The role of robust game testing is crucial in the gaming realm of the UK. In fact, gaming companies need to prioritize game testing so that they can deliver high-quality gaming experiences to their customers. By prioritizing game testing, it is possible to eliminate the possibilities of bugs, performance issues and other concerns.

The major game testing firms that rule the UK gaming industry are identified in the blog. Moreover, emphasis has been laid on their key services and expertise in diverse areas of game testing, including addressing bugs and security issues, ensuring compliance, and improving user engagement and experience. By leveraging top game testing services that involve a thorough evaluation of games, including their performance, security, and functionality, it is possible to optimize the user experience.

Why Game Testing is Crucial?

In the dynamic gaming industry of the UK, game testing is important. The role and relevance of a detailed game testing process are necessary while developing a game. You need to emphasize game testing because:
Rigorous game testing can help ensure seamless gameplay for users. It can certainly boost their overall performance of the game. Thus, they can have an amazing gaming experience that is highly enjoyable.

Game testing can help identify bugs, glitches, and security issues. Moreover, by conducting proper testing, it is possible to fix these elements that may act as major concerns for users.

The role of top game testing services is indispensable for positively shaping the experience as well as engagement for users. These tests can ensure that users can seamlessly enjoy their game time without facing issues.
By partnering with top game testing companies, you can definitely meet the necessary compliance requirements. That’s not all! These service providers will also take care of all the necessary aspects relating to platform requirements.

Key Services Offered by Game Testing Companies in the UK

By partnering with the best game QA agency, you can make use of a broad range of services related to game testing. Some of the chief services include:

1. Functional Testing

Functional testing is undoubtedly a crucial service offered by the best game testing companies. These services are pivotal since they help in the detection as well as fixing game breaking bugs.

Performing functional testing is necessary to ensure smooth and seamless game mechanics, controls, and user interface. You cannot omit this particular testing process if you wish to boost the performance of your game. It can help eliminate flaws that may diminish your game’s performance.

Moreover, by prioritizing functional testing, you can validate the game logic. That’s not all. You will also have the opportunity to validate other aspects including game quests, and character engagements and interactions.

2. Compatibility Testing

Compatibility testing is an important process in game testing. It helps to check or test the gaming software across multiple devices including personal computers (PC), consoles, as well as mobile phones. Its purpose is to ensure that the game is compatible regardless of the devices of users.

By leveraging the best game testing services, you can check the performance of your game on diverse operating systems. Moreover, you can also check its performance on varying hardware configurations.

3. Performance Testing

Performance testing is certainly among the top game testing services. By focusing on the performance aspect it is possible to evaluate frames per second (FPS). FPS can certainly influence the smoothness of the gameplay for users. Another important element that you can check is the load time of the game.

The particular service will enable you to locate crashes, freezes, and other types of lag issues. It is necessary to identify and tackle these problems as they may compromise user experience.

By conducting solid performance testing top game testing companies can ensure usage of memory as well as CPU. So your game will not lead to any kind of overload issue that may affect system or device performance for users.

Also Read : Security Testing for Web Apps: Protecting User Data

4. Security Testing

Security testing is definitely an integral part of game testing. The role of such tests is vital since they can help safeguard against malicious elements such as hacking, exploits, and cheating.

As several modern games involve in-game transactions it is fundamental to focus on proper security testing. Such tests can ensure that users can engage in secure and safe in-game transactions. As a result you will be able to protect the data of your users in an effective way.

5. Localization Testing

Another important testing that you cannot negate when it comes to game testing is localization testing. This type of testing is critical since it helps in the verification of translations, cultural relevance, and UI consistency. It will help ensure whether your game can adapt to diverse languages and regions or not.

Localization testing is currently among the top mobile game testing services. By conducting the specific test it is possible to test varying elements including time, date, currency, and legal compliance in various locations.

6. Compliance & Certification Testing

As the legal and regulatory landscape is undergoing rapid change, it is a must to prioritize compliance and certification testing. Such types of testing are imperative to ensure proper compliance with different platform standards such as Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox.

By partnering with a top game QA agency your game can meet all requirements for Google Play, App Store, and other marketplaces. As a result you can capitalize on varying marketplaces to expand your reach in the gaming market.

7. Playtesting & User Experience Testing

The final testing process that is crucial in the gaming context is related to areas such as playtesting and user experience. It is essential to prioritize these specific dimensions since they can help you obtain relevant feedback and insights from players in the real-world setting. Thus, you can certainly identify areas of improvement in the game.

These services are vital since they can help users evaluate the overall game feel. Moreover, you can also assess other elements, such as the levels of difficulty and engagement of players.

You cannot skip this specific testing process since it can create the opportunity to identify pain points for players. As a result, you will have the chance to considerably enhance your game, including its features, thereby improving the overall experience of your gamers.

Top Game Testing Companies in the UK

1. KiwiQA

KiwiQA is undoubtedly the top name in the UK game testing realm. It specializes in varying solutions pertaining to game testing. Some of its chief offerings are performance testing, security testing, and mobile testing. By leveraging its top-class services, game developers have the option to develop technologically advanced games for their users. The experts at KiwiQA will ensure that all your needs pertaining to game testing are effectively met.

By joining hands with the top game QA agency, you can certainly offer a unique and memorable experience to your gamers. In fact, you can ensure that your games are flawless, and they deliver top performance for gamers. By using the amazing offerings of KiwiQA, you can ensure that your games are not only extremely engaging but also highly immersive for your players.

