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What is the major difference between testing an application or a software system compared to testing a game? This is the question I asked myself when I switched jobs after ten years of working with software testing and quality assurance within mobile phones, to start working with games. I have read almost everything there is to read about software testing in general, but I have no real knowledge about game testing. So I have bought two books on game testing to get some basic understanding, and worked a few weeks to get some practical hands on experience.
To aid in my own competence development I tried to compile what I have learned so far.
Software testing is an engineering discipline. This is also true for game testing. Yes, you can play games and find bugs without structure or expert knowledge just as you can test that a mobile phone works, but if you want to exceed you need to become a professional tester.
Being a professional game tester means that you must understand both testing in general, but also the unique discipline of game testing. This is no small feat, as software testing is very complex and multifaceted, and game testing requires very specific skills.
Before we can explore the differences we need to agree on the similarities between software testing and game testing. Basically everything that Cem Kaner has written in his course Black Box Software Testing [1] is in my opinion applicable to both fields. Almost everything Alan Page has written about test automation [2] can also be applied to game testing. Most of what is included in the ISTQB testing certifications [3] should also be valid. Game testing basically inherits almost every aspect of software testing in general. Even the mindset of James Bach and his rapid software testing [4] can basically be tailor made for game testing. How Google and Microsoft works with software testing can teach game testers a lot about how to structure and organize testing in a good way |
