We perform game testing to discover bugs inside a game. Game bugs or glitches or defects are an unexpected result from the code used in the game build. Right from missing visuals, crackling sound, undesired motion to stopping the player to proceed further in a stage, game bugs can largely impact the overall gaming experience. Generally, a game tester is responsible to find defects. Once a bug is doing, it has to be documented by tester for sending to the developers. Game developers analyze the report and modify codes to fix it. However, game bugs have a rating on their severity to allow developers to prioritize more important bugs first. Here are few types of game bugs found in game testing –
Crash
It freezes, blocks or exits the game completely. You may face a crash either in opening or during your gameplay. The game no longer progresses after a crash. You need to restart and repeat a stage again. This is also known as Crash to Desktop (CTD). This term is use when no error message is displayed. It can be triggered by anything in a game. While developing a game, developers are highly focused on the factors that might crash the game. It is highly prioritized on both, testers as well as developers side.
Severe
Severe is a game bug that restricts any movement from the player, without crashing or closing of the game. For example, a door not opening that was supposed to open for the player to advance to the next room.
General
It is a bug that does not prevent any progression in the game but rather is as a problem during gameplay. An example of this is a zombie clipped into the floor. It hinders gameplay a bit but does not stop the player from progressing. However, general bugs can annoy the player and cause problems in the game like fps drops.
Minor
Minor bugs are not prioritized. Though these bugs can annoy player and decrease the experience of the game, they don’t restrict user to progress into the game. An example is character’s mouth not moving when spoken to. Bugs even below Minor category are declared as Trivial bugs which may remain on hold/pending forever by the developers. Especially when there are higher priority tasks to be completed in the game. But a perfectionist would definitely consider things even in this bug category.
Suggestions
As the name suggests, it’s more about recording the ideas and feedback from end-user’s perspective. If the developer finds them useful, these are surely to be implemented.
Graphics & Sound
These bugs are associated to visual and audio experience of the game. Graphics incorporate things like texture mistakes and imperfection on the objects. While sound may include the music effects associated with the gameplay.