1. Services:

• Automation Testing
• Game Testing
• Functional testing
  
• Accessibility Testing

2. No of Employees: 51-200 employees

3. Found Year: 2009

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kiwiqa-service

5. Website: https://kiwiqa.co.uk

2. QAwerk

QAwerk is a well-known name in the UK game testing landscape. It is committed to delivering world-class game testing solutions to game developers. It integrates manual and automated testing to ensure that fool-proof solutions are offered to you. By leveraging its offerings, you have the opportunity to boost the quality of your games and retain your customers.

Moreover, you can take advantage of the expert team at QAwerk so that you can positively enhance the experience of your gamers. You must know that QAwerk has been appreciated for its unwavering dedication in the game-testing arena.

1. Services:

• Automation Testing
• Game Testing
• Manual testing
• Accessibility Testing

2. No of Employees: 11-50 employees

3. Found Year: 2015

4. LinkedIn Url:https://www.linkedin.com/company/qawerk/

3. BugRaptors

BugRaptors is undoubtedly one of the best game-testing service providers today. The game testing entity is committed to fulfilling the varying requirements of game developers from all across the world and offer top quality assurance solutions. BugRaptors integrate artificial intelligence technology along with automation to offer advanced quality assurance solutions to game developers.

The testing team understands the needs of its clients to ensure that their unique needs relating to game testing are perfectly met. By improving the quality of the clients’ games, the BugRaptors company is able to create value not only for game developers but also for gamers.

1.Services:

• Manual Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Functional Testing
• Game Testing

2. No of Employees: 501-1,000 employees

3. Found Year: 2016

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bug-raptors

4. Pingle Studio

In the game-testing arena, Pingle Studio is certainly among the most respectable names that you can come across. It is known as a highly credible game development partner that offers expert game-testing solutions. Game developers all across the world can leverage its top-notch game testing solutions to improve their games.

By partnering with Pingle Studio, you can certainly bring your games to life. Moreover, you can also improve the overall experience of your gamers, which can help to boost your revenue. In the competitive gaming world, Pingle Studio is one of the best partners from which you can choose for game testing purposes.

1.Services:

• Full-cycle development
• Multiplayer Game Development
• Sound Design Services
• Game Testing

2. No of Employees: 501-1,000 employees

3. Found Year: 2016

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pinglestudio/

5. SnoopGame

SnoopGame is a major player in the UK game testing arena. The quality assurance team at SnoopGame comprises top professionals and experts who offer world-class game testing solutions to their clients as well as customers. The team of experts has immense experience since they have already worked on more than five hundred projects.

By utilizing their game-testing solutions, you can certainly shape the experience of your gamers and users for the better. Their functional testing, compliance testing, and other services can give a push to your game’s overall performance.

1.Services:

• Performance Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Functional Testing
• Game Testing

2. No of Employees: 51-200 employees

3. Found Year: 2015

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/snoopgame/

6. QualityTest

The QualityTest company is one of the top game testing companies that offers a plethora of services to game developers. It combines top resources with its proven methods to improve the quality of games. The quality assurance practices leverage AI technology, which not only optimizes the performance of games but also helps reduce issues or risks.

The company is committed to delivering quality game testing solutions so that gamers’ ultimate experience can be revolutionized. It is undoubtedly a highly credible name for game developers in the game testing arena. By partnering with QualityTest, you can certainly optimize the quality of your game.

1.Services:

• Game Testing
• Cyber Security Testing
• ETL Testing
• UX Testing

2. No of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees

3. Found Year: 1997

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/qualitest/

7. Testers Hub

Testers Hub is one of the best software testing firms that offers high-quality game testing solutions to its clients. The experts at Testers Hub leverage their expertise, experience, and skills to ensure that game developers can create amazing games for their users. Some of the chief testing services that the company offers include functional testing, performance testing, and many more.

By leveraging their comprehensive quality assurance procedure and top-class mobile game testing services, you can certainly boost your game and help it stand out in the vast gaming industry. By using its credible services, you can offer your gamers a seamless, engaging, and polished experience.

1.Services:

• Mobile App Testing Services
• Website Testing
• Web App Testing
• Game Testing

2. No of Employees: 11-50 employees

3. Found Year: 2012

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testers-hub/

8. Coidoid

Coidoid is considered to be a pioneer in the game testing space. The company offers Grade-A testing solutions to its clients, including game developers. Its years of experience in the industry capture its expertise to create and deliver value for its customers.

It offers integrated game-testing solutions to ensure that your games deliver top performance across diverse platforms. By joining hands with Coidoid, you can rest assured that the QA team will take care of all your game testing needs.

1.Services:

• Automation Testing
• Mobile App Testing
• Analytics Testing
• Game Testing

2. No of Employees: 51-200 employees

3. Found Year: 2012

4. LinkedIn Url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/codoid-innovations/

Also Read : Performance Testing for Web Applications: Delivering Reliability Under High Traffic

Expertise of Leading Game Testing Companies in the UK

The top game testing companies in the UK have certain features that help them stand out in the vast market. Their strengths, capabilities, and expertise make them ideal choices for gaming companies looking for reliable game-testing services. The chief reasons for the high expertise of leading game testing companies in the UK include:
The presence of skilled QA teams certainly contributes to these companies’ expertise. That’s not all! Moreover, the members of their QA teams possess top experience in AAA testing, which includes testing high-budget and high-profile games. Furthermore, they possess experience when it comes to indie game testing, which involves smaller budgets and smaller profile games.

One of the main reasons for the high expertise of the best game testing companies in the UK is the use of advanced testing tools. These companies use the latest tools to engage in quality assurance processes. Moreover, they integrate automation features into QA processes, which increases their efficiency.

Companies offering top-notch game testing services stand out thanks to in-depth knowledge of platform-specific requirements. Their knowledge and prowess relating to game testing ensure that they understand the expectations of game developers as well as gamers when offering comprehensive game testing solutions.

