Therefore, testing is crucial in game QA. In fact, testing must be comprehensively planned and executed to ensure the game meets its performance and user expectations. In this article, we take a deep dive into the comprehensive testing approach to crash-proof your Android game, including the game testing lifecycle and techniques.

Why is Android Game Testing Important?

Android game testing is crucial and demands special attention for various reasons. Here are some key reasons why it is important to comprehensively test and crash-proof your game.

1. Business Reputation

We’re in an era where gaming has become a highly competitive sector. Therefore, gaming companies must deliver high-quality Android games if they are to stand out in the market. And that’s where comprehensive testing comes in. By thoroughly testing the game and ensuring it meets its quality and performance expectations, gaming companies can make their name and reputation in the market due to their games’ quality.

2. Test Functionalities and Explore Bugs

Adopting a comprehensive Android game testing approach helps you evaluate your game’s functionality. It ensures your game meets its end user expectations as well as the technical and non-technical requirements. Also, it enables you to explore bugs and glitches in your game. This helps you close loopholes, ensuring the game performs as intended and delivering a seamless gaming experience. The outcome? Enhanced user satisfaction and chances of success.

3. Reduce Risks and Improve the Game

Delivering an Android game that hasn’t been tested thoroughly is risky. The game may crash or experience glitches that affect the end-user experience. Adopting a comprehensive testing approach can help analyze the game, identifying and mitigating potential risks such as bugs and performance issues. Also, during testing, you can identify areas of improvement in your game. Improving these aspects can enhance the overall quality and performance of your game.

Life Cycle of Android Game Testing

Testing your Android game is a multi-step process. Here are the key steps involved during Android game testing:

1. Planning

Testing is a complex process that involves many activities. Therefore, proper planning is essential in Android game testing. During this phase, testers create a rough sketch of the game’s basic features, previously fixed bugs, areas that were improved, and how they were improved.

2. Preparation

Once you have planned for the testing, it’s time to prepare the testing specifications, devices, environments, and everything else needed for your Android game testing. Also, the testers prepare a bug list to verify fixes to facilitate the reporting process.

3. Implementation

This phase is where the actual testing process occurs. Here, the testers adopt various testing approaches, like load testing and combinatorial testing, to look out for bugs and defects in the game. Also, the testing team explores the Android game and documents their playing experience. This way, they can experience the game and identify issues from the end user’s perspective.

4. Reporting

This stage is where the testing team reports the findings. The team documents the test reports and verifies existing bugs. By clearly reporting the findings, the team can showcase areas where the game falls short or experiences bugs. Also, the testing team can categorize the bugs based on their severity and impact, helping development teams prioritize the fixing efforts.

5. Fixing

As initially stated, Android game testing is about identifying and fixing bugs and other issues affecting performance and end-user experience. This phase is where the fixing occurs. The bugs reported in the previous stage are addressed. Developers and testers may collaborate to discuss the issues reported and improvements that need to be made to the game to enhance its overall quality and performance.

6. Repeat

Game testing is an iterative process. Therefore, testers often repeat the process to re-verify the bug fixes and improvements made on the latest game build. This ensures the updates made do not affect other aspects of the game, facilitating the delivery of a high-quality Android game.

Game Testing Techniques

As initially stated, the testing team adopts various testing approaches to evaluate the game’s performance and other issues that may affect end-user experience. Some popular game-testing techniques include:

1. Combinatorial Testing

As the name suggests, this testing technique involves making several combinations of options available and verifying how they work with the game. For example, resolution and aspect ratio options are available in the game and can be combined to evaluate the final effect. By combining multiple options, testers can evaluate the game’s performance under different settings, ensuring players enjoy a consistent experience across all Android devices.

2. Load Testing

Load testing assesses the game’s ability to withstand specific loads that it may face. This approach to Android game testing is vital in today’s interconnected world, where a game can become a global sensation in a matter of days. Through load testing, you can rest assured that your game will effectively accommodate the growing player base without crashing or experiencing lags.

3. Playtesting

This method involves testers playing the game as the end users. It helps them determine the non-functional aspects of your game, including the engagement factor, difficulty factor, and excitement factor. By experiencing the game from the end-user perspective, testers provide valuable feedback that helps improve the overall user experience.

Final Thoughts

Android game testing is crucial to ensure it meets its specifications and user expectations. Also, it helps crash-proof your game and eliminate bugs and glitches that may affect its performance and end-user experience. However, this multi-step process can be challenging and requires proper planning and execution to ensure all issues are identified, reported, and fixed to ensure players enjoy a seamless gaming experience. Testers adopt different testing approaches like combinatorial testing, load testing, and playtesting to evaluate different aspects of the game.

Partnering with an experienced game QA partner like iXie can help you navigate the complexities of Android game testing.

So, why wait? Partner with us today and level up your Android game, crash-proofing your game and unlocking long-term success!

FAQ’s:

The post Crash-Proof Your Android Game: A Comprehensive Testing Approach  appeared first on iXie Gaming.

