One cannot think about launching a game without passing it through the various stages of game testing. Any game, whether it involves high or low production cost, have to pass through these game testing stages.
In this blog, we are going to discuss these stages of game testing and its importance.
How the game developer and end user get benefit from it?
Alpha Testing
It is the phase of game testing where the game is still in the development phase along with which parallel testing is done to ensure that the game is developed without any glitches and is working smoothly without crashing. This stage requires intense documentation of hardware and software failure so that the game developers can fix it at earlier stages.
As a game tester, one is not going to have fun during this phase as the some of the major game functionality and Graphical UI may still be under development phase. However, a tester who loves to solve the game problem and tries to map the solution for the betterment of the game will surely enjoy this phase. It is expected that the game tester provides some good piece of suggestions for further game development.
Beta Testing
During beta testing, the game is almost production ready with all the major issues being fixed. In this phase, the game testers are required to extensively find all the possible ways to break the game along the lookout for all minor issues.
During Beta Testing, the game needs to pass through many testing methodologies such as performance testing, stress testing, and game compliance testing. Tester runs the game seamlessly for hours together on many devices to check for any performance or server downfall.
As I say, a game is almost production ready; beta testing is done in two different ways.
Open Beta Testing: Open test is when the beta version of the game is made available for everyone interested. This interested group will play the game a share the reviews to the publisher. This process is also called as pre-release of the game software.
Closed Beta Testing: This testing is done only be the closed set of people who work closely with the game developers.
The issues or glitches found during beta testing is addressed before the game’s official launch.
Game Submission/Pre-Production Stage
In this stage, the game is ready to be published and the game testers must confirm the final checklist of the game QA process before the game is actually pushed to production.
Before moving into the production, the tester needs to run the game in the production environment to ensure that there are no broken codes. This phase also involves game compliance check and certification.
Game testing is not as easy as its sound since it passes through the many phases. Only a good game tester or game testing vendor will be able to progress the game seamlessly from one phase to another.
The last line I just want to add,
“Proper game testing sets the platform on which future of the Game rests.”