The availability of constant support as well as assistance for continuous testing acts as another crucial strength of these companies. By focusing on these aspects, they are able to carry out rigorous testing procedures in agile game development. Therefore, they can improve the overall quality of the game.

How to Choose the Right Game Testing Company?

Game developers definitely need to choose the best game testing partner. By partnering with the best game QA agency, you can definitely enhance the overall quality of your game and user experience. The chief things to bear in mind while making the selection include:

You must take into account a wide range of variables when selecting a game-testing service provider. The main factors that you must focus on are the experience of the team and the range of services that are offered.

Similarly, it is also essential to take into account the expertise of the game QA agency in the industry.
It is crucial to focus on the game testing service provider’s past projects to understand their capability. This is because you can get an idea about their commitment and dedication to their past clients. Likewise, you also need to check client reviews before choosing a game-testing company.

The availability of flexible testing solutions relating to diverse game genres is another chief area that you must consider. In fact, the provision of flexible game testing solutions is a necessity for any game developer. It can certainly optimize the value that you can derive from its solutions.

KiwiQA: Your Trusted Partner for Game Testing in the UK

The role of top game testing services is of immense value in the gaming industry. In order to develop top-notch games, it is fundamental to take advantage of key game testing services such as functional testing, performance testing, compatibility testing, security testing, localization testing, compliance and certification testing, and playtesting and user experience testing. These services are of high importance since they can influence game performance, security, functionality, as well as user experience.

As a game developer it is a must for you to prioritize and invest in high-quality game testing. It can certainly boost the overall quality of their games. By forming an alliance with a trusted game testing company, it is possible to ensure the perfect gaming experience for users.

You can partner with the companies offering the best mobile game testing services so that your games can be evaluated comprehensively, and users can have unmatched gaming experience.

Hence you cannot simply use standard software testing procedures to test them. Naturally, the most basic understanding of testing is to find bugs. Developers can eliminate those using technologies like title publishing, mass server loading, level architecture, and sophisticated user experience.

What is Video Game Quality Assurance?

To satisfy your end users’ needs, you must ensure the quality of your video games. Your internet games are sophisticated and intricate with an efficient goal. The game development lifecycle requires the most rapidly growing software sector in terms of functionality, design, usability, scalability, robustness, and reliability.

Empower your customers by giving them assurance to find bugs and work with developers to fix them. The game design must be without any redundancy and requires integration into your agile process without any issues.

Video Games QA Testing Services and Its Importance in Game Development

• Get rid of any flaws or errors in the game that could have a negative, immediate effect on the gamer.
• Removing any mistakes or poor-quality visuals.
• Mistakes or graphics of poor quality.
• On each device, examine your game for any errors.
• It is simple to identify the complex layouts from screenshots.

So, before the game is officially released, testers for video games use quality assurance approaches to test the game.

Game testing can take two different forms. Both Black-Box and White-Box testing apply to them.

• Black box testing’s main objective is to assess several areas of overall playability, such as the graphical user interface, user experience, or any visual look. Menus, graphic elements, special effects, and animations are just a few examples of functional and UI elements evaluated similarly.
• The main goal of white box testing is the integration of systemic elements like audio players, graphics/game engines, and so on. The same framework also helps you test the architectural integration of external entities, including databases, social media, and third-party components.

Layout of Quality Assurance Testing Services

Specification of the Required Action: In this phase, an acknowledgment of a GDD is required (Game Design Document). The review process considers the game’s presentation and gameplay and data gathered via practice and experimentation.

Validation Plan: This process ensures device fragmentation and entails developing a comprehensive master plan for the entire system. It provides that the already-built software is familiar with the most recent developments in the video game industry’s trends and standards.

Test Documentation: During this stage, there is an equal distribution of tasks and responsibilities to each member of the game development team and QA consulting services. The roadmap integrates new pieces of player feedback and suggestions into the action of the game.

Also Read – How To Build An Effective Game Testing Strategy?

Guaranteeing Products of High Quality: To ensure that the end-user, also known as a gamer or player, receives a video game product of high quality, fixes any visual faults, and handles any coding errors.

Plan for the Improvement of Quality: To improve the functionality of the software that is currently in place, carry out the required adjustments by inspecting the game build, testing it, and looking for faults.

Among a game tester of QA consulting, many duties and responsibilities are the following:

• Requirements of the game rules need to be classified before they can be studied and analyzed.
• It identifies the requirements of the system and the users for the file structure and its dependencies.
• It identifies assets dependent on other parts of the game’s overall flow and architecture.
• Determine the overarching concept of the game as well as its practical requirements, such as design and camera view, etc.

Diving Into the Details of Game Performance Testing

1. Examination of the localization

When you hear “global,” you should understand that your game needs to be “local” for everyone. It makes it easier to make technical corrections and review the work carried out by translating game scripts. At the same time, those scripts are being translated into numerous languages and tested with devices that speak those languages.

In this section, the problem layouts need selection with relative ease from screenshots. It ensures that the game’s localization is accurate and of high quality. With the assistance of cloud-based device access and test automation, even you will be able to repeat the same test runs over and over again.

2. Evaluation of performance

During the game’s testing, it is essential to check the performance in general. Customers have increasingly voiced dissatisfaction with issues such as network coverage, memory leakage, low memory, low battery, and the amount of time it takes to download programs. The utilization of the device ecosystem, as well as the fundamental requirements of the game, should be satisfactory under a variety of different heavy loads on a variety of devices.

Additionally, the QA testing company testers examine mobile devices’ connectivity with either data centers or the cloud. It is essential to evaluate the application’s client-side and its server in terms of performance, throughput, stability, and scalability.

