Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
New levels, characters, items, cut scenes, and so on as soon as they are introduced
New animations, lighting, physics, particle effects, and so on
New code that adds functionality or fixes defects
New subsystems, middleware, engines, drivers, and so on
New dialog, text, translations, and so on
New music, sound effects, voice-overs, audio accessories, and so on
Places Everyone
You may have found a defect in some deep, dark corner of the game, but that might
not be the only place it shows up. If you stop looking there and hurry to log your bug
and move on to the next test, you may have overlooked a more common place or sce-
nario in the game where the same bug shows up. It would be nice if all game bugs were
fixed before the product shipped, but there are reasons why that's not done. A defect
that only happens in an obscure place might get left in the game that ends up on the
store shelves.
Find defects in more places within the game by looking for the following:
All of the places in the game where the same faulty behavior can be activated
All of the places in the code that call the defective class, function, or subroutine
All of the game functions that use the same defective item, scene, and so on
All of the items, levels, characters, and so on that have a shared attribute with
the faulty one (for example, character race, weapon type, levels with snow, and
so on)
And then, use this two-step process to increase the frequency of the defect:
1. Eliminate unnecessary steps to get the defect to appear.
2. Find more frequent and/or more common scenarios that could include the
remaining essential steps.
Notifying the Team
Once you've found the problem and can describe all the ways in which it affects the
game, you need to record that information and notify the developers about it.
Typically, project teams will use software tools to help with this. DevTrack is one of
the defect tracking and management tools used in the game industry. Although you
don't have to be concerned about the installation and management of this kind of
tool, you should become familiar with how to best use it to record your defects and
 
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