Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The upside of developing and testing a patch is that it allows the development team to
revisit the entire list of waived bugs and last-minute design tweaks and incorporate
some additional polish into the game. Each additional bug fix or feature polish means
more testing, however, and should be planned for accordingly.
Sometimes the development team will release more than one patch. In that case, the
testing becomes more complicated, because interoperability must be tested. Each new
patch must be tested to see whether it functions with both the base retail game and
earlier patched versions.
Summary
Structured game testing breaks the test activities into distinct phases, each of which
has its own inputs, deliverables, and success criteria. The phases correspond with the
progressive completion and improvement of the game code until it is finally fit to be
sold to your customers. Once test planning and preparation are completed, different
types of testing are utilized in the remaining phases. Like pieces of a mosaic, they each
reveal something different about the game code—in the right place and at the right time.
Exercises
1. What are the main responsibilities of a lead tester?
2. Which fields in the bug database should the primary tester be allowed to
modify?
3. The Beta build is the version that will be sent to manufacturing. True or
false?
4. Describe whether each of the following is an appropriate topic to discuss
during a test execution kickoff, and why:
a) Possible contradictions in the feature requirements
b) Ideas for new tests
c) Company stock prices
d) Identical tests already being run in other test suites
e) How “buggy�? this feature was in the previous release
f) Recent changes to the game data file formats
g) Lack of detail in the test case documentation
5. Feature lock should happen in Alpha. True or false?
6. Online multiplayer features can be tested in Alpha. True or false?
 
 
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