Also Read – Different Stages of Game Testing

3. Examination of functionality

Functionality QA testers look for generic issues inside the game and are often associated with manual testing and “playing the game through.” Testing User Interactions, User Interfaces, and Transactions involves a fundamental understanding of programming and the ability to set up an environment specifically for testing.

Testing the user interface verifies the proper game flow and mechanism and the stability of the user interface (as well as the graphics), which contributes to the game’s user-friendliness. The integration of graphical assets helps resolve problems with game mechanics and stability and improves the integrity of game assets.

4. Examination of compatibility

During each stage of production, it examines the game on various platforms to determine whether or not it is compatible with those platforms. It is feasible to help uncover incompatibility issues with different game device variants’ hardware or software. Integrations are carried out with the physical devices themselves, even if end users may employ various hardware and software combinations.

5. Multiplayer Capabilities and User Options

Connectivity in games is crucial, mainly when the round must communicate with the backend server. Synchronizing the backend with the devices is essential to make the multiplayer/user feature as easy to use as possible. Testing a multiplayer game requires the other end to behave like a genuine counterpart, which is something that cannot be done on a desktop computer using a mouse and keyboard. Put away your emulators and start testing with actual devices instead. For instance, performance lags are straightforward to identify when using existing devices.

Also Read – Detailed Mobile Game Testing Checklist

6. Integrations of society, concerns about safety, and potential risks

Nearly all game creators incorporate at least some open-source components into their games. It helps you better to understand the games’ functioning and ease of use. The game QA tester must rigorously validate the highly recommended and well-acknowledged development practice within the context of actual Android and iOS devices. Generating code for functionalities in your mobile game that is not essential can be simplified thanks to differences in operating system versions and device specifications.

Unlocking the Importance of Game QA and Testing Via Suitable Examples

Imagine if the industry that manufactures automobiles does not cut corners on the product’s quality. It is impossible to confirm that the processes adhere to the standard of quality assurance testers are not explicitly assigned to the project. Therefore, the automobile sector would be unable to run correctly without quality assurance personnel who can check that everything is operating as expected.

Because any subsequent functional flaws, such as bugs and errors, can cause significant harm to consumers early in the software development life cycle. Assembly workers cannot do their responsibilities faultlessly due to irregularities, redundancies, and defects while guaranteeing the product’s quality.

Considering another example – when a writer submits the assigned articles to a newspaper for publication, they are subjected to several rounds of editorial review to ensure that they adhere to a predetermined set of facts and rules.

If these articles were to be published without first being reviewed and edited, they would contain numerous grammatical errors and typos, and the material would lose the trust gained. As a result, the article reviewers maintain a solid working relationship with the teams responsible for developing the article content and the products.

Wrapping Up

The quality control and testing procedures in video games are analogous to those used in software development. Because it is impossible to fix everything, this is not an easy job! However, to release a bug-free version of your game, you will need to fix any problems in it.

As a game tester, the most necessary thing to pay attention to is the work you are doing for the benefit of other players’ enjoyment and ease. Because the purpose of any game studio is to provide its audience with exciting and thrilling games that they can play without interruptions, these games should not require any payment to access.

We hope now you understand the importance of game testing. So let’s now dive into the details of game testing and what techniques can help you to reach the top in the market.

But First, What Distinguishes Game Testing From Other Types Of Software Testing?

Every new build (application or software) may include issues, therefore testing games requires repeated testing. No matter what the size of the game is or how long it took to create, all game testing adheres to a fundamental framework.

The quality assurance specialist must learn the game’s criteria and regulations. Know the flow of the game, the file structures, and the dependencies connected to it, as well as the overall component and file architecture. The testing documentation has to be periodically reviewed in order to reflect any changes to the requirements, new test cases for game testing, and new configuration support. A tester for games should make sure that no new problems are created.

A game tester’s duties includes the following:

• To sort the requirements according to the intended use and intended audience.
• To sort the user and system demands into functional, non-functional, and domain requirements.
• To determine the testable and non-testable components as well as the goals and metrics for the functional and non-functional needs.
• To sort the criteria according to their originality, complexity, and urgency.
• To identify the concept of the game, characters, AI, animation, cinematic, camera view, and gameplay
• To verify that the functional requirements are accurate, consistent, and clear.
• To determine the adjustable requirements and incompatible requirements
• One of the tasks of the game testing is to identify interrelated needs.

Game Metrics Every Tester Should Be Aware Of

There are some metrics that a tester must be aware of. Take a glance below to know about them:

• DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users/Monthly Active Users): They are the proportion of daily active users to monthly active users who play online. Additionally known as the stickiness factor.
• Download Rank: According to monthly game downloads, a game’s download rank is its position in a certain app store (such as iOS or the Play Store in Android).
• Session: Every time a user opens the application, a session is started. Here, the average number of sessions per DAU is the main concern.
• Performance metrics: These are used to monitor how well persistent or online games perform. A game’s stability and performance data, as well as the frame rate at which it runs on the client hardware platform or the game server, may be used to keep track of new features and upgrades.
• Retention: It is a crucial indicator for an Android game tester working on a free-to-play title. Sort the users into cohorts according to the day the programme was downloaded to determine retention.

How is a game tested?

The following actions are part of the standard testing procedure for games:

• Collect all the requirements: The need is to gather and comprehend the specifics, including the storyboards, characters, game-related architecture, and the idea, principles, and phases of the game.
• Prepare a strategy: It is crucial to decide and record requirements such as the necessary timetable, number of testing cycles, testers, in-scope, out-of-scope, testing types, service level agreements, risk-based test analysis, and mitigation, defect reporting method, among many other things.
• Design test cases: Both positive and negative test scenarios for desktop and mobile games must be taken into account. Critical path testing, exceptional path testing, and simple black box testing approaches are a few efficient ways to test gaming applications.
• Run the test cases: Test cases are run in this stage to find flaws. Alpha testing, beta testing, and testing for the appropriate age groups are done to get even better results.
• Record the outcomes: Videos and screenshots should be taken of every step. This makes it easier to have a clearer understanding of how the programme is being utilized. These specifics aid in the analysis of the app’s activity.
• Maintain a defect log: This step helps in accurately recording, reviewing, prioritizing, classifying, and tracking the problem.

