Test Phases

Alpha
Alpha taken from the first letter in the Greek alphabet is the first phase of beginning a game test. The developers themselves usually play test their game.  Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha phase typically ends with a feature freeze, which would mean that there will be no more features added to the game. At this point the game is said to be “feature complete”.
Beta
Beta, taken from the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the point in the testing process where the development phase of the alpha test has just been completed. The beta testing phase will usually have many more bugs in than the completed game. This may be bugs such as speed/performance issues, game crashes or data losses. When delivering a beta version to the users this is called a beta release and is the first time the game is available to the pupil outside of the organization.

The people testing the beta version are called beta testers. The users that test the game for free usually would get the final game for free or at discounted price. Some games are usually kept in a continuous beta, where they add new features and functionality to the game without launching a "final" firm release.

Gold
The Gold Standard or "going gold” is the term when the product is ready to be delivered to the consumer masses.  This is when the development team and the testers completed their tests and have done everything they can to add new features and remove all the bugs they can find. This is now normally when the games have completed the alpha and beta testing and is finally ready to release as a physical copy or digital download or even both.

Defect Triggers

Defect Triggers are keywords used in testing to help classify new or existing tests and defects. They use this so they can identify where the defects are coming from and what testing is missing. When defects starts to show up, that’s the cue of the tester to increase upon their testing phase to use the triggers even more.

The efficiency of each trigger can be measured in terms of defects per test. A large defect to other triggers tells them how to find bugs cautiously and also may hint any basic flaws in the game design or implementation. As the tester continues to create and run more tests for the most effective triggers, they will drain them to the point where they can no longer be able to find new bugs.

Trigger	Keywords
Configuration	configure, model, type, version, environment, connect, disconnect, add, remove
Startup	startup, initial, first, un-initialized, creation, boot, warm up, wakeup, loading, setup, entry, transition, delay
Exception	exception, error, violation, exceeds, NULL, unexpected, recover, prevented, blocked, prohibited, unavailable
Stress	stress, load, rate, slowest, fastest, low, high, speed, capacity, limit, long, short, few, many, empty, full
Normal	normal, typical, common, usual, expected, planned, basic, allowed, available
Restart	restart, reset, cleanup, eject, power down, ctrl-alt-del, quit

 

 

Game Test Life Cycle

Plan

The planning phase, is where they plan on revisiting with every build. they would consider things such as "what has changed in the design spec since the last build? What additional test cases have been added? What new configurations will the game support? What features have been cut?" The testing should ensure that no new issues would be introduced in the process of fixing bugs.

Prepare

Code, tests, documents, and the test environment are updated by their respective owners and aligned with one another. By this time the development team should have marked the bugs fixed for this build in the defect database so the QA or test team can subsequently verify those fixes and close the bugs.

Perform

Test the new build check if there is any defect, they also test “around” the bug making certain they have done everything they can to recreate the bug. More research that's done, the easier it becomes to report the bug.

Report

This is where they log in their reports of any defects and bugs they've found.

Repair

The test team participates in this step by being available to discuss the bug with the development team and to provide any directed testing they may require to track it down.

Repeat

Repeat the process with a new bug to test.

Game Testing Cycle

 

 

Types of Bugs Defects

Bugs are errors, defects, or faults in the game that cause the game to produce an unexpected result or to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's source code or its design, or in frameworks and operating systems used by such programs, and a few are caused by compilers producing incorrect code.

 Types of Bug A – E

·         A - Crash: this is when a game stops functioning properly. Often, it will then exit after encountering these errors. The program responsible may appear to freeze until a crash reporting service documents the details of the crash. i.e if you have the PlayStation emulator on the PSP and play Digimon World 3 there are particular areas where the game crash upon entering it. When loading up league of legends and waiting for a client the game crashes.

 

League of Legends crash

PSP crash from Digimon World 3

 

·         B – Serve: this is when a player interacts with the game and it stops the player from process on towards the game.  Sometimes when saving in battlefield the save gets corrupted and isn’t able to move or progress forward. Another example is if you play WWE13 and are in a fatal four way/triple threat match if the other user grabs the referee as his counting the pinfall, the referee glitches and freezes. Leaving the match to be undecided.

 

Battlefield save corruption

Ref freeze glitch

 

·         C – General: this is any bugs that would not affect the game from playing, but can serve annoyance to players. in the original pokemon if you talk to the old man then fly to cinnabar island, use surf and swim along side the first line, at some point MissingNo. will appear. which if caught will give 99 items on the 6th slot. In WWE 2K14 if you throw a steel steps near the corner barricade the opponent will glitch.

WWE 2K14 Glitch

MissingNo. glitch

 

·         D – Minor: this is when a bug happens that doesn’t affect or hinder the game in any which way, but a part of the game is faulted.

Heavy Rain "Shaun glitch"

Walking Dead "Missing Duck"

 

·         E – Cosmetic/Comments:  this is when there’s nothing wrong with the gameplay, but the textures don’t or aren’t aligned to the object.

Mass Effect 2 texture mixing up

Tomb Raider Texture glitch