.
After the bug has been discovered, game testers must write an account of what occurred along with directions that precisely explain how to find the bug in the game. After submitting this information to the programmers, the testers may be requested to test revised editions of the game in order to make a constant version.
What is The Workplace of a Games Tester Like?
A Computer Game tester usually works from home, though there are some kinds of options which might require you to work on-site at a video game production company. Testers have no set daily plan, but once a game is received, they may often have to stick to strict deadlines for a number of portions of the game. Game developers often set a predictable release date for their games, so it is vital that beta testers return class information about troubles as soon as it could be done.
A Computer Game tester spends a lot of time in front of a television or computer screen and executes rhythmic motions with their hands. While an office or space allocated purposely to the job of game testing is not needed, it is significant for gamers to work in a silent and relaxing environment in order to dedicate their full attention to game play.
Salary and Benefits of a Computer Game Tester
For the testers, the starting salary range between £12,000 and £20,000 a year, depending on the company and the altitude of work, although this can go as high as £30,000 with practice and a history of effectual testing. The work can be done at home too but can be office based too. You are just required to sit in front of the computer and do all the work. The benefits for this are according to the company. So it depends that which company you are actually working in.
How To Enter This Line?
To enter the industry, testing is a great way especially if you’re not capable in coding, programming or design, and an incredible chance to become a part of a sector that prevails to grow. Your skills on the comfort and information of the market are sufficient enough to get you a job, although teaching yourself a bit about programming can do no damage to your chances. Often you will have to prove your eagerness for the industry, and whilst a 100% completion rate on your PlayStation is one thing, it might be wiser to demonstrate this through the audience at expositions and shows (such as E3) and a data backed up through reading around the subject. Placements are often helpful ways of making contacts and securing yourself options so get thinking early if this is a career path you are looking to pursue.
What Are The Requirements To Be A Game Tester?
Playing video games professionally is the fantasy, however, is it a reasonable dream?
From a game tester stance, the short answer is no,
Really no!
This shouldn’t imply that you can’t acquire a good living with game testing. In any case,playing and testing is altogether two distinct points.
Undoubtedly you must be very well acquainted with playing games. It’s a definite requirement! But we’ll discuss rather what it takes to test the games.
If you’re considering for a profession as a “Video Game Tester”, it’s vital you comprehend what this career will want from you. In this article, we will suggest a list of the generally required abilities and training for this profession.
What Does a Game Tester Do?
“QA analyzer” is the professional title of the position. QA= Quality Analyzer. That move in the title recognizes game testing from game playing and is the initial step on a voyage of realigning desires.QA testing is as much playing game as scenes editing in a film seems to be while watching a movie. You could be trying a similar section of the game for quite a long time!
They help to:
- Find bugs in the product
- Catch PC crashes
- Get rid of realistic glitches
- Manage sound levels and music playback
- Distinguishing the game against other available games
- Checking its execution against what the developer expected
- Guarantee character development and progression of the storyline
Your role as a game analyzer is to break the game. Games in their beta or test form frequently crash, have rough soundtracks and are brimming with bugs. You need to find any code that doesn’t work. So, you need to be somewhat whimsical in your playing and testing.
Requirements to Become a Game Tester
Clearly, capability in computer games is a noteworthy addition. Higher education and advanced training are not required to be a game tester. But having a qualification particular to the sector would be a favorable position, i.e.inthe computer science major. Moreover, hopefuls in this profession must have a dexterity for playing the computer games and in addition a fantastic eye for detail and a capacity to write as well.
An ability of writing is basic since computer game analyzers are required to record any bugs they discover in the game. Messy composition and poor grammar or spelling structure may make it troublesome for developers to peruse and comprehend game defects.Game testers always speak with developers and designers. They represent game bugs or make proposals to enhance games. Hence, communication skills are also significant.
Next, you should be instructed in different parts of programming and gaming. You don’t really need to be a genuine software engineer, yet you have to comprehend with the fundamental technology of whatever software languages the engineers utilize.
Above all, you spend a normal of forty hours per week troubleshooting a lot of games. Enthusiasm and energy are essential for this job. Skill and coordination are likewise imperative properties of expert game testers.
Core Skills:
- Conscientious and perception
- Troubleshooting and investigating aptitudes
- Analytical thinking
- Resilience to monotonous and repetitive duties
Other Skills
- Great oral and written communication
- Team player
- Capacity to maintain good coordination with others
- Potential to meet due dates and work under pressure
Technical aptitudes
- In case you’re testing computer games, the firm may require that you’re skilled to build a PC and investigate equipment issues. In case you’re doing localization testing you clearly need to ace a language superbly. Compliance testers are relied upon to know the accreditation procedure of different constructors.
- Computer science major or programming.
- Testers should likewise have involvement in making and keeping up information databasesand have some education in graphic design.
Further more, game testers must be able to play on a wide range of gaming platforms. Abilities for playing games are significant to be productive in this vocation field. Game testers ought to have a very long time of experience playing a wide range of games. They ought to have learning and playing knowledge in the racing, fighting, role-playing, simulation genre of the games. Learning of each category isn’t important, yet every analyzer must have a strong comprehension of how all the functions of video games.