Also Read – How To Build An Effective Game Testing Strategy?

How may test cases for games be written?

When testing a gaming application, there are a few key areas to concentrate on since they have a direct influence on performance compatibility and user rating. Therefore, it iss crucial to base the test cases on these considerations:

• UI and functionality
• Game experience
• Functionality
• Graphic performance
• Multiplayer capabilities
• Social media integrations
• Other obligations including security

Game Bugs That Prepare Your Mind For Game Testing

Following are some common bugs that you as a tester would face while performing game testing. This section will give you a clear picture of what actual testing looks like. Read it to know more:

• Technical bugs: The game doesn’t function properly because of a shaky internet connection. On 3G networks, for instance, you are unable to connect the app with the server.
• Interface bugs: The game images are incorrect, which causes the game components to not be in their proper locations. The text doesn’t fit well in the space provided for it.
• Localization bugs: These mistakes are present in untranslated texts or strings. For example:  Instead of translation, there are placeholders such as “Germany_text_001”.
• Performance bugs: The programme operates sluggishly. On high-end segment devices, the game’s framerate per second (FPS) noticeably drops during a character assault animation.
• Compatibility bugs: The game is made for iOS and Android users. The game only supports one device and does not support additional devices due to serious bugs.
• Balance and logic bugs: The logic behind the game prevent players from completing missions or from completing the game altogether.

Also Read – Benefits of Outsourcing Game Testing

What will happen if game bugs are not fixed?

The popularity of the application can be impacted by bugs. The game’s ranking in app stores could be declining if your company may suffer from bugs. For instance, Users want to play the game daily but there is a hang issue. Because of this, your users no longer want to spend money on the game.

Bugs may damage the development team when functionalities that were offered by the team don’t work in the game since your users are unaware of how the app is made or how much money it costs to make the gaming app. If you do not evaluate the gaming app’s functioning, it can harm the app’s income; all they want is amusement.

Game testing is basically a subset of game development and a software testing method or QA process that is included into the strategy for finding bugs and reporting game problems. Additionally, it is crucial in ensuring that the game is appropriate for the greatest user experience.

Furthermore, because of a fierce competition in the industry, game testing is essential for game developers. Role-playing games, video games, strategy games, puzzle games, simulation games, and a broad variety of other games are all over the market.

The revenue generated by mobile games is anticipated to reach $311.2 billion by 2023 as a result of the growing smartphone market. Developers need to succeed in the game app market, but company owners need to succeed even more so, particularly if they want to earn a million dollars from their game app. Companies should create high-quality apps and do their tasks efficiently in order to draw in people from all around the globe and to do so, they can follow the below-mentioned tips.

• Set the requirements based on the intended use and the target audience.
• Recognize the game’s needs and the user. Game testers need to be aware of the functional, non-functional, and domain requirements.
• Describe the characters, plot, animation, perspective, gameplay, AI, and cinematic for the game.
• Set goals and benchmarks for testable and non-testable components, as well as functional and non-functional needs.
• Verify the consistency, clarity, and completeness of the functional requirements.
• Recognize contradictory, adaptable, and interconnected needs.
• Employ a testing tool or outsource experts from a renowned game testing company.
• Prioritize the requirements based on the importance, complexity, and distinctiveness of the gaming app.

Game Testing Methods

Following are the testing types that are primarily used in game testing.

• Installation Testing: Create test cases for the installation procedures, then run these test cases on every typical configuration.
• Feature Testing: The most crucial stage of the testing process for games is feature testing. By creating thorough test case documents, we should try to cover every aspect of the game as thoroughly as we can.
• User Interface Testing: In the UI testing, items like UI layouts and components, menu structure and operations, screen orientation, screen resolution, etc. need to be tested.
• Performance Testing: How quickly a game can operate under a certain demand is determined through performance testing. Aspects of performance testing include load testing, stress testing, and configuration testing.
• Security Testing: It is the process of figuring out how protected the programme is against outside dangers.
• Multiplayer Support: Multiplayer Support entails inviting other players to participate with you or accepting a pending invitation from another player.
• Social Network Integration: Social network integration is a crucial component of modern games. It is crucial to be able to share game results with friends on various social media platforms. To fully understand the functionality and usability, this has to be tested extensively on actual Android and iOS devices, each with a distinct OS version and device settings.

Also Read – Game Testing – Types and How to Test?

Conclusion

The primary danger of game testing is that it fails to provide engaging experiences for the appropriate and targeted audience. The game development life cycle, which includes three pre-production stages of manufacturing, testing, and deployment, should be properly followed at first. As game testing is a recurring process, it is always important to take into account various game testing kinds including compatibility testing, security testing, functional testing, compliance testing, localization testing, and interface testing. Every new build may contain so many bugs that you must conduct extensive testing.

Since online gaming continues to remain such a huge market, a growing number of companies are eager to eat a share of the pie. This also means that a number of gaming apps are uploaded on a regular basis to the Apple App Store and Play Store. Picture this – Close to 3800 apps² are uploaded on a daily basis to the Play Store.

With such kind of stiff competition, it becomes imperative to focus on all-round aspects of the application. The same principle also applies to online games since there are close to 2.8 billion gamers as of 2021. The advent of 5G will further transform the online gaming market.

