In this blog, we are going to discuss these stages of game testing and its importance.

How the game developer and end user get benefit from it?

Alpha Testing

It is the phase of game testing where the game is still in the development phase along with which parallel testing is done to ensure that the game is developed without any glitches and is working smoothly without crashing. This stage requires intense documentation of hardware and software failure so that the game developers can fix it at earlier stages.

As a game tester, one is not going to have fun during this phase as the some of the major game functionality and Graphical UI may still be under development phase. However, a tester who loves to solve the game problem and tries to map the solution for the betterment of the game will surely enjoy this phase. It is expected that the game tester provides some good piece of suggestions for further game development.

Beta Testing

During beta testing, the game is almost production ready with all the major issues being fixed. In this phase, the game testers are required to extensively find all the possible ways to break the game along the lookout for all minor issues.

During Beta Testing, the game needs to pass through many testing methodologies such as performance testing, stress testing, and game compliance testing. Tester runs the game seamlessly for hours together on many devices to check for any performance or server downfall.

As I say, a game is almost production ready; beta testing is done in two different ways.

Open Beta Testing: Open test is when the beta version of the game is made available for everyone interested. This interested group will play the game a share the reviews to the publisher.  This process is also called as pre-release of the game software.

Closed Beta Testing:  This testing is done only be the closed set of people who work closely with the game developers.

The issues or glitches found during beta testing is addressed before the game’s official launch.

Game Submission/Pre-Production Stage

In this stage, the game is ready to be published and the game testers must confirm the final checklist of the game QA process before the game is actually pushed to production.

Before moving into the production, the tester needs to run the game in the production environment to ensure that there are no broken codes. This phase also involves game compliance check and certification.

Game testing is not as easy as its sound since it passes through the many phases. Only a good game tester or game testing vendor will be able to progress the game seamlessly from one phase to another.

The last line I just want to add,

“Proper game testing sets the platform on which future of the Game rests.”

The post Three Major Stages of Game Testing appeared first on iXie Gaming.

The global augmented reality and virtual reality market is anticipated to witness remarkable CAGR of $150 Billion during 2017 – 2025

Advancing technology has given us so much new tech in a short span of time. One such inroad into development led to the emergence of AR & VR and the gaming industry is too eager to try it on

The mark of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality game is that it seeks to awe the players by warping their perception of reality. This is done by combining storytelling and imagery with the latest hardware. The storytelling and imagery should totally immerse the players in the experience and the latest hardware is the platform in which you present it.

Since 2015, the likes of Oculus, Microsoft, and Sony have given us Virtual Reality devices that have created brand new opportunities to create these immersive experiences. These devices are reliant on content creators, without which it’s just a piece of expensive hardware. This rapid device-content collaboration has resulted in some standout experiences.

Together, virtual reality and augmented reality are predicted to generate about $150 billion by the year 2020.

An enormous flow of money into these industries is no surprise, despite the fact that there are only few hardware platforms presently available in the market. Thus, we will witness many newer gears to be launched shortly.

At the moment, the QA/Testing is predominantly focused on Mobile apps, analytics, IoT and other digital areas. As the AR/VR will have much to offer in the future, it will be a good move for the QA/Testing providers to build testing competency in Augmented and Virtual Reality applications.

Future Applications and Uses:

A broad range of industries like consumer goods, entertainment, aerospace and defense, commercial, and medical fields are being influenced by advancements in AR and VR.

VR could be ideal for environments that are expensive, dangerous or complex to simulate in other ways. For example, emergency services training. VR is already used by a number of military forces around the world for precisely that purpose. It is currently being used to train medical staff, oil workers and teach students. But the potential audience is much bigger.

In the last year, we have seen consumers getting access to a number of AR/VR hardware and also some exciting software that is providing an exciting experience to the customers.

Between now and 2022; the AR/VR market will definitely grow to current $ 150 Billion. This growth will clearly come from the content.  As with anything, without content, even the most sophisticated hardware is not of much value. It is in this area that the future growth of AR/VR Testing will come from, and the QA/Testing providers need to participate in this growth and grab the opportunity.

Game titles created for VR and AR have taken a huge step forward in 2016. Multiple VR headsets are available in the market, with some mind-blowing titles that are changing the very nature of gaming. VR has gotten off to an exciting start, but it’s AR gaming that has already seen its first mega-hit.

Some of the applications that may come up in AR space are Games, Theme park rides, Web Browsing, Commerce, Consumer Applications, Advertising, Voice calls, and film/TV streaming (both 2d and 3D) etc.

These are the areas which the QA/Testing companies need to capture in the near future.

There is a lot to be developed in AR/VR space: Apart from design and development, sensors, imaging, and processing are few related things that are considered in the development phase. Each of these requires specific expertise, they will, in turn, contribute towards cost escalation. By providing the right expertise at a lower cost the QA/Testing firms can play a critical role in bridging the gaps and improving the ROI.

To perform AR/VR testing, the QA vendors need to understand the lower level requirements of the applications and the UI/UX.

Few of such expertise should be into Art design, Gyro and accelerometer sensor, speech recognition and image processing.

The testing expert should use manual testing for user interface and can further use their existing test automation expertise to test the functionality of the application.

In AR/VR applications, the user can interact with every object in the virtual environment. A further level of challenge will be presented due to various combinations of possible user interactions. The testing team should follow, adopt and master the testing tactics to test the user interactions.

We will discuss in detail about AR/VR Testing in our later blogs. Stay updated by subscribing to our blog.

The post Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality – Who is in the Game? appeared first on iXie Gaming.