Hi!
Due to the subject of this text and who I think it’s important for the game market and people who wants to get into it, I though it would be better to build it own topic.
Once again, the source of the text you can found in here and, if you know who is THE OWNER of this text, please, let me know so I can give the right credits.
Here are the specific details and the testing techniques:
– Must examine the entire screen and not just a small part of it.
– Familiar with the game rules and test the gameplay against these rules.
– Test for clipping (two or more polygons or polygon objects overlapping each other or canceling each other out).
– Examine the overlap (where a semi-transparent object shown on top of another solid colour object and/or the background), and check if the overlap is appropriate in terms of size, placement, the purpose and the information that is provided).
– Test for incorrect and inappropriate collision (the condition when two objects should becolliding). Imagine when two cars collide, they should get bumped by each other with about the same effect (e.g. damage). In terms of physics, when a collision involves two objects with the same mass, they should generate the same amount of momentum in the opposite direction. In contrast, when a plane hits the ground, should only the plane show the effect of collision because the mass of a plane is trivial compared to the mass of the earth.
– Move the character through all the available objects and all the levels and closely examine the effect (it could be collision, an event trigger, or an object trigger). (Author’s Note: Something that was kind of missing in the game SKYRIM – Elder Scrolls because on many parts of the game, you can get stuck in the cenario out of nothing….)
– Test for grayed out or grey out (when an option or icon cannot be selected)
– Test loading/saving from a game save device (e.g. hard drive or a memory card) and ensure the correct messages are displayed on the screen.
– Ensure a “game load” or “data load” message and an appropriate “loading” indication (e.g. loading meter) displayed on the Loading Screen.
– Ensure the loading time is acceptable (no one likes to wait for more than 20 seconds).
– Look for micro-pause where slight pauses occur in the game but do not actually cause a full freeze or crash. When it happens, it will temporarily impede the gameplay.
– Test for the multi-player mode (the game runs on one machine, not on-line gaming) where two or more players engage in one game.
– Test the game for memory leak or memory overload by leaving the game on/running for afew days.
– Test end of bound (also known as end of the world or edge of the world). The game should not allow the character to move “out of bound”, and/or the game becomes erratic (e.g. game crash/freeze, the texture becomes deteriorated, the character gets trapped in certain area of the map). (Author’s Note: Sorry, Skyrim situation should be placed here…)
* Test for platform compatibility. Platform testing requires some extra effort for the PC game and on-line gaming:
– For a PC game, test for all the supported operating systems like Microsoft Windows 95/97/98/2000 and NT (this includes Install, Uninstall, and actual gameplay). Also, test for different sound/graphic cards and peripherals that are available in the market (discuss with your Technical Director for the make/model of the peripherals).
– Test the networking for game play over modem(s) at different speed, and Internet gaming (The depth and coverage for Network Testing will expand if the game itself relies on some Sever applications for the actual game play; e.g. multi-player mode).
– If the game is to be published in European countries, test for PAL conversion (currently the game we produce is mostly targeted for Northern America, and we use NTSC). (Author’s Note: Also important if you have an American video game and went to Europe to buy games. It simply won’t work, as in Brazil we use NTSC conversion.)
– Test for localization (foreign language requirements) if required. This is a list of common testing techniques used by a Game Tester. This is not meant to be acomplete list, an experienced Game Tester will tell you that you should use your mind – this is where a little creativity, a little imagination, and a little bit of “common sense” become veryuseful.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GAME TESTING
Before I let you go, I must warn you about Crack bugs and Placeholder, they are often mistakenas real bugs:
– Crack bugs (i.e. a bug which in fact is NOT a bug, but someone’s crazyimagination).
– Placeholder (i.e. something “dummy-up” on the screen, it is used to fill a spotuntil the correct video, artwork, sound or object is implemented and incorporated intothe game).
Well, hope you guys like it and please, if you know the Original Author of this text, let me know so I can give the right CREDITS to him/her/it.
The Playing is just starting... 