Game developers are always under the pressure to release frequent updates, else it could have a negative impact on the DAU (Daily Active Users) of the game. The inclusion of AR (Augmented Reality), cloud streaming technologies, gesture controls, and A/V (Audio/Video) has made game development much more complex than before. A single negative review of the app could dampen the growth of the gaming application.

Along with game development, acute focus must be put on game testing since that will help in providing a frictionless experience to the end-users of the game. Our experience in providing game testing services to a number of reputed clients helped us in identifying obstacles in game testing. The learnings of this blog will help you in building a scalable, reliable, and formidable game testing strategy for mobile devices.

Also Read – Detailed Mobile Game Testing Checklist

What is Mobile Game Testing?

As the name indicates, testing of mobile gaming applications involves testing the various aspects of the game on different device viewports and/or devices. The intent of gaming testing is to improve the stability, reliability, scalability, and security of the mobile game.

Mobile game testing is very much different from the testing of other types of mobile applications. Testing of games includes validation of the game play, leaderboard, game graphics, performance and stress tests, amongst others.

Since a majority of mobile games involve a good amount of consumption on CPU and GPU front, it becomes essential to test the mobile games on real devices on which the target users can install the game. Since there is a huge fragmentation when it comes to viewport sizes, device configurations, etc.; you have to prioritize the tests on devices that are in high demand.

Leveraging the best practices in mobile game testing to make the most out of the test cases (or suites) developed for testing the respective game. As per our experience, there is a possibility that you might still face certain hurdles when performing game testing. We look at the common obstacles and how to surpass them like a champ 🙂

Obstacles In Mobile Game Testing

Now that we have covered the important aspects of testing mobile games, let’s look at why this form of testing is different from other types of software testing.

Prioritization of Real Devices for Testing

It is important to understand that there is a massive difference between mobile games and other forms of mobile applications. For example, an e-commerce application (irrespective of its complexity) will not be so CPU or GPU heavy when compared to mobile games.

Graphics and performance are some of the most integral aspects of any type of mobile game. Hence, testing of the game on emulators or simulators would not yield much results since the game cannot be tested from a performance and stability point of view. In real devices, the CPU and/or GPU frequencies would be throttling depending on the load at that point in time. This is why games must be tested on real devices only.

However, the growing challenge is identifying the devices on which testing must be performed on priority. Building an inhouse mobile device farm is not a feasible solution since it would require continuous maintenance and upgradation.

The first step to reliable and scalable mobile game testing is prioritizing the devices that are widely used in your target market. Once you have done that, the next step is to opt for a cloud device lab (or mobile device cloud) so that you can shed the expenses involved in procuring and maintaining the mobile devices.

Also Read – Best Practices of Mobile Game Testing

Automation Frameworks for Functional Testing

Testing mobile games is altogether a different ball game when compared to testing other categories of mobile applications (e.g. e-commerce, banking, etc.). None of those apps would require the mobile phone to operate at higher clock speeds!

Understandably, manual testing of mobile gaming apps is not enough since it is not a scalable option. Also, automated testing of gaming apps does not just involve searching for WebElements and automating interactions with the elements. It involves a much more complex piece of logic than automated testing of websites (or web apps).

Specialized test tools like AltUnity are required for creating scalable and maintainable test scripts for Unity-based games. Majority of the times, the gaming engines and tools are not supported by standard mobile app testing frameworks like Appium.

This is where GameDriver³ agent can come super handy, as it helps in automating the entire gameplay. You can locate bugs, improve  overall test coverage, and enhance the end-user gaming experience by testing with GameDriver. It currently supports only Unity.

The API testing experience that the game testing companies onboarded by your team can be leveraged since GameDriver also offers REST APIs. Like other popular automation tools (or frameworks), tests created using GameDriver can be run in a CI pipeline. Akin to Selenium IDE (the popular record & playback tool), GameDriver also provides a Game Recorder (still in Alpha stage) to record interactions with the elements of the game.

It is essential to partner with one of the ​​best game testing companies in order to choose the right tools and frameworks that can accelerate developer feedback and time to market.

Game Performance is the key

Just like time spent on page, time spent on site, etc. are important for websites (or web apps); experience and performance are the key drivers for the growth of any mobile game. Momentary sluggishness in the mobile game can be a huge dampener to the experience.

Frame drops, battery drain & excessive overheating when the game is operational, etc. are some of the factors that must be avoided (or minimized) at all costs. Game performance must be thoroughly tested after the introduction of any new feature. Green signal from staging to production must only be given if all the performance parameters are met.

In order to realize this requirement, you need to consider cloud-based tools like Headspin that provide the testing infrastructure to test various aspects of the mobile games. Leveraging the potential of their infrastructure and automated testing; your team can identify the major cause of frame drops, perform a thorough audit at the code-level, and zero-down on issues occurring due to network throttling, server issues, and more.

Also Read – Different Stages of Game Testing

Testing in-app purchase scenarios

In-app purchases and premium game subscription are two of the most widely used revenue models by game developers across the globe. The freemium version of the game is normally instrumental in creating the habit-forming loop , which in turn is a huge motivator for the users to upgrade to the premium version. Users get access to all the locked features with the premium subscription.

In-app purchase⁴ is another way in which gaming companies (or game developers) generate revenue. However, the complete purchase flow has to be thoroughly tested using the combination of manual and automated testing. In-app revenue can hit a roadblock in case there are glitches in the in-app purchase flow.

All the touch points from where the users can purchase (or upgrade account) must be tested using automation testing tools or frameworks. Since almost all the games have a global audience, all the tests have to be conducted taking the geolocations into consideration. Localization testing will also come into picture for in-app purchases, as important purchase messages might need to be localized for the intended audience.

