9 Different Types of Game Testing Techniques

March 6th, 2022

Are you interested in knowing about the types of game testing a game undergoes in QA?

Game testing is very crucial. The necessity of the process and its awareness became prominent recently when some big leaguers faced customer wrath owing to bug-ridden games.

Millions of dollars were lost in terms of revenue. Considering the fact that the whole gaming industry will be worth 256.97$ billion dollars in 2025.

If you are a gaming company, an enthusiast, or someone who is into game testing. This blog might help you to get a glimpse.

1) Combinatorial Testing:

This is a method of experimental design that is used for commercial software testing and to generate test cases.

Applying combinatorial testing to game testing increases test execution efficiency, provides better quality, reduces cost, and better phase containment.

Key Features

Every possible combination of values of the parameters is covered using this test
Identify distinct attributes that can be varied either in data or configuration
Systematically generate combination for testing
Include- Category-partition testing, Pair testing, and Catalogue based testing
Here the parameters are selected from game functions, elements, events, settings, play options, character attributes, customization choices, etc.

2) Clean Room Testing:

This is a software development process intended to develop gaming software with a certifiable level of reliability.

Key Features

Programming begins after the formal specification
No programmer testing method
This approach combines mathematical reasoning, design refinement, and statistical reasoning during test case generation and testing
The main aim of this method is to produce minimal defect software

3) Functionality Testing:

This literally means the method to identify bugs or errors in a game that may affect the user experience.

Key Features

Determines whether the application is working according to the specifications.
It is a complex testing method under the category of black-box testing technique.
Takes more time to execute as testers look for gameplay issues, graphics issues, audio-visual issues, etc.
Validates whether installation goes smoothly, the app works in minimized mode, the app allows social networking options, supports payment gateways, and many more.

Also Read : Game Testing Tutorial: All you need to know to be a game tester

4) Compatibility Testing:

This is used to find whether a game is functioning properly or not with respect to the hardware, graphics, and software configuration that the device is built with.

It is one of the essential mobile app testing services that check if a game title is able to run on specific devices.

Key Features

Validate whether the user interface of the app is as per the screen size of the device and ensure high quality
Ensure whether the text is readable for all users
This testing ensures that the product meets all necessary requirements set by the developer and the end-user
Ensures real compatibility between different testing environments
Confirms the workability and stability of the software.

5) Tree Testing:

This type of testing is almost the same as usability testing used to organize the test cases. It also helps to select the proper set of tests for the given set of code changes.

Key Features

Can be also conducted in advance of designing page layouts or navigation menus
Allows inexpensive exploration, refinement of the menu categories, labels, etc.
Tester doesn’t need to sketch wireframes or write content for testing. The only things needed are the tree(menu), and the tasks(instructions).
Improves the overall understanding of the complex features in the game

6) Regression Testing:

Regression testing is done to retest the unchanged parts of the software. Here test cases are re-checked to analyze the working of the previous functions of the app works fine and that new changes have not introduced any new errors or vulnerabilities.

Key Features

Re-run the previously conducted tests
Helps to compare the previous results with current results and point out errors if any
A critical aspect for quality controls
Save time by detecting bugs at the starting stage itself
Can be run as a functional test to verify the overall usability of the end product

7) Ad hoc Testing:

This is quite an unplanned testing method generally used to break down the system. Testers randomly test the app without test cases or any documents.

Key Features

Do not follow any structured way of testing, it’s randomly done on any part of the app
Mainly done to find defects using a random checking
This is achieved using the testing method Error Guessing
Since the defects are not mapped to test cases, it is quite difficult to reproduce the defects

Must Read : 52 Software Testing Tools You Must Know in 2019

8) Load Testing:

It is a type of performance testing to determine the performance of a system under real-time loads. Load testing shows the reaction of an app when multiple users use the app simultaneously.

Key Features

Determine whether the current infrastructure is sufficient for the smooth running of the game
Check sustainability of the app with peak user load
Determine the number of users an app can support and its scalability rate to support more users
Accommodates strategies for performance management.

9) Play Testing:

Playtesting is the method of game testing by playing the game to analyze non-functional features like fun factors, difficulty levels, balance, etc. Here a selected group of users plays the unfinished versions of the game to check the workflow.

Key Features

It is an integral part of game design and is used commonly in PC games and character-playing games
It is more about judging the game rather than the facts
The main aim is to check whether a game works in a well-structured manner.

Conclusion

So what should the main focus of game testing be, should it be reality or vision? Nowadays, a game development team needs to spend more time on testing procedures than any other app development procedure as sometimes it becomes more complex due to the different components.

Even with better planning, an implementation may not necessarily work. And like any other app, users rely on charm only for some time and eventually want to have better results and a better user experience.