How do you conduct playtesting ?

[Kupotepo]

I did the search, but I did not see the result. My apology to you if you found this thread to be unworthy or unclear. I usually, ask the question like that.

For examples of the testing process: [Again, I did not know the behind scene of your planning and operating. lol ]

1. Recruit your players in the Project Recruitment section.
2. Test yourself multiple times Before you give your game to be playtested by other beta testers.
3. Pass the playtesting process and go directly to the public's feedback.
4. Conduct the beta playtesting and perform a survey afterward.
5. You conduct the beta playtesting. Then, after a playtest, you're going to have survey results and notes from many different playtesters and observers. Now, you compile that data and share it with your team without offering analysis or drawing conclusions. Then, you ask your teammates to drew each one's own conclusion and let all of your teammates playtest the game and ask for their input too.

What types of testing did you perform:
A. Combinatorial Testing:

Spoiler: Context

As much as the possible combination of cases such as the skill combination to fight a boss to check the effectiveness of skills. If you have a consequence system of choice, you check how many possibilities of characters die.

B. Functionality testing: I called this a bug hunter process.

Spoiler: Context

This requires the testers to play the game while at the same time looking for general problems with the game itself or the user interface.

C. Compliance testing: I called this a safe space process.
Testers in this instance are looking for inappropriate or objectionable content.

D.Compatibility testing: [Mutiple platform game]

Spoiler: Context

This testing makes certain that a game will run the same regardless of the hardware and software being used. Yeah, you let players test different versions of OS to make sure it is functional.

E. Localization testing:

Spoiler: Context

This type of testing relates to in-game text checking. The testers will need to be native to the country in which the game is being marketed or just can speak the languages to help with spelling and grammar.

F. Soak testing [Crash testing] :

Spoiler: Context

This type of test requires the game to be left running for long periods of time. Various modes will be used, as in pause, idle, or running the title screen. Once the initial setup has been performed there is no need for any user interaction.

G. Regression testing: Plugins checking of RPG maker products and Visual Novel

Spoiler: Context

This is performed once a bug has been found and the programmers have fixed it. The aim is to check whether the bug is still there and whether the fix caused something else to break.

H. Multiplayer testing: if you create your RPG game into a multiplayer game.

I. Ad hoc Testing: You give testers [anyone] randomly test your game aspect without the knowledge of your RPG game. I think it is like blind testing for an experiment.

Spoiler

Like you give your friends a game to play, but you do not let your friends know too much about your game is about.

J. Load Testing

Spoiler: Context

It is a type of performance testing to determine the performance of a system under real-time loads. Load testing shows the reaction of multiple saving files and how much parallel events for different OS.

K. Play Testing [Fun is a value of measure here.]

Spoiler

The dev will analyze non-functional features like fun factors by letting the players play. It is more about judging the game rather than the facts. What are beta testers' impressions and feelings about the procession, and difficulty of level up?

 

[MushroomCake28]

I don't complicate the process. First of all, I'm usually very meticulous so I catch most of the bugs myself. I test my game fairly often, at least every time I get a feature done. Now, of course I'm going to miss some bugs. That's where my friends and family come in (I have a rather big family). They playtest the game and report the bugs. Then I release, if there are additional bugs I patch them in an update.

My secret is really to playtest as much as I can while I'm making the game. Like if I just mapped and evented a dungeon puzzle, I immediately test it and bug test it, I don't do that after I'm done with the project (although I do have a second round of general bug testing).

 

[Kupotepo]

@MushroomCake28, thank you for sharing your game production process with me.

My secret is really to playtest as much as I can while I'm making the game.

How many times did you test or your estimation of major testing?

 

[woootbm]

I hate to bog you down with semantics, but I generally consider what you are describing here to be regular testing. "Playtesting" is more casual; you give some people a copy of your game to try out, see what they think. There's NO direct intent for bug-finding (but you appreciate bugs found). It's more about letting your testers have fun and play it like normal players would.

But I don't know how game communities use the lingo. I do this stuff professionally, so I'm used to industry ways. Maybe it's more common with players to use that term, I don't know. I do know players use the word "ban" even when they mean "temporary suspension," and that makes me groan.

