Game Testing

GAME TESTING

 How to Playtest!

How important it is to playtest?

Playtesting is where you can see your hard work come to life. You might feel nervous or irritated as there are things that would not work. However, this could be a good way to find your mistakes and things that you can improve.

When can you test your game?

You can start as long as you have a prototype, but you should not type your game too early either because you haven't really tried your first planned idea yet. However, do not also wait till you complete your game to test it as there could be an error on some parts that you have not discovered which is too late to fix it and you ended up spending more time fixing the error and possibly ruined the whole game. If you want to have a wider perspective on improving your game, you can let someone try the game or you can just do it yourself. it is better to have a wider range of testers to get various feedbacks in any age.

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Types of testing:

1. Playtest with focus - e.g., in movement, difficulty, enemies, etc.
2. Blind playtesting - where you can concentrate on the player doing what they try to do. This way, you could find new tactics that the player can do or defeat the enemies.
3. Ask questions - ask your players questions about the game to give them ideas on how to overcome an obstacle if they are stuck.

Sometimes your idea would not relate to what your audience wanted where they will find your game frustrating. E.g., the obstacles are too hard, or they have to start to the first level every time they die. However, you can have two choices: you can force your idea until it works for you or you embrace their criticism and try your best to fit it to the game where it could be useful. This is like a win/win situation.

Gaming companies should not only focus on one trend but also must think of what the users need and

to have a fresh idea that is different from current games. There could be a possibility that some people will like what you have created differently.

Here are some major risks in Game Testing:

• If the "fun" factor is missing in the game or it did not meet the audience's expectations.
• Game is not unique.
• Poor game development. E.g., broken features or critical bug.
• The game should have a feature that is easy to use and have a balanced level of gameplay.

7 most popular gaming testing techniques.

1. Functionality Testing: look for the obvious problems such as asset integrity, stability, audio visual and game mechanic issues. You should also have to consider the interactive application performance issues such as crashing or freezing during the game.
2. Combinatorial Testing: where you test the game at its earliest stage. This can determine if your game can satisfy the main requirements of your game have to achieve. This method can be used for commercial testing.
3. Ad Hoc Testing: it is known as "general testing" which is a less structured way of testing and randomly done on any section of your game. An "error guessing" does not require any documentation or planning as you are fixing errors along the process.
4. Compatibility Testing: this method detects any flaws and shows if it meets the essential necessities of the software /hardware and graphics. This can be done both in mobile and PC games. Compatibility testing can also evaluate your game on multiple platforms.
5. Clean Room and Tree Testing: this ensures consistency and reliability of gaming software. It aims to produce a no-error product before it introduces to audiences. This is similar to usability testing as well where it organize the test cases and choose the most suitable set of codes. There are no requirements required on how to prepare any content for testing.
6. Regression Testing: this is the time where tests are re-checked and analyze again. Where the previous functions of apps work fine and new changes do not develop new errors. This technique also aims to maintain the end product's quality are met and detect bugs at the development stage.
7. Performance Testing: This technique settles the overall performance under real-time conditions and ensures that the present infrastructure has a smooth function of gaming.

Games Stories

In my readings this week, I learned how to build a story for a game and what it's all about. We need to know that a game is not a movie and it should not be made like one. The story of a game is adding an extra element to the game, but one that doesn't define the game.

In our readings we also learned about conflict in a game. Of course every game needs conflict and that is what makes it so interesting and fun to play. I mean every game we play, be it video games etc it always has some sort of conflict to make the game more dynamic and difficult.

To finish off I have learned a lot about how to not make the game like a story and make it more interesting with some conflict.

Unity Tutorial

 In this weeks unity tutorial I am finding more and more that as weeks go on I am feeling a lot more confident with them which in return makes the tutorials all the more enjoyable to do!

Although I said I am finding them easier than I have been and more enjoyable, I won't lie I am still struggling and spending a lot of time on each tutorial, which I am working on but not sure I am improving an awful lot😞 

This week there was a lot of code and script to look through which makes it all the more challenging, but I suppose we're some what used to that by now. I like the challenges test so you can find out how much you really know and what you should be working on, and that helps! 

I will try use some of the new features I learned today in my game. That is all for now.

