Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8.2 The player's feedback loop adjusts to the game's input and vice versa.
If the feedback received by the user was entirely predictable all the time, the game
would be no fun. Nor would the game be fun if the feedback received by the player
was entirely random all the time. Instead, feedback from games should be just random
enough to be unpredictable. It is the unpredictability of the feedback loop that makes
games fun. Because the code is designed to surprise the player and the player will
always surprise the programmer, black box testing gets testers to think and behave like
players.
�?White Box�? Testing
In contrast to black box testing, white box testing gives the tester an opportunity to
exercise the source code directly in ways no end user ever could. It can be a daunting
challenge for a white box tester to read a piece of game code and predict every single
manner in which it will interact with every other bit of code, and whether the code
has accounted for every combination and order of inputs possible. Testing a game
using only white box methods is also extremely difficult because it is nearly impossible
to account for the complexity of the player feedback loop. There are, however, situa-
tions in which white box testing is more practical and necessary than black box testing.
These include the following:
Tests performed by developers prior to submitting new code for integration
with the rest of the game
Testing code modules that will become part of a reusable library across multiple
games and/or platforms
 
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