This trend isn’t likely to change as we look into 2024. In fact, with more gaming partners emerging, it will only get more difficult to find and choose the right gaming partner. Fortunately, companies no longer have to struggle with ineffective and inefficient partners after going through this guide. Here, we explore some fundamental factors to help you choose a reliable and efficient gaming partner in 2024.  

Why is Selecting a Gaming Partner So Important in 2024? 

Choosing a gaming quality assurance (QA) partner is essential. This is because the cost and time of rectifying an error increase with each game development stage. So, what takes an hour or two at the prototyping phase may take days or weeks if done after release. Therefore, as we approach 2024, managing errors and bugs will become even more crucial, especially in today’s increasingly competitive gaming environment. And that’s where a gaming partner comes in.  

Gaming partners specialize in investigating the game to identify, prioritize, remove, and prevent bugs from accumulating at every stage, which may become a snowball of fear, pain, and losses. Partnering with the right gaming partner can help you test your game thoroughly, ensuring it’s free from errors or performance glitches. This way, it can deliver an exceptional gaming experience, improving its performance and acceptance. 

5 Factors to Consider When Looking for a Gaming Partner in 2024 

As we approach 2024, here are a few things to look out for when selecting a gaming partner to help you find the right gaming service provider: 

1. Reputation 

While reputation is not everything, it indicates the quality of gaming services offered by the partner in question. Therefore, it can be a good indicator of whether a gaming partner is worth your money. But how do you learn more about a gaming partner’s reputation, considering that many providers label themselves “leaders” in the market? Here are some aspects to look out for to truly assess the gaming partner’s reputation: 

• Google reviews. Look up the company on Google and check its overall ratings and reviews on Google.  
• Social media pages. Many gaming partners have social media pages. You can watch out for comments on these social media pages. If several customers express a dissatisfactory experience, that should be a red flag.  
• Recent news. Check out recent news about the company, including achievements, changes in facilities or leadership, etc. This provides a better idea about the company’s service quality.  

2. Industry Expertise 

The last thing you need in 2024 is partnering with a gaming service provider who doesn’t know or understand your gaming needs. This will take a lot of time and result in significant losses due to delays in the release of the game. Therefore, it’s essential to partner with a gaming service provider who understands the industry’s ins and outs. This way, you can rest assured they will take care of your gaming needs to the letter.  

Do a company background check to determine their domain expertise. Choosing an experienced gaming partner like IXie ensures faster service delivery. Whether it’s testing or post-launch suggestions, a domain expert can help improve your game, including its process design and flow. This results in a better game that delivers a seamless gaming experience to the players.  

3. Assess the Individual’s Skillsets 

As much as you’ll partner with a gaming company as a whole, it’s individuals who will work on your project. Therefore, it would be best to assess their qualifications and achievements. This will help you determine whether they meet your gaming requirements or not.  

For instance, if you’re looking at addressing game quality assurance, a qualified tester would be a wise choice. Their qualifications and experience will enable them to approach your gaming needs from a unique angle that your in-house team may not. Therefore, assessing the individual’s skills will help you pick a gaming partner who aligns with your gaming needs. This way, you can rest assured that your needs are well taken care of, achieving timely and reliable game release.  

4. The Existence of Basic Game Testing Categories 

Game testing is a sophisticated process. It involves many testing dimensions, including compatibility, localization, performance, functionality, and compliance testing, to mention a few. All these testing dimensions are crucial in gaming. In fact, if one or several game testing aspects are not accounted for, your game may face significant challenges in the market, from poor gaming experitestences to legal penalties related to non-compliance. 

Therefore, when choosing a gaming partner, it’s essential to ensure they offer multiple services, such as game testing for compliance, functionality, and performance, among others. This way, you won’t have to wander around looking for other partners for additional services, which may be inconvenient, time-consuming, and risky, as you’ll expose your game to several gaming partners. 

5. Integration with Your Team 

When you choose a gaming partner, you sign up for a collaboration between your team and that of your partner. Therefore, the partner should be familiar with existing quality assurance practices and tools or your preferred testing platforms. This way, it will be easier to integrate with your team.  

While it’s no guarantee that your gaming partner will be conversant with every platform, project management system, and development tool, understanding what they know is important. It paints a picture of what to expect once you partner with them. This facilitates seamless integration with your internal team.  

Final Thoughts 

Finding the right gaming partner can be a challenge in 2024, especially with hundreds of vendors out of their bidding to win your contract. Therefore, you must be judicious and select a gaming partner that will help you achieve a quality game rather than pass or fail bugs list and reports. Also, it’s essential to view your gaming partner as an extension of your own organization to develop a fulfilling and strong partnership for both parties. From assessing the gaming partner’s reputation to determining their domain expertise, scrutinize the gaming services company to ensure it aligns with your goals and expectations.  

Ready to test your game with a new gaming partner? iXie has got you covered. iXie brings 15+ years of expertise to meet all your gaming needs. With this and other benefits, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about partnering with iXie in 2024. 

Frequently Asked Questions

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