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!

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!