Over the past few years, gaming has become one of the most demanding activities. The fact is, it helped people brighten up the isolation of lockdowns, reduce the level of stress, and maintain social connections.
The gaming industry has also been of great influence even on the education sector! Teachers in the UK and USA were introducing video games to engage students in the learning process. The gaming market is something incredible.
In 2021, it generated more than $180 billion in revenues. In January 2022 alone, what consumers spent on games in the USA reached almost $5 billion. It’s projected that by 2024, the live-streaming audience will increase by almost 10%, comprising 942 million users.
Considering the high influx of players, proactive game development companies have begun to emphasize the role of QA in delivering emerging experiences and ensuring the bugless functioning of games.
This is especially important at the very first launch of the software, for if the end-users face any critical issue in the game, they can leave poor reviews and easily switch to thousands of alternatives.
Some companies now strive to automate part of the workload to avoid such lossmaking cases, improve testing accuracy, and achieve regular release cadence.
However, the introduction of automation for video game testing is a tricky path that requires thorough preparation. In this article, we shall provide you with some tips on how to improve the organizational performance of gaming projects and help you deliver faster than your competitors.
Challenges of Automated Video Game Testing
Video game testing is a complicated process in itself. Device fragmentation, dozens of screen sizes, multiplayer features, integration with social media, software functioning under high loads, safe user experience, etc. are all things to consider.
What concerns automation challenges, just have a look at the major ones:
- Possible software changes. Game design and core mechanics often alter, complicating the maintenance of test documentation and automated scripts (of course, they become outdated with time).
- Need for manual testing. Adoption of test automation does not mean that you can abandon manual testing. The latter helps you assess how the game looks and is perceived by the players, which is best done by the human eye (ad hoc or exploratory verifications cannot be automated as well).
- Obstacles with repeated use of test cases. Reusability is an intrinsic advantage of test automation as it allows using the same scripts over and over again. Each game is unique, so companies that develop multiple software solutions need custom-written automated scripts for each of them.
- Problems when implementing customized controls (UI). As mobile development companies often access screens directly using libraries, traditional test automation frameworks may become worthless. And here is the need to create scripts that imitate clicking at a certain point of the screen based on the set coordinates.
- Difficulties in the testing of interaction logic. Video games, specifically those on PC, often assume communication of a player with different bots, be it a character with hints in a quiz game or an opponent in a shooter. All are AI-empowered bots that require a peculiar testing approach, including verification of proper response actions via test automation.
Planning automation on video game projects: 7 steps to fulfill
Is it time to streamline part of the workflow with test automation? Then it is worth planning the introduction carefully. We have compiled a set of steps to perform that may help facilitate the process and make test automation pay off in the long term.
1. Choose your scope wisely
As we already mentioned, it does not make sense to automate things that are better performed by people such as screening issues in the audio and visual game parts, exploratory testing, UI verifications, and assessment of game perception from the artistic point of view, etc.
Instead, just automate simple, repetitive tests that run for multiple builds like creating new game characters and ensuring their bugless operation or performing server transactions in MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Games).
2. Create a test plan
What exactly are you going to test? How often? What are the risks? What resources are required for quality assurance? What deliverables will be generated afterward? A clear plan should provide the answers to these and help you to always stick to a set test strategy, milestones, and schedules.
3. Select a fit-for-purpose toolkit
TAF (Test Automation Framework) constitutes the basis for the environment in which automated scripts are executed and provides QA engineers with such advantages as ease of scripting and high scalability. Now there is a plethora of TAFs on the market, ranging from data-driven to module-based testing solutions. How do you make the right choice?
Make sure that TAF supports the programming language applied within your project, diverse platforms or browsers you utilize; the syntax is simple and readable; the configuration is straightforward and quick, so it can easily be integrated with other solutions within your testing ecosystem and allows you to generate concise reports.
4. Ensure your game is scriptable
Each game is unique. If your company does not use a game engine that allows the creation of automated scripts, then, it means that during the development stage, software development engineers should create the infrastructure (code) that will allow event recording and playback.
With that, QA engineers will be able to record players’ behavior (a list of events), identify issues, and then pass this scenario to the developer for fixing. Such an approach helps simplify the testing process and scale downtime efforts.
5. Set up a test environment
Software testing teams usually ensure the quality of a build through a robust test environment, which is a downgraded version of the production. To configure it, make sure you have constituent parts, namely devices to test on, quality test data, network configuration, TAF and other automation-related tools, and associated documentation (scenarios, business requirements, etc.).
6. Regularly update testing artifacts
Keep in mind that your game will grow over time, and new functionalities will continue to appear quickly. You need to ensure high transparency by updating quality management plans, specifications, reports, etc. By keeping them in order, you will also help project newcomers quickly delve into their current workflows.
7. Control progress with metrics
Test automation metrics are valuable as they show the big picture of process effectiveness, accelerate your speed to market, and help build a culture of continuous improvement. For this reason, we suggest that you consider:
- Test duration time: This measures the speed of performing tests and overall productivity
- Pass rate: This demonstrates whether your test automation suite is stable and effective
- Covered requirements: This defines how many features are already automated.
Summary
Test automation is a powerful technique that helps meet quality gates, reduce operational expenditure, and deliver sound software solutions faster. However, it is not yet so prevalent within the gaming industry (though we hope, it becomes!).
Still, if you would like to introduce automation, carefully map the process out to increase the chances of success: consider the scope and toolkit, create a plan and set up a test environment, ensure the game is scriptable, update testing artifacts, and monitor progress with metrics.