游戏测试checklist--转载

上一篇 / 下一篇  2008-11-03 18:22:53 / 个人分类:游戏测试

4.    GAME TESTING AND TESTING TECHNIQUES

The Game Testing Primer document describes a few aspects and focuses of game testing. This section outlines a systematic testing approach, and explains how you break down a game feature into its smallest testable components:

4.1        GAME COMPONENTS AND BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

Systematicgame testing means examining every part of a game. These parts include:

§          the menu and the menu functions,

§          art (character model, texture, terrain or world, crowd, objects, etc.),

§          animation (the like and feel of the movement, realism, frame rate),

§          sound and the sound effect (in conjunction with the facial animation, e.g. lip sync, and the animation sequence),

§          music,

§          camera (cinematic view, zoom in and out, replay),

§          game flow and logic,

§                    world/level/scene,

§                    the player attributes,

§                    the action attributes,

§                    the condition to advance to the next level (what are the rules?)

§                    the use of environmental objects,

§                    the event/object triggers, and

§                    the scoring

§          progressive levels of difficulty,

§          the AI logic (for both defensive play and offensive play; player movement and positioning),

§          statistics (pre-game and in-game like player statistics and high score),

§          title screens,

§          NIS(Non-Interactive Sequence),

§          SFX (Special effect)

§          any movie clip,

§          the game pad, 

§                    the use of multi-button actions (also called button mashing),

§                    the ease of use of the button functions,

§                    the shock/vibration effect of the game pad,

§                    the use of digital and analog mode

§          legal text, and

§          the game options (game start/menu selection, hints, game pause, pause menu options , and scrolling, i.e. cycling through the available options on the screen, etc.)

4.2    GAME TESTING TECHNIQUES AND “TIPS-N-HINTS”

Here are the specific details and the testing techniques:

§          Must examine the entire screen and not just a small part of it.

§          Familiar with the game rules and test the gameplay against these rules.

§          Test for clipping (two or more polygons or polygon objects overlapping each other or canceling each other out).

§          Examine the overlap (where a semi-transparent object shown on top of another solid colour object and/or the background), and check if the overlap is appropriate in terms of size, placement, the purpose and the information that is provided).

§          Test for incorrect and inappropriate collision (the condition when two objects should be colliding). Imagine when two cars collide, they should get bumped by each other with about the same effect (e.g. damage). 

In terms of physics, when a collision involves two objects with the same mass, they should generate the same amount of momentum in the opposite direction. In contrast, when a plane hits the ground, should only the plane show the effect of collision because the mass of a plane is trivial compared to the mass of the earth.

§          Move the character through all the available objects and all the levels and closely examine the effect (it could be collision, an event trigger, or an object trigger).

§          Test for grayed out or grey out (when an option or icon cannot be selected)

§          Test loading/saving from a game save device (e.g. hard drive or a memory card) and ensure the correct messages are displayed on the screen.

§          Ensure a “game load” or “data load” message and an appropriate “loading” indication (e.g. loading meter) displayed on the Loading Screen.

§          Ensure the loading time is acceptable (no one likes to wait for more than 20 seconds).

§          Look for micro-pause where slight pauses occur in the game but do not actually cause a full freeze or crash. When it happens, it will temporarily impede the gameplay.

§          Test for the multi-player mode (the game runs on one machine, not on-line gaming) where two or more players engage in one game.

§          Test the game for memory leak or memory overload by leaving the game on/running for a few days.

§          Test end of bound (also known as end of the world or edge of the world). The game should not allow the character to move “out of bound”, and/or the game becomes erratic (e.g. game crash/freeze, the texture becomes deteriorated, the character gets trapped in certain area of the map).

§          Test for platform compatibility. Platform testing requires some extra effort for the PC game and on-line gaming:

§          For a PC game, test for all the supported operating systems like Microsoft Windows 95/97/98/2000 and NT (this includes Install, Uninstall, and actual gameplay). Also, test for different sound/graphic cards and peripherals that are available in the market (discuss with your Technical Director for the make/model of the peripherals). 

§          Test the networking for game play over modem(s) at different speed, and Internet gaming (The depth and coverage for Network Testing will expand if the game itself relies on some Sever applications for the actual game play; e.g. multi-player mode).

§          If the game is to be published in European countries, test for PAL conversion (currently the game we produce is mostly targeted forNorthern America, and we use NTSC).

§          Test for localization (foreign language requirements) if required.

This is a list of common testing techniques used by a Game Tester. This is not meant to be a complete list, an experienced Game Tester will tell you that you should use your mind – this is where a little creativity, a little imagination, and a little bit of “common sense” become very useful. 

4.3        SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GAME TESTING

Before I let you go, I must warn you about Crack bugs and Placeholder, they are often mistaken as real bugs:

§          Crack bugs(i.e. a bug which in fact isNOTa bug, but someone’s crazy imagination).

§          Placeholder(i.e. something “dummy-up” on the screen, it is used to fill a spot until the correct video, artwork, sound or object is implemented and incorporated into the game).

 

5.    TEST PLAN DEVELOPMENT FOR GAME TESTING

There are two types of test cases; one is testing thefunctionalityof the product; commonly known in the software industry asPositive Testing. The other one is testing thedurabilityand the level oftolerance resistanceof the game; known asNegative Testing(it is also known as Stress Testing or Load Testing). “Negative” test cases are created with “breaking the game” in mind, so we will test for certain odd situations and determine if the game knows how to respond, and reacts correctly. Examples of this odd situation are,

§          Load a game without a MEMORY card, or pulling out the MEMORY card during game loading. 

§          Running a game for more than 48 hours in order to test for memory allocation and management. When the game component does not handle the use of memory properly, some of the memory may become unusable (the memory does not get recycled). When it happens, a game will become non-playable (e.g. freeze) after a long-playing time. 

§          For the playability testing, say, a scenario is developed for the “Head-to-Head” mode in Snowboarding, we have Player-1 boarding very fast, and finishing much earlier than Player-2, which is boarding extra slow. We expect the game should be able handle this extreme situation (e.g. no freeze, the scoring continues to work the way it should be) till Player-2 is finished.

DefineSmoke Testingto test a new CD burn. The name of Smoke Testing comes from the engineering lab in testing new car engines. Before a new engine is put out for a road test, the engineers would simply start the engine and see if it works. If smoke comes out from the engine, they would know immediately that some parts do not work properly. Just like creating a new build, we simply run the game, if the game keeps on crashing, we would know some parts are not right. The Smoke Test for a new CD burn needs to be defined. The test plan is a simple list of what main game features and options need to be tested so you are able to confirm a new build is successful. Just like testing a new car engine in the lab, you would start it and let it run for a few cycles.

 


TAG: 游戏测试

 

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