Time Strategies

 So to be honest I am not great at time management.. I find it really hard to switch off and take some time for myself so I am really trying hard to manage my time well this semester. I was thinking of having a full day for a module each day so that I can just focus on that module and nothing else so I don't get overwhelmed and get everything done. This article really helped me as I learned to manage my time and I will be better at prioritising it now. She speaks about lots of different things, like procrastinating (which i am the queen at), leaving the worst things to last (which is actually should a bad idea). Anyway from today on I will be better at managing my time! 

Technology Tools and Website

 I am not very familiar with the tools we will be using for this as I have never used Unity or Padlet, but I am excited to get to use them and learn more about them! Also as for online college I love some things and hate some things about it, I love not having to travel up and down to college and being able to spend more time at home and have my lunch etc at home, but I hate that I'm finding it so hard to divide my time and switch off from college work and take some time for myself. That being sad, I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester and seeing how I get on!

More About Class Assignments

 I really like the layout of this module as I am enjoying doing some blogposts and having the options of doing extra credits incase you've missed anything. I am also getting used to using new software like unity and having to complete tasks each week makes it really fair and easy to keep on track.

Growth Mindset

 This week we are learning about Carol Dweek and growth mindset. Although I have never heard about growth mindset before I did find it quite interesting. I love how she spoke about how different people have different mindsets, and how she explained the children's reaction from failing, I feel that would be similar to myself as I would be fix minded! 

Introduction

 Hey,

I am 20  years old and studying Creative Digital Media. I finished school in 2018 but I didn't know what I wanted to do so I took a year out and saved up and bought a car and passed my test so I could drive myself to college and make life easier! I decided to move out of my parents house during the summer as I like to have my own space especially because I knew college would be all online. I love having my own place but I do miss living with my parents (sometimes 😅). Also forgot to mention that I live in a small parish in Meath called Skryne and always have lived here. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends and I love to cook! My favourite thing to do by myself is go to a gym class or for a run! 

I recently got a new little puppy and named her Skye and I love her so much she's the sweetest! Here are some pictures of her, myself, my boyfriend and our little boy.

Hope you enjoyed getting to know a little about me, although its not too interesting!

Favourite Game

 My favourite game is 8 ball pool. I decided to pick this game as literally everyone I know was playing it and I thought I would join in! I love the game as I feel like its realistic but very addictive, although I am not great at it. I enjoyed it so much as I found it was a way to get me away from social media (which I need) Anyway I would highly recommend to anyone! 

Review Week Comments and Feedback

 Hi,

For this evenings tasks we were looking at the comments on our blog posts and trying to learn from them. Overall I am finding the comments on my blog posts very helpful and encouraging. To be honest when I first started about my game design ideas, I was slightly nervous about it as the idea of celebrities driving cars like Mario Kart can sound pretty wild, and although I love the idea and think its fun and different I wasn't sure if anybody else would feel the same. I suppose that is what its all about right? Taking a shot and hoping its successful. Anyway, from readings through all my comments which to be completely honest I have not read them in a week or so, so to see that everyone had positive things to say about my game idea, it is so reassuring and made me feel great about my decision and game idea! I am happy that one of the tasks was to do this commenting on each others blogs as it is actually a great way to get feedback and stay in touch with our fellow classmates as I for one would probably not reach out and ask them for their feedback if it wasn't for the random commenting. So thank god for that! In saying that, i found the most helpful comments the constructive ones that went like " I like this idea but I think you could..." this is the best type of feedback as it gets you thinking and exploring other options. I had a couple of these comments which have really helped me and I am grateful for them. I also think these random comments are absolutely great as it keeps us connected with each other and getting to know more people from our group as I feel it was almost like an invite to text them privately if they have commented on my blog!

Anyway, I will leave it for now as I think it is clear that I enjoy the random commenting and find it great and extremely helpful.😊

Reading

 Hey,

This week we are going to be reflecting on our previous readings and talk about them in this weeks instead of doing more readings. I looked back on my blog posts from the readings and realised my favourite was the game design and elements was my favourite and one that I found most interesting and one that I feel I learned the most from and I'll always remember and will benefit my game design. With that being said, from reading my previous blog posts, I could have written a bit more on each topic as I know I read them  thoroughly and took information from them and learned a lot from them, I just sometimes struggle to put what I read into words and from my readings of my previous blog posts I have learned that. So from now on I am going to apply that in my future blog posts for my future readings and I am glad this task came about so I had the chance to reflect on my previous work.