HOW TO PLAYTEST!
Playtesting is important for balancing game mechanics and allow developers to get an idea for how their game will feel for their player base.
Game jams are ideal events for developers to quickly test game ideas and experiment.
It is a good idea to begin a game by breaking it down to its most basic parts, to get a working simulation created as quick as possible to figure out whether the game will actually be any fun or not.
kids make good play testers as there is a good mix of them who are skilled players and those that are not, they also tend to be much more honest and give immediate reactions.
the developer usually makes for the worst playtester as they will know the ins and outs of the game so it is not a fair comparison.
there are different kinds of playtesting
playtesting with focus: focusing on 1 aspect of the game, usually will have a test area with things for the player to interact with.
blind playtesting: observing a player do whatever they want in the game to look for exploits , bugs or ideas for potential new features.
exploit hunting: specifically trying to break the game, using strategy, physics , etc.
do not give play testers instructions if they get stuck, if needs be pose a question to them and try to understand their thought process and upon finishing a play test interview the play tester.
7 Different Types of Game Testing Techniques
Game design issues:
the game doesnt create a compelling experience
it's not actually fun
the game isn't based around the players experience
lacks attention grabbing or keeping aspects for a player base
bad features, poor quality , low effort
the game is too difficult to play
Functionality testing - testing the games most basic features to make sure that the core mechanics all work as intended
Combinatorial Testing - early stage game tests to gauge how a player would interact with the games inputs and outputs
Ad Hoc Testing - checking for unknown bugs, glitches errors and crashes
Compatibility Testing - testing the game on different software types, hard ware types, systems, screen sizes, etc.
Clean Room and Tree Testing - to try and find small errors to patch out of the game
Regression testing - re-testing features to make sure that other fixes have not broken once working features.
Performance Testing - testing the game to see if it runs at its recommended frame rate during different times during game play
Computer games are serious business and so is their quality: particularities of software testing in game development from the perspective of practitioners
Demographic questions were used in the survey to gather information about the participants of the study.
another type of question was asked to the participants asking about the qualitative characteristics of the software being tested.
and finally they were asked qualitative related question about the game testing cycle.
it became an issue when finding people to fill in the questionnaire as there is not a large sample size for testing as there are not many people with the type of knowledge and understanding to fill out and participate in such a study.
the ideal profile of participants for such a study were people already working in a similar position, that being people working in play testing for outsider companies already as they were aware of what their purpose was.
when planning the game testing process it should be considered for better results to bring in people working in the games industry, who understand how games should work.
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