How These Skills Help the Game Testers?
On playing a game thoroughly, you’ll prescribe upgrades to the development group before it is publicly launched. You’ll play games in detail and in different ways.Computer game testers must have the potential to play out an assortment of PC methodology, from networking to investigating the Internet and programming.
As a rule, they should likewise supply the hardware to play the game and also a top-notch computer gaming. All equipment must be up-to-date.
Thus, being a computer game tester is fun, but at the same time, it’s diligent work. Most of the time game tester chip away at a game well more than eight hours per day for three to four months or considerably more. Also, they regularly don’t get the chance to pick the games they test.
Conclusion
Game tester job is a perfect position in case you’re still in college and studying for a computer science degree and wish to work in the games sector in future.The computer game industry is quite often in motion – new technology and new games are continuously driving it higher than ever. The income of the gaming business is, in reality, three times higher than the whole Hollywood film industry. Much of the time, taking a profession as a game tester can be a venturing stone to different positions in the gaming industry- like – product manager, supervisor, or assistant producer.
Being A Game Tester: Answering The Common Questions
“I assure the quality of video games!” Won’t you be jealous of this answer if you ask someone about their job?
A dream job for game enthusiasts, of course, like any other software-based jobs Game Testing also has pressure and stress. But none can deny the fact that the job is exciting and would evoke jealousy in many.
Due to this exact reason, there are a lot of questions and misconception about the job.
Let’s address all that once and for all.
What’s Game testing?
Like in normal software testing, a Game tester will check for any bug and issues that prevent the user from experiencing a quality game. They would play the game continuously and systematically to check for errors and measure the performance. While doing so they will also evaluate it against the aim of the designers and will make sure that everything is aligned perfectly.
Is it a fun job like they say?
Proficiency of a game tester is proportional to the bugs that he finds. For that to achieve he/she has to constantly play the game for months which is tiring and demanding. Not only that, once the glitches or bugs have been found it has to be reproduced in front of the developers so that they can fix it.
What’s it like to be a game tester for a day?
There is a widespread misconception that Game Tester’s only responsibility in the office is to play a game all day long. Even though working with video games is a part of the job a game tester has to break down the game find out issues and should report it to programming, design or art teams (DEVs). Apart from there will be team meeting, Client conversation and emails to reply to.
What all processes does a game go through in QA testing?
First of all, a thorough understanding about the game (storyboard, game architecture, Game features, characters, rules, game points, stages of the game, the concept of the game etc.) will be carried out by the testing team so that they will be able to come up with an effective testing strategy.
Next would be the devising the testing strategy for implementation. For that to happen data’s such as in-scope, out-scope, timeframe, no: of testers, Testing cycle count, type of testing, defect documentation style, Service level agreements, risk calculation mitigation etc. are taken into consideration.
Third in the process would create test cases, both positive and negative. Followed by test cases is critical path testing to identify the critical path in the game. This process helps a tester in revealing factors which caused the failure.
5th is to evaluate through exception path testing to find out an alternate path and document it.
6th would be error guessing, boundary value analysis and equivalence portioning.
7th in the process is to execute the game test cases. Along with that alpha, beta and gamma testing will also be done to evaluate the quality of the game.
8th in the process is to test the content of the game to make sure that everything is conveyed to the audience.
Above all, Screenshot of errors should be saved with notes accordingly and all the information regarding the tests must be documented.
What are the different types of testing in game development?
- Combinatorial Testing:
- Clean Room Testing
- Functionality testing
- Compatibility Testing
- Tree Testing
- Load Testing
- Play Testing
To read in detail about the testing methods, click the link below
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How to be a Game Tester?
Obviously to be one you have to be an avid game player who has got deep-rooted knowledge about the gaming industry and has to be an ardent game player.
Patience and perseverance is the most important trait of a game tester. If you wish to be one you have to be
Regarding the educational qualification, Game Testers are usually educated in gaming design, programming or some courses related to video graphics or computer science or any other software related course.
There are certificate courses on game testing which will make sure that you are learning what’s needed to gain a job in the industry.
Apart from the educational qualification communication and documentation skills is also needed to that bugs can be reported to the programming team.
What’s the salary for a game tester?
Obviously, like any other job salary of a game tester solely depend on his/her proficiency, experience and track record. An average salary of a game tester can start from 15000 USD per annum to 60,000 USD. There are testers who work on an hourly basis too. Their average salary is about 16.86 USD per hour.
A Guide on Game Testing Methodology
Game testing is one of the most crucial steps that help in ensuring optimum quality and performance in the final product. A subset of game development, game testing helps in maintaining quality control of the desktop and mobile games. Game testing methodology aims at identifying the bugs and maintaining documentation of the software products. It can be performed in 9 different ways that include:
1) Combinatorial testing
Used as a method for commercial software testing, this type of testing is used to generate test cases and is also beneficial to improve the efficiency of test execution, quality, cost and phase containment.
