Hey people!
When we think about game testing, we are talking about functional or non-functional test?
Which must be the classification of this type of test?
4 Likes
There are indeed many different kind of game testing, I personally like the more technical part.
For me it started with humping to walls to find glitches finding ways to get unlimited resources and builds but I soon started to intercept traffic and trying to change game data. Cheat Engine has a great tutorial about this if you’d like.
Then there is the data mining aspect, also a path you could look into.
I’m not sure I fully understand the question? Do you want to categorize game testing under functional or non-functional? Because it has both.
3 Likes
Games are especially rich in the non-functional area, mainly because roughly 50% of a computer game is highly subjective and closely revolves around levers that cannot be pulled by the coders.
I did interview for a game tester role a long time ago, and my main concern was to be able to focus only on functional testing. I review computer games from time to time and I like to submit bug reports before I complete my review. I have fallen into a habit of splitting my bugs and starting with functional bug feedback and then moving onto non-functional “features” later in the bug raising emails/messages
Functional things are
- can I install/launch/connect/login
- does the app crash
- do controls work
- does the game work on all supported platforms
- can a player reach the game end (if there is one)
- do saves get corrupted (if there are any)
Non-functional things are
- can I manage saved progress points (if there are any)
- is gameplay smooth, lagging and is (multiplayer experience good if supported)
- if the game crashes, does it make me want to uninstall?
- does the game make me feel motion sick
- is the game too hard and lack clues as to how to use the controls or how to solve puzzles?
- does the game make me feel happy and keep on playing (and buying add-ons or merch)?
One way to divide things up in my mind is that failing on the non-functional things is only important if you want the developer to not run out of money to pay you because nobody wants to buy the game. Functional defects are mostly going to be easy to fix quickly, so that’s another way to try divide the two up I guess.
Even things like a game crashing can be a functional bug on one hand, however we all play games that crash a lot. And whether we can be fussed to relaunch after a crash falls squarely into the “joy” or non-functional category. Crashes are not bad for a game if the crash does not cause you to get frustrated in the slightest.
2 Likes
Nice to see a post about game testing.
It’s a very interesting domain to be in.
There are many facets to this:
Functional testing (does the game play through logically etc)
Non-functional - performance, online performance etc
UX - is it fun, what’s the difficulty like etc
Accessibility
Localisation/Culturalisation - Does it translate and make sense in other languages
Standards - Does it adhere to the platform standards and requirements
So many areas all contribute to the “quality” of the finished product. The only issue from my experience is that whilst game testing and the industry is a lot of fun, the salaries seriously blow!
2 Likes