With the constantly evolving technology, industries anticipate a $300 billion increase in mobile gaming revenue by 2025. Businesses are increasing their learning pace by considering this development and expansion. Users will undoubtedly seek quality as gaming applications expand in popularity. Testing games was essential and mandatory for all gaming companies, especially gaming startups. The technique’s necessity and knowledge rose to the fore lately when certain major league players encountered backlash from fans after playing games that had bugs.
For instance, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, an action RPG game developed by Bethesda Game Studios, faced significant losses due to the lack of quality QA testing. Bethesda Softworks published the RPG game in November 2011. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Despite being a top-ranked RPG game, it had several technical issues that could have been eradicated with adequate QA testing. Users reported several crashes and fatal bugs in the PS3 version, along with frame rate issues and texture down-scaling, making the game unplayable.
The above case study proves that QA testing for gaming applications becomes as vital for the industry newcomers as it is for the big sharks. Entering this highly competitive yet competent market will yield success when gaming applications and software are developed and tested for bugs, issues, and errors. Gaming applications also require a seamless interface, quality usability, and technical competencies to offer users a positive and satisfying gaming experience. With this in mind, outsourcing QA can benefit gaming startups as it can yield better results with an increased ROI in the competition.
Types of QA for Gaming
Performing different types of game testing techniques, can help in assessing several aspects of the game. Here are some QA testing types that can be useful for gaming startups:
Functional Testing
Functionality testing corrects stability issues and errors in the game’s mechanics, including flaws in the game’s aesthetics and content. Functional testing for video games can be challenging as it takes too long to find audio-visual and graphical errors.
Testers will also examine various other things, such as menu organization, font size, alignment issues, screen orientation, screen resolutions, background checking, colour monitoring, dialogue messages, animation, loading time, sorting, confirmation messages, timeout and display, audio elements, etc., with functional testing.
Compatibility Testing
It is crucial to make the app compatible with various browsers and platforms, like PCs and mobile phones. Game testers have to consider compatibility concerns in addition to bugs and errors.
Quality graphics troubleshooting, timely detection, and hardware or software malfunction are all essential to provide a positive gaming experience for gamers. Testers must also validate the game’s compatibility with various gaming systems with compatibility testing.
Localization Testing
When aiming for a global market, localization testing can be crucial. The gaming software needs to be simple to read for gamers from various nations. Test automation and cloud-based QA can be handy for such testing requirements.
The test cases for game localization should be well-prepared with considerations such as The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area, Arabic localization (Right-to-Left text support, Bi-directional displays), local time/date, address formats, currency with the help of pseudo-localization testing.
Security Testing
Security is a vital concern for all businesses, and online gaming startups are no exception. With the increased cyber-attacks, it has become essential to strengthen the security of gaming applications with comprehensive QA testing.
Startups can take various measures to reduce the risks of data breaches and hacks. They must focus on session management, user authentication, authorisation, data encryption, and more.
Security testing was essential and mandatory for payment gateways to ensure that the confidential financial information of the user is safe from hackers. Testers use various tools and techniques to assess security, such as penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and code review.
Testing for SQL injection loopholes and cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities are also necessary. Testers can use automated security testing tools to scan for such risks.
3D Testing
Recent gaming trends include life-like games such as RPG, MMORPG, and VR games, especially the ones for mobile devices that incorporate details from real life in the game.
Now-a-days, use of realistic animations in 3D games like character reproductions, natural elements (such as waves, wind, and clouds in the sky), bullet movement, and more, has become an essential part of games.
QA engineers must have necessary knowledge and training to evaluate the performance of 3D objects or any other models included in a mobile game. This ensures highly efficient testing that guarantees a positive gaming and visual experience.
Compliance Testing
Breaking gaming regulations may result in the removal of game and lead to incurring additional costs for testing and re-submitting the app to app stores. For gaming startups this can be a huge overhead. Compliance testing investigates whether the gaming application complies with all applicable global gaming standards, laws, and specifications.
IEEE P2861 to regulate the standard for Mobile Gaming Performance Evaluation and Optimization.
IEEE P2861.1 regulates standards for Troubleshooting Touch Operation Issues for Mobile Gaming.
International Gaming Standards Association (IGSA) recommends 3 standards: Game-to-System (G2S), Certification Database Interface (CDI) and Regulatory Reporting Interface (RRI).
Installation Testing
Game installation must be as simple as possible, regardless of whether it is for novice or seasoned gamers. Installation testing can give a competitive edge because it helps to ensure that the game installation is quick and easy, without any errors. This can help to attract and retain more users, as a complicated or time-consuming installation process will not put them off.
Elevate Gaming Experience to Global Standards with QAonCloud
QAonCloud is one of the pioneers in QA testing for gaming apps. We at QAonCloud have a pool of QA experts who can understand the nuances and niches of the gaming industry. With expertise, knowledge, and competent teams, QAonCloud aims to meet user requirements and deliver high-quality gaming applications to the global market. Contact Us to Learn More.
