Beta game testing is one of the most crucial stages of the game development process. It is the last chance to unearth bugs in the game before it is released for the users. A single bug is all that would take to deliver a killer blow to the fate of a game title. As a game publisher and most importantly as QA/tester here is how you should be dealing with risks for a game in beta testing. To start, it is impossible for you to consider every probable event or series of events in the game and test them. That would make the testing process very expensive and lengthy and humanly impossible.
It thus becomes necessary look for bugs that are likely to have a significant impact on the user experience. You can rate the bugs based on the likelihood of their occurrence and impact of the game. Bugs which are highly likely and would cause heavy impact should be tackled first then followed by others. It works like a filtering process where you keep talking out the most harmful contaminant from the solution.
To lower the risks during the testing process, it is important that you unearth cluster of bugs rather than searching for isolated bugs in the game. This would make it possible for the developers to simultaneously resolve the issue and ensure the end product nears perfection. In a true sense, you cannot eliminate all the risks in a game during the testing stage, but you can reduce the risks to a level where they don’t impact the functionality and user experience in the game.
Article by,
Laxmikant B. Thipse
Founder & CEO
GameCloud Technologies Pvt Ltd