These tests can also be performed using real devices on the cloud, as tests can be conducted in parallel and at a large scale on a range of mobile devices.

Also Read – Major Game Testing Challenges Game Testers Face

It’s A Wrap

Gamification and top-class user experience are some of the major factors that can keep gamers hooked on to the game. However, things are easier said than done. In order to achieve the best user stickiness, all the aspects of the game (i.e. game logic, game performance, in-app purchase, impact on battery consumption, impact on thermals on the device, etc.) have to be tested in a thorough manner.

This is where the combination of automated testing and CI/CD can be leveraged to test the game features at a large scale. The obstacles highlighted in this blog can be overcome by choosing the best testing infrastructure and onboarding the ideal game testing services company so that high-quality games can be released at high speeds!

As per reports^[1], there was close to 46 percent increase in the DAU (Daily Active Users) for HD gaming and 17 percent rise in online gaming. Social gaming is driving the next wave of growth in online gaming. The video gaming market (in the United States) is expected to increase from US$30.4 billion in 2021 to US$ 48.2 billion by 2027^[2].

The online gaming market is primarily divided in the following categories:

• Mobile Gaming
• Gaming Networks
• PC Games
• Consoles
• Download Games

Gaming (single player or multiplayer) has also become highly competitive due to which emphasis must be laid on every aspect of the game. Many game developers are under the impression that exceptional game features are enough to maintain user retention. Though game play (and features) are important to gain user traction; its stability, reliability, and various other integral aspects can impact the engagement factor. The quotient of user stickiness will only be achieved if the game is tested thoroughly on different devices, view ports, and more.

In order to save costs, game application testing services company must be onboarded so that additional budgets can be allocated to the various aspects of game development. Game testing is becoming more complicated with the advent of newer technologies and platforms like Stadia, Apple Arcade etc.

Outsourcing the activities related to testing and verification of games can also accelerate the time taken to release the game in the market. Let’s look at some of the integral benefits of outsourcing game testing.

Also Read – Game Testing Challenges Game Testers Face

Why Outsource Game Testing?

As mentioned earlier, online gaming has picked up significant pace and it is unlikely that this growth will hit brakes! In fact, the rapid proliferation of mobile phones and mobile internet will result in a huge upside on the online gaming market.

The question that arises is “Why outsource game testing”? Let’s deep dive into some of the significant benefits of outsourcing activities related to testing of online games:

1. Increased Test Coverage

The thing that sets apart online games from other websites or applications is that games can be downloaded and played on different devices. Though game developers have the flexibility to declare restricted screen support, huge fragmentation in the mobile phone market can act as a spoil-sport to this restriction.

Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and many OEM manufacturers have phones with similar screen sizes but different hardware configurations. Due to this gaming performance might differ from one device to another.

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As a game developer, you need to keep a note about the devices on which the target game can be downloaded and played by the end user(s). As a gaming company, you would want your developers to focus on development so that testing can be performed by the game testing company. Such an association will help in expediting the release of the game to the respective market.

Since the outsourced QA vendor has immense expertise in verification & validation of online games, it results in increased test coverage. This in turn improves the overall stability of the game.

2. Choose the best-suited testing tools

Like any other form of testing, it is important to choose the best in-class tools and frameworks to perform game testing at scale. As per reports, close to 2.6 billion^[3] people played online games in 2022 and close to 86 percent of Gen-Z mobile phones users play games on their hand-held devices.

Exhaustive testing of the mobile gaming apps will play an integral part in gaining a larger share in the online gaming market. Along with manual testing, it is imperative to focus on automated testing of the games. Appium, Espresso, Detox, Calabash, Robotium, XCUITest, etc. are some of the popular test automation frameworks for mobile app testing.

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Since the game application testing services company has a team with experience on multiple app automation frameworks, it becomes relatively easy to shortlist the framework that meets your testing requirements.

Shortlisting the ideal app automation testing tool (or framework) can reap long-term benefits as far as the game quality is concerned.

Also Read – Different Stages of Game Testing

3. Access to crowdsourced game testers

Beta testing of apps is one of the approaches followed by a large number of developers who want to dry-test their apps with a limited audience. The experience of mobile gaming depends a lot on the phone hardware (i.e. CPU, GPU, RAM, ROM, etc.), software, view port size, and many such aspects that vary from one device to another.

It is an impossible task to get the gaming app tested exhaustively on a plethora of mobile devices! You would rather invest in scaling up the features of the gaming application. A lot of gaming companies and developers are now opting for crowdsourced game testing since it helps in leveraging the expertise of the experienced game testers. Beta testing combined with crowdsourced game testing can help in improving the game quality by a huge margin.

Outsourced QA vendors like KiwiQA have access to a large pool of crowdsourced testers, thereby enabling developers to release games at a faster pace. Game developers can leverage the benefits offered by beta testing and crowdsourced testing to ensure that the gaming app is tested by a large number of testers.

4. Faster go-to market

The online gaming market is fiercely competitive with mobile games capturing 51 percent of the overall market. Like any other piece of software, bugs and usability issues could be a huge dampener of your growth plans.

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The expertise of an experienced game testing company like KiwiQA can be useful in devising the best practices of game application testing. They can also help in crafting a testing plan that comprises a mix of manual testing and automated testing.

Since game testing services companies have the experience working with a diverse set of customers, they are in a better position to accelerate quality testing at scale. Many cloud-based testing providers like AWS, LambdaTest, SauceLabs, Browserstack, etc. offer mobile device farms on the cloud. Experienced outsourced QA vendors like KiwiQA can help arrive at informed decisions when it comes to choosing the best-suited cloud testing provider.