2) Clean room testing
This helps to ensure the reliability of the gaming software. Working on the basis of mathematical reasoning, design refinement and statistical reasoning, the aim of conducting this type of testing is to generate a product with minimal errors.
3) Functionality testing
This is done to confirm whether the product developed works in accordance with the specifications. Aimed at identifying errors that affect user experience, this type of testing is time taking as it looks for issues related to game play, graphics, audio and visual.
4) Compatibility testing
This testing aims to identify any errors in the product’s functionality in terms of its hardware, software and graphics. Conducting this test helps in validating whether the games user interface is optimized for different screen sizes.
5) Tree testing
Similar to the usability testing, tree testing is a game testing methodology of testing that helps organize the test cases as well as make the right choice of tests that are most suitable for a given set of code changes. It is not necessary to conduct tree testing after designing the page layout as the same can be conducted in advance as well. The best part of this type of testing is that there is no need to prepare any sort of content for testing as the same can be done using a tree (menu) and tasks (instructions).
6) Regression testing
Regression testing is used to check the functionality of those features of the app using test cases that have not been changed. It is also used to check and verify whether introducing any changes has not led to any new errors. Allowing the testers to conduct previously conducted tests, this is important to maintain the product’s quality control as well as detect bugs at the beginning stages of product development.
7) Ad hoc testing
An unplanned testing method that does not follow any flow of operation, ad hoc testing is used to conduct random testing of the app without creating any specific test cases or documents. This type of testing works on the method called “error guessing” and sometimes, even makes it difficult to reproduce the defects as the same are not mapped to test cases.
8) Load testing
This type of testing is used to test a system’s performance under real-time scenario and load. It helps in determining the way in which an app performs when there are multiple users using it simultaneously. Conducting this type of testing helps in ensuring whether the existing infrastructure can ensure smooth running of the game and the extent to which it is scalable.
9) Play testing
Play testing is done by having a practical exposure to the game. Using this method helps in analyzing whether the game’s non-functional features such as difficulty levels, balance and fun are optimum in quality. Developers generally rely on play testing for PC games and character-playing games that help ensure that the particular game performs in a structured manner.
All these types of testing are suitable for different environments and situations. Therefore, it is important to gain a clear understanding about the game being developed so that the right choice of the game testing methodology is done to ensure optimum quality and performance in the final product.
Process of Game Testing
Game testing is one of the rapidly growing industries as per the current market scenario. Growing exponentially due to increased use of applications on mobile and tablets, it is quite difficult to specify a standard testing process. While it is obvious that the process tests a game on various aspects such as performance, usability and endurance, the typical phases of game testing align with the basic SDLC.
The process of game testing can be explained in few simple steps as mentioned below:
1. Requirement elicitation
The process of game testing begins with the detailed understanding of various aspects of the game. This includes its storyboard, architecture, characters involved in game, the concept behind the game, rules that would be applicable and stages. Having this understanding makes it easier for the testers to design an effective game testing strategy.
2. Preparing game testing strategy
This stage involves preparation of a particular form of document that includes the complete details of the game test strategy. The document includes details and sections such as time line, number of testing cycles involved, types of testing that would be conducted, process to record errors/defects, etc.
3. Designing test cases
Testers prepare the test cases that would be used by them to carry out the process of testing. This would include creating of both positive as well as negative test cases. Some common and effective techniques to design effective test cases are critical path test, exception path test, equivalence partitioning, etc.
4. Executing game test cases
This step is extremely crucial as this involves testing of a product in different setting, which, in turn, helps in identifying more errors and bugs in the product. Some of the common testing techniques used are alpha, beta testing, content testing, etc.
5. Recording test results
This is an extremely important step as it helps in ensuring that the product delivered to the client is error-free. Once the tests are conducted, its results are, then, recorded in the form of movie or as screenshots. This, in turn, allows the developers to analyze the products behavior easily and in a refined manner.
6. Maintaining defect log
All the defects/bugs identified during the process are then kept as record. This is done to ensure that the defects that were found are logged, prioritized, categorized and tracked in an effective way. Doing so makes it easier for the developers to choose their next title work.
Once this process is complete, the game is sent to the required censor board for approval. And, if approved, it is released in the market for commercial purposes.
Game Testing Tips
Here are some simple yet effective tips to conduct game testing easily:
• Perform game testing on the entire screen and not its part.
• Testing the game against the rules specified when developing the game.
• Do remember to carry out the test for clipping such as two or more polygon objects overlapping each other.
• Test for inappropriate collision
• Closely monitor the character’s behavior on moving through available objects and all other things.
• Test the loading of the game from another device such as hard drives and verifying if the correct messages are being displayed on screen.
• Verify it the game loading shows an appropriate game loading message to the users.
• Testing if the game leads to memory overload in case the game is left turn on for several days.
Conclusion
Conducting an effective game testing requires one to have a well-defined and well-structured game testing methodology. Since each game’s development process is different, it is important that one has a clear understanding of the same so that it gets easier to conduct testing the way one wants. One must essentially realize the need to conduct these tests as that is what can help fix errors and make one’s life simpler.