At any rate, I think the important thing is to test your game by yourself/your team thoroughly. Unfortunately most dev's I've worked with don't seem to do this. I don't know why. It's sloppy. Testers are most useful for catching the things you MISS. If they're busy catching every little bug, they won't get to be your second set of eyes as much. You see, we all have blind spots and miss stuff in our work. That's why things like testers and editors exist. They should not be your first set of eyes because then you are doubling up the work.

It's very good to have both testers and playtesters. But I think it's a good idea to keep those two separated. I genuinely think some people are good playtesters but bad testers, and some are vice versa. Also there are people who are good at both... and some are bad at both. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I think most fall into that last category. I guess I'm an elitist about my profession, heh. BUT all feedback is good feedback. It's just that poorly constructed feedback is more difficult to extract meaningful data from.

I'll go through your list here:

A: I generally see this called Balance Testing. This is important qualitative testing because as the dev YOU know the best way to do a fight, so the fight will always seems easy to you. Try to figure out the skill level of each tester before they run it, though. For example, if you have some Dark Souls fanatic complaining your game is too easy, it probably isn't.

B: Ah, yes. This is the main one. For this, I recommend giving your testers a format that's easy for you to understand and forces them to give you needed details. if you don't, you'll get bug reports like "this cave over here is broken". What's broken about it? Who knows! Give them a sheet to fill out that asks them to give the bug a title, description, and steps to reproduce. And ask them to submit a screenshot for EVERY bug, even if it seems obvious. Amazingly, things that are obvious to one person are not universally so.

I'd recommend setting up a cheat level that the player defaults to, try to create every possible tool your testers will need, and ask them what more they need. You'll want to give them teleports to every "level", events that fully equip items/stats/characters for different sections of progression, death touch skills, and money. And ask what more they want to aid testing.

C: Don't feel like this needs its own case. Just let the functional and playtesters report this if they see anything. I guess this is important if you plan to sell your game to foreign markets where you are unfamiliar with specific laws. I just stick to my own since most people know how to finagle web stores to get games from other regions.

D. If you can come by this, hey, nice job. Seems pretty cumbersome unless your team has the hardware themselves. Otherwise you'll have to ask people for videos and get them to give you manual telemetry. Not sure what you can even do with this information unless you're an engineer that's gonna fix the engine.

E: Really tough for an indie to pull this through. As a writer, I'm always scared the words won't come across as I intended (even if they are grammatically correct). And I have no way to know! Good luck!

F: This is just one test case that a functional tester does normally. It's usually due to a memory leak. I'm not really sure what you can do with an engine like this to cause it, and if there is what you can do about it since it's likely the engine itself. Unless you got some wacky plugins.

G: You got yourself a legit operation if you have testers who are doing regression testing! Very important in a large project with lots of features/plugins/STUFF added. In a small enough project, it might be safe to just do the regression testing yourself, unless you don't understand the bug report. If you've got regressions, though, I hope you have some kind of database setup for bug tracking. This stuff gets to be a big mess real fast because you need to keep track of what happened in what version of the game, and what status it is in.

H: I think my advice is to not do do MP in RPG Maker, heh. But if you're trying to do this, you should have a big enough team that also includes dedicated QA folk.


I hope this wasn't too obvious and there was something useful in here!

 

[Frostorm]

@woootbm Excellent post, and spot-on with the terminology. I wish I had the resources of a dedicated team, but alas I simply do all testing myself until I am satisfied with a feature. After that, I pass it off to a friend for a non-developer perspective, since that can catch a lot of things I don't. I've also found build comps I've never considered this way. So it's always good to have someone besides yourself test it.

 

[Kupotepo]

@woootbm, thank you for your explanation and your time. You are right that I get the professional terms from the websites. I do not know either that people here are experts or amateurs. I am thank you for put a better word than me. I guess why people do not respond. I learn about technical terms. Please do not think I am that smart.

I hate to bog you down with semantics, but I generally consider what you are describing here to be regular testing. "Playtesting" is more casual; you give some people a copy of your game to try out, see what they think.

Whatever flows your boat. Say whatever you are conformable. It is fine. If I have any questions, I will inquire you.

Wow, thank you for sharing your long time experience with me.

I genuinely think some people are good playtesters but bad testers, and some are vice versa.

You bring up a good point that I never realized it before.

I hope this wasn't too obvious and there was something useful in here!

Your guidance definitely helps us here.