Game testing combined with practices like shift-left can be super useful in accelerating the time to market.

5. Increased Cost Savings

Building a game testing team from scratch can be a costly affair. Many companies put the onus of testing on the game developers, a strategy that overburdens the development teams.

Outsourcing the game testing activities lets developers focus on their core job, along with yielding short-term as well as long-term savings.

Also Read – Reasons Why A Professional Game Tester Is Important for Game Testing

Conclusion

The online gaming market, particularly mobile gaming, is not only competitive but also changing at a rapid pace. Given the changing dynamics of the gaming market, it is imperative to give priority to game testing.

Collaborating with an experienced game testing company like KiwiQA can be eventful in identifying bugs and releasing quality games at a faster pace. On the whole outsourcing game testing can be hugely beneficial on a long-term basis.

The same phenomenon is also observed when it comes to mobile gaming. As per reports[1], the COVID-19 pandemic drove to increased demand for mobile games. In the first quarter of 2021, users downloaded 30 percent more mobile games than they did in the forth quarter of 2019. Spending on mobile games hit a record $1.7 billion[2] per week in Q1 2021.

Image Source: App Annie

With the exponential rise in mobile gaming, mobile game developers and gaming companies need to focus game development as well as game testing. This is where a game testing company can play an instrumental role in performing game testing on a range of mobile device viewports. Like other popular forms of testing, there are a number of myths also associated with mobile game testing.

In this blog, we look at the top myths related to mobile game testing; the learnings of which will help in building a formidable mobile game testing strategy.

Myth 1: Testing on emulators will suffice

Mobile games are significantly different in comparison to other forms of mobile applications (e.g. shopping, wellness, etc.). A majority of the mobile games make extensive use of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) along with the mobile chipset’s CPU that runs at high frequencies.

Most modern high-end mobile phones are equipped with high RAM/ROM and a dedicated GPU. Hence, all the graphics related processing is done by the GPU whereas the CPU takes care of the normal instruction processing. Adreno and MALI are some of the best-performing mobile GPUs in the market.

Emulator and simulators are only useful for doing functional testing of mobile games. You need to test the developed mobile game on different real mobile devices for ensuring that it meets the power & performance standards.

Also Read: Best Practices of Mobile Game Testing

Myth 2: Testing on Emulators And Simulators Is Not Necessary

This myth might sound as a contradiction of myth 1; however that is definitely not the case. Many game developers are under the assumption that game testing can only be performed on real devices. Real device testing is necessary but that does not mean that you cannot test mobile games on emulators & simulators.

Mobile and OS fragmentation is one of the growing concerns of mobile app (including mobile game) developers. It is unlikely to test a developed game on almost all the mobile device viewports. Android emulators and iOS simulators can help in performing functional testing to a certain extent.

Many modern-age cloud testing companies provide emulators and simulators (on the cloud); the same infrastructure can be leveraged to perform game testing. Mobile app testing differs a lot from conventional mobile app testing. Hence, it is recommended to perform extensive testing on real devices and the same can be accompanied with testing on emulators & simulators. A mix of real device testing and emulator & simulator testing reaps best results.

Myth 3: Mobile Game Security Testing Is Not Necessary

App security is normally associated with mobile apps that involve financial transactions (e.g. online shopping, banking, etc.). However, security should be considered of paramount importance for mobile game testing as well.

With the rapid proliferation of mobile apps, mobile games are the next big targets of hacking attacks. Many mobile game developers tend to keep app security in the back-seat in order to gain upper edge in the market[3]. However, this loophole can be exploited by hackers, which could eventually lead to massive revenue loss to the game developers.

Game assets, art, data, as well as code can be re-engineered, repackaged, and launched in the market. Some of them might even have malware. Unlike other mobile applications, mobile games should also be tested from a security perspective else it might lead to bad brand image along with resulting in massive revenue losses.

Also Read: Different Stages of Game Testing

Myth 4: Mobile Games must be tested on all real devices

Device and OS fragmentation is one of the growing pain points for mobile app developers, including mobile game developers. Mobile devices come in different screen sizes, RAM/ROM configurations, sport different CPU & GPU chipsets, etc.

As per reports, the number of mobile devices is expected to reach 18.22 billion by 2025[4]. This is a massive jump from 17.72 billion in 2020. This essentially means that are a number of devices from different OEMs like Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, etc. that are released on a regular basis.

Hence, mobile app developers cannot test the developed game on every mobile device that is available in the market.

Game developers need to prioritize the mobile devices in different target categories so that they can carry out testing on real devices in different phases. Game testing on every mobile device that is available on planet earth is a myth; else game developers would never be in a position to release their mobile game in the respective market(s).

Myth 5: Game Testing can be taken up after Development

Gone are the days when software development and testing would be performed in a non-connected fashion. The principles of shift-left testing that are extensively used for development & testing is also applicable for mobile game development.

Every feature and upgrade being done on the mobile game should pass through multiple test cycles before the upgrade is made live on the respective store (i.e. App Store or Play Store). Game testing should be performed hand-in-hand with the development and cloud-based automation testing tools should be leveraged to realize these requirements.

Mobile game developers should remember that even a 5 percent change in the implementation can break the existing features of the game. In scenarios where development is not followed up with thorough testing, the entire development-testing cycle will elongate; eventually impacting the release timelines of the respective game.

Also Read: Major Game Testing Challenges Game Testers Face

Conclusion

Mobile game testing should be considered as an equivalent priority like game development. It is recommended to partner with a proven game testing services company like KiwiQA that can help expedite the entire game testing process.

Mobile game testing can make or break the potential of a winning game. Hence, it is advisable to take mobile game testing on priority so that you do not lose a potential edge over your competition!