Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
To test a football game, two-minute quarters are a good boundary value to see if the
2nd and 4th quarters of the game each start normally or with the special Two Minute
Warning. A three-minute duration may also be interesting because it is the smallest
duration that would have a period of play prior to the Two Minute Warning.
Another example is related to The CRIB feature in
ESPN NFL 2K5
, which awards players
points for accomplishments during a single game, during the course of a season, and
over the course of their career. Some of these accomplishments will not be rewarded if
the game duration is less than five minutes and greater than eight minutes. This creates
two more quarter-length boundary values of interest.
To see how a combinatorial table is constructed, start with a simple table using para-
meters that have only two possible values. Games are full of these kinds of parameters,
providing choices such as On or Off, Male or Female, Mario or Luigi, or Night or Day.
This test combines character attributes for a Jedi character in a
Star Wars
game to test
their effects on combat animations and damage calculations. The three test parameters
are character Gender (Male or Female), whether the character uses a one-handed (1H)
or two-handed (2H) Light Saber, and whether the character follows the Light side or
the Dark side of the Force.
The table starts with the first two parameters arranged in the first two columns so that
they cover all four possible combinations, as shown in Figure 10.1.
To construct a full combinatorial table, repeat each of the Gender and Light Saber
pairs, and then combine each with the two possible Force values. When the Light and
Dark “Force�? choices are added in this way, the size of the table—determined by the
number of rows—doubles, as shown in Figure 10.2.
Figure 10.1
First two columns of Jedi combat test.
