Implementation Of Automation Testing For Cross-Platform Game Development

Have you ever wondered what makes a game successful? Several factors determine the commercial success of a game. One is if your game’s title is captivating and exciting enough to keep consumers returning for more. The game’s interface is also a significant factor in purchasing or downloading.

But the most important factor is accessibility and is one of the most vital elements of game popularity, resulting in effective monetization and significant income. You must learn how to construct a cross-platform game if you want to distribute your game on a variety of platforms and devices.

In this blog-post, we will talk about cross-platform game development and what role automation testing plays in it. Remember, cross-platform game development services are beneficial only if you are serious about reaching more engaged people, succeeding in the gaming business, and making more money.

What Is Cross-Platform Game Development?

Without a fundamental definition, it would be dangerous to go into a subject since it may indicate a lack of understanding. In the gaming business, cross-platform game development refers to the process of making a game that can run simultaneously on many platforms.

Also Read: Major Obstacles In Testing Mobile Gaming Apps

What Is The Process Of Cross-Platform Development?

Cross-platform game development involves various software to help adapt one code for several platforms, in contrast to native development, which employs official tools offered by the creators of the system for which the game is developed. As a result, each developer uses the same codebase. Additionally, a variety of software development kits, scripting languages, software libraries, and game engines are utilized to generate platform-specific components of the game.

Cross-platform development has many facets and is complicated. It necessitates much closer attention to detail. When a game is released on several platforms, it is simple to overlook little differences because they did not undertake enough testing and overlooked a number of problems and faults in the final console version. Several publishers of much anticipated games have suffered considerably in terms of their image. The PC version, however, proved to be pretty serviceable.

The correct game engine may be the secret to effective cross-platform game development. There are well-known choices that everyone is familiar with, as well as less popular engines that are as capable.

Primary Advantages Of Cross-Platform Game Development

We have a response if somebody is still unsure of the advantages of cross-platform gaming and wonders, “Why do I need all this?” Read below to learn about them. 

• Increased impact on your targeted audience: Covering various sorts of devices and platforms can help you reach a large percentage of consumers if you are aware that your target gamers utilize mobile devices in addition to PC and console gaming.
• Accelerated method of development: It is preferable to release a game on many platforms at once rather than making a separate version for the PC and then adapting it to work on mobile devices.
• Cost reduction: You may pay for all launch expenses in a single development cycle by creating a cross-platform game. Additionally, extra expenses won’t be needed to reach new markets and consumers.
• Efficient Marketing: A cross-platform game is significantly simpler to advertise. It is sufficient to consider a handful of the demands made by retailers. The game quickly spreads because it captures the attention of several player groups at once.
• An improved experience: Cross-platform capabilities enable game designers to unite communities and let them play on any platform or location. Players who prefer to play online with their pals will find this to be a strong aspect.
• Reduced maintenance expenses: Despite the variety of platforms, the game has a single base code, which means that if a patch or update is required, it can be released more quickly and inexpensively. Therefore, there is just one code base that has to be modified by the developers. This saves time and money since it is more efficient to update one code rather than upgrading and thoroughly testing many.

Of course, creating cross-platform games has many difficulties. There can be issues when the game is adapted for mobile devices if the interface display for console and PC games is not too different. The controls of the game must also be carefully considered. For PCs, consoles, and smart phones, it will have an entirely new level of detail. Maintaining the UI elements and the game’s unique mood is crucial at the same time. Although it might be tough, the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks.

How Can Automation Testing Help In Cross-Platform Game Development?

Automation testing can be of great help when it comes to cross-platform game development. Read how automation will ease your testing process. 

• With automation, less time and effort are needed for QA. Large code may be processed by automation scripts more quickly than by manual testing, resulting in prompt delivery of customers’ goods.
• Finding game bugs using automated testing is far more effective than with manual testing. Large data units running automation scripts may find more faults and flaws that sometimes may go unnoticed because of human error.
• The freedom to conduct testing at any time of day is a key advantage of test automation over manual testing. Since manual testing needs human labour, it is not practical to run tests continuously. Testers may schedule automated test execution remotely at any time of day thanks to automated testing. Testing teams may provide thorough reports with insights into the tests that have been performed for the analysis of apps at any time as per their convenience with the aid of automated testing technologies.
• Without any human involvement, an automated programm may execute the tests 24×7. With less work to do, testing teams can now concentrate on other important tasks or manual testing requirements.
• In order to know how many test scripts have been developed and what mistakes have been resolved, testers must manually exchange the inputs of the tests with one another when manually testing apps. This might make the testers confused and slow down the whole testing process. The testing teams may be guided in following the whole process by the test insights produced by test automation technologies. The likelihood of human mistakes may be decreased by technical teams using these automatically produced insights. These insights may also be used by testers to organize their testing procedure in advance.
• Test reports that are generated after test scripts or suites have been conducted may be easily analyzed to see how well the tests were executed.
• Even while automating testing procedures may require a large investment from businesses, it may lower their total operating costs by making efficient use of their resources. Companies may execute testing with a relatively little personnel thanks to test automation solutions. Companies may use their employees to execute high-level duties like planning and product management as there is a shortage of workers for such jobs. These elements will aid businesses in increasing their productivity and profitability.
• Automated tests make it possible to test on several platforms at once, hastening test execution and thus boosting the utility of game testing.
• You can use automated testing to increase test coverage for complicated and complex scenarios.
• By using an automation tool offered by any renowned automation testing company, you can hand over the job of testing your game on an expert with valuable experience.

Also Read: Different Stages of Game Testing

Some Issues With Implementing Automation Testing For Cross-Browser Game Development

Test automation provides a number of benefits, but it also has certain drawbacks. Read further to know more about the challenges. 

• The fact that games are inherently impulsive and unpredictable and could contain a limitless number of interface situations and permutations confronts automation engineers with their hardest obstacle when automating game test scripts. As a consequence, it is impossible to rely only on the framework.
• The hardware and software settings may affect how well the game runs.
• It might be difficult to automate the gameplay mode of AR/VR-related games, graphical user interface (UI) (graphics that flash or change position), and arbitrary in-game animation.
• Only testing on real-mobile devices and platforms makes the game trustworthy. Emulators and simulators cannot be used to forecast the degree of accuracy in game code.
• Automated testing is often unable to analyse locator methods like “Xpath,” “id,” “class name,” etc. for certain web-based games.
• It is often difficult to synchronize gaming with test scripts due to the fast-paced user interface (UI) and responsiveness of games. Automation of software and data issues, such as audio, huge amounts of data, visual effects, and localization, is challenging.
• Scenarios requiring the control of a device’s rotation or movement mechanism are tough to automate without additional resources.
• Lack of skilled employees with a background in developing and putting in place appropriate frameworks can compromise the quality of a game.

Also Read: Software Testing Vs. Game Testing

Conclusion

Cross-platform game testing services are already being actively adopted by brands who care about launching their product rapidly and concurrently on many platforms. This trend will continue even in 2022, and an increasing number of businesses will use cross-platform gaming engines and strategies, even in future too. Players desire cross-play, cross-progression, and cross-buy features since they let players play together across various platforms, let them start playing on one platform and continue on another, and let them purchase a game once and access it across several platforms exclusively.

Utilizing a single codebase has an impact on all facets of game production, including the quantity of developers needed. By doing this, the business may avoid spending money on maintaining and correcting two different codebases. The original project funding that was saved may be used further to improve the game in response to customer input. Because of this, the aims of cross-platform game production are balanced in terms of cost, time, complexity, and user experience.