Game Testing – Types and How to Test?

Gaming apps are available on various platforms, including gaming consoles, personal computers, mobile devices, and tablets. A successful gaming app must cover a broader range of essential features, provide a rich user experience, and ensure cross-platform compatibility. Testing gaming software is critical to ensuring, among other things, that a high-quality gaming app is accessible across multiple platforms to provide rich customer engagement.

The primary goal of game testing services is to identify and discover flaws and bugs in a video game to improve its stability and performance. A component of the game development procedure, the game development methodology ensures that the video game released is bug-free. This article will cover various types of gaming apps and how to test them thoroughly.

What are the different modules involved in game testing?

Playtesting is an essential part of game testing. It requires the game tester to play the game so that tester can analyze non-functional features such as fun factors, difficulty levels, balance, and so on.

• It is more about judging the game than it is about the facts.
• It primarily determines whether a designed gaming app is well-structured or not.

Load testing demonstrates the working of an app when multiple users simultaneously have access to it.

• Determine the total number of users an app can support and the rate it can be scaled to support more users.
• It allows for performance management strategies.

Regression testing retests the software’s unchanged parts.

• It allows you to have a qualitative analysis of the previous and current results. It must then identify if there are any errors present.
• Save time by detecting bugs at the beginning.

Also Read: 5 Best Practices to Perform Regression Testing

Compatibility Testing determines if the game functions correctly in terms of hardware, graphics, and software configuration.

• It ensures true compatibility between various testing environments.
• Confirms the software’s usability and stability.

Functionality Testing refers to the process of identifying bugs or errors. Removing them from a game is essential as they may impact the user experience.

• Every aspect of the app is validated.
• Ensures that the application operates following the specifications.

Combinatorial Testing is an experimental design method used for commercial software testing and case generation.

• Determine distinct attributes that can change in data or configuration.
• Systematically create combinations for testing the gaming app.

How Does a tester from a gaming services company Test your Gaming app?

First and foremost, we must analyze and identify the game’s rules and behavior. We must ensure that all game testing functionality works as expected by game testers. For online games, it is critical to check the OS and browser compatibility. We must ensure that the game application’s functionality works on all intended browsers and operating systems as game testers.

Furthermore, a game testing company must determine whether the application can withstand the specified load. Their services should ensure that the game can handle game functionality for all players. After game testing, any issues or bugs discovered in the game application are reported to the developers with a detailed description in the prescribed format. After the developer has resolved the problem, you can access the application’s impact.

After the developer has fixed the reported bug, testers must verify the bug to ensure that it has been truly set and is no longer affecting the application.

What should a tester test on gaming apps?

A gaming experience defines by the graphics, sound, and game concept designed to captivate the player. The user experience is the central entity around which the development process revolves in a gaming app. Every aspect works together to provide a complete gaming experience.

User Login Games require players to log in and keep track of their scores, especially when playing in multiplayer mode. The user profile information, including the user login, must work properly to facilitate a seamless gaming experience.

Multiplayer and single-player modes switching from single-player to multiplayer mode should be simple. Furthermore, different players on different devices should be able to connect seamlessly and have a consistent user experience. In this case, automation can be helpful if you are not playing the level.

Gameplay Levels is one of the primary functions of a gaming app is to ascend levels of a game after completing each level. A game tester must test each game level with great care and attention to detail. A QA must check a critical scenario while testing a gaming app in level selection and progression to the next level.

Also Read: Top 5 Myths About Mobile Game Testing

Fun Factor Testing ensures that the game provides enough entertainment to keep the user engaged. Whether the game is enjoyable to play forms a critical aspect to determine aside from usability/user experience testing. The mystery, pursuit, and fantasy elements must continue throughout the game. Extensive knowledge of game design and data analysis at the user and group levels is required for a company to excel in this field.

Download Rank or the position of a game in a specific app store (iOS, Android Play) based on monthly game downloads.

Retention is a critical metric for an android game tester working on a free-to-play game. To calculate retention, divide users into cohorts based on the download date.

A gateway for payment becomes necessary if the game has any paid features. It is critical to set up a secure and seamless payment gateway page. An available payment gateway setup requires hassle-free payment and data security of payment details. Other scenarios that to test are as follows:

• Payment method validations (whether using a credit/debit card or Internet Banking) Payment cancellation payment acknowledgment and receipt generation
• currency conversion when dealing with multiple currencies
• third-party payment integration gateways with brands like Razorpay

Sound Effects and Graphics make the gaming experience enjoyable and engaging. Graphics at each level should be visually appealing, and each group should be passable. A tester must test an essential element with rich graphics and sound effects across all devices to prevent disruptive and inconsistent experiences. As a result, the gaming app must have a responsive design that can adapt to various devices.

Artificial intelligence is the most challenging and complex aspect of Testing. It applies when the game allows the system to play as the opponent. The system-controlled opponent must pass thorough testing to ensure that all artificial intelligence behavior works appropriately in response to user input. It is challenging because the tester must enter all possible actions and analyze the behavior of artificial intelligence for each of them.

Also Read: How Can Artificial Intelligence Help Game Testers?

Testing for Realism of the game determines whether it feels real while playing. Domain knowledge is essential for understanding how to test the game for Realism. If you are playing a racing game, you should be aware of the elements. If it is car racing, you should be aware of the controls, how the car responds to the authorities, and what should not be present at all for the vehicle – the vehicle cannot jump in the case of obstacles, so such controls should not be present in the game.

Modification API Testing establishes the safety and security of your gaming app. Because many APIs are open, they can abuse them to gain an unfair advantage in gameplay. Testing here necessitates a lot of thinking outside the box to assess the scenarios in which these APIs can be modified and used.

With all of the above-listed factors, one can confidently state that game testing necessitates a great deal of concentration, dedication, and knowledge.

What are the difficulties faced by a Game Testing company?

Game testing necessitates using a complex database(s), and Testing and maintaining these is time-consuming and expensive. Time complexity serves to be one of the primary issues following the game testing services. To list few other significant problems are –

• You document and analyze every minute and dynamic detail.
• Reproducing problems is difficult because the same action does not always result in the same behavior.
• Game controllers (hardware) and technology (software) must work together.
• Expectations are high in terms of speed, performance, and capacity. In complex games, this is extremely difficult to achieve.
• New hardware has a high failure rate.
• Audio, video, and memory are frequently the source of new problems.
• It is challenging to ensure Coverage across multiple platforms.
• Infrastructures and designs that are complex.

Wrapping Up

With such a large target audience, the gaming apps must be versatile. Gaming app testing is essential for a smooth and engaging gaming experience. The designed gaming app must provide the same gaming experience across multiple devices to delight the more extensive user base. Because users can use various instruments and switch between them, gaming apps must perform consistently without any halt so that the user can play games seamlessly.