Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
chapter 10
Testing
Like Goldilocks, testers and project managers are continually struggling with the issue
of how much testing is too little, too much, or just right. Game quality has to be good
enough for consumers but testing can't go on forever if the game is going to hit its
release date. Trying to test every possible combination of game event, configuration,
function, and options is neither practical nor economical under these circumstances.
Taking shortcuts or skipping some testing is risky business.
Pairwise combinatorial testing is a way to find defects and gain confidence in the game
software while keeping the test sets small relative to the amount of functionality they
cover. “Pairwise�? combination means that each value you use for testing needs to be
combined at least once with each other value of the remaining parameters.
Parameters are the individual elements of the game that you want to include in your
combinatorial tests. You can find test parameters by looking at various types of game
elements, functions, and choices such as:
Game events
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Game settings
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Gameplay options
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Hardware configurations
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Character attributes
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Customization choices
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