The document provides an extensive guide to mobile game testing, detailing its importance, common bugs, testing types, and the game development lifecycle. It highlights the need for rigorous testing to ensure a high-quality gaming experience amidst the growing popularity of video games. Various testing techniques, challenges faced by testers, and the difference between game testing and software testing are also discussed, emphasizing the unique factors that make game testing complex.

1. A Complete Guide to Game Testing
- Its Types and Processes
Video games are more popular than ever today. These flood our newsfeeds,
drive social interactions and give us boatloads of fun for hours. There is a
myriad of game genres to choose from, whether these are point-and-click
adventures, simulations, virtual reality games, and many more. Especially with
the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of users of these games has
exponentially increased. According to Statista, the number of gamers
increased to 201.9 million in 2020 from 188.2 million digital gamers in 2019. It
is further projected to rise to 213.3 gamers by 2025.
Amidst this exceeding popularity, gaming app testing has become of
increased importance to promise flawless experiences for gamers.

2. What is mobile game testing and why is it
crucial?
Mobile game testing, a crucial subject of game development, is a software
testing process that enables developers to discover, document, and fix
software bugs to prevent their interference with the gaming experience. This
assists in controlling the quality of the game by creating optimal performance
across distribution channels.
Importance of mobile game testing
Video games today are highly interactive with complex gaming mediums and
coupled with several users consuming games over multiple platforms, which
make these more susceptible to vulnerability, unexpected errors, and glitches.
These might go unnoticed and unresolved without a proper testing
mechanism. Hence, game testing is crucial to avoid criticisms from gamers,
losing out on significant sales due to poor experiences. The primary
importance of game testing includes:
● Quality assessment — Every game developer wishes to deliver the
best user experience to customers. Hiring a qualified game tester is
one of the easiest ways to achieve this. A tester will identify the
loopholes efficiently and identify the probable defects.
● Video game ranking — Game testing can directly affect the ranking of
a video game. When a new game is to be launched, testing
profoundly affects how customers view it. Again, when testers are

3. employed, they generally consider a detailed list of the parameters
prior to giving the final verdict.
● Identify improvement areas — Most video games are subject to
frequent upgrades during their time in the market. Most are also
thought of becoming series and launching sequels. Mobile game
testing allows developers to identify the areas that must be improved
to give the games a long life in the market.
What are some of the bugs that drive
mobile game testing?
Some of the most common mobile game testing bugs include:
● Interface bugs: These occur as game graphics are misinterpreted
where the game elements are at the incorrect place, and the space
allotted for the text doesn't fit appropriately.
● Technical bugs: These refer to the situations when the game doesn't
work desirably due to unstable internet or network connections.
● Localization bugs: The errors found in the untranslated strings or
texts constitute localization bugs.
● Performance bugs: Instances like slow performances and the game's
frames per second (FPS) decreasing remarkably on high-end
segment devices during a character attack animation are some of the
performance bugs.

4. ● Compatibility bugs: These refer to issues that occur when the games
don't function appropriately in different devices or OS despite being
built to support all.
● Balance and logic bugs: these bugs don't allow gamers to complete
tasks.
What are the consequences of not fixing
bugs?
Let's take a look at the impact of these mobile game testing bugs:
● The bugs directly affect the apps' popularity and acceptability, and
ratings on app stores.
● Bugs can negatively impact the business by hindering the users'
investments in those apps and also impact the revenue generated.
The risk factors of launching games in
the market
When mobile game testing is executed, developers primarily focus on factors
like errors, bugs, bottlenecks, coherence, and inconsistencies. Apart from
these, there exist other risks that game testing can help discover:
● Does the game deliver an exceptional experience to the target
audience
● Does the software showcase a compelling player-centric design
● Is there a fun factor in the game

5. ● Is the game easy-to-control
● Is the visual design appealing to the audience
Challenges faced by game testers
● Direct screen access
Most mobile games utilize direct screen access, which is performed by
bypassing the OS-level tasks with the help of the various APIs and software
frameworks like OpenGL and ActiveX. As a result, the conventional
frameworks for mobile automated testing become redundant when mobile
games are concerned. The automation only makes use of XY clicks as there is
no access to the object-level data.
● Social media integration
Mobile games are connected to social media platforms more than ever today.
This urges the game testers to pay more attention as social media can be
both constructive and destructive. If implemented and used effectively, social
media can help connect like-minded gamers, drive exchanging ideas, and
enrich the user experience. Similarly, social media integration can bring
negative consequences as well. Hence, testers need to be cautious while
performing social media integration.
● Multiplayer feature and multiple locations
Testing for the multiplayer feature can be a significant challenge for the
testers, especially when players are in very different locations and far apart

6. from each other. Mobile games with multiplayer features are often difficult to
test and debug and can also consist of problems that are difficult to fix. To
resolve this challenge, the game testers need to check mobile games for their
robust design.
● Game engines
Choosing the best engine for a game is no doubt a challenge for the
developers, but it is often more difficult for QA to be prepared to test any range
of engines they are given. They have to consider all the specifics of each
engine and seamlessly apply different types of game testing to check it
thoroughly.
● The performance of gaming apps matters more than any other app
Performance is one of the key drivers of user experience, and real
performance can only be monitored for using real hardware. Frame rates also
act as an important factor with the richness and diversity of mobile devices
where every new model counts. Further, most games utilize sensors or other
hardware features which are not consistent from one device to another. If this
is left unchecked, it causes several negative effects on the overall
performance.
● Diverse tools used for game testing
The range of tools, techniques, best practices, and frameworks leveraged for
mobile game testing are very extensive. But certain aspects are always
executed in the same way by the developers. Despite different game engines,

7. more than 90 percent of game developers utilize some form of image
recognition. This enables testing to be as easy as capturing a screenshot and
analyzing it automatically or manually. It can also be completely gameplay
where the game is driven by test scripts and output is logged for further
inspection.
What is a game development cycle?
Before delving into the types and processes of game testing, let us first take a
glance at the game development life cycle (GDLC)
1. Concept development — In this first phase, the idea or concept of the game
is developed, where a document is prepared that details the concept.
2. Preproduction — This phase involves the concept finalization and creating
the concept document. Besides, three other documents are created, which are
the :
● Game design document
● Technical document
● Project plan
This phase also includes the designers building the prototype based on the
decided concept art, gaming levels, and other details.
3. Development — Based on the prototype built, programmers start coding the
game. Artists begin working on modeling, textures, and animation.

8. 4. Alpha — In this stage, a workable product with all features and complete
gameplay is developed. It uses temporary assets and placeholders, becoming
the first milestone in the development process.
5. Beta — The game is completely developed with all assets in this phase.
6. Code freeze/gold — Each and every bug identified in the beta stage is
solved, and the game is ready to be released in this phase.
7. Release to manufacture — In this stage, the game is released to the
manufacturer.
8. Patch/upgrade — Post the game's release, the next step is maintenance.
When required, the team can release a patch to solve the bugs, and further
upgrades are released in case new features are added to the game.
Types of tests and techniques for game
testing
1. Combinatorial testing — This is a technique of experimental design
leveraged for commercial software testing and for generating test cases.
Applying combinatorial testing to game testing increases the efficiency of test
execution and delivers better quality, lower costs, and better phase
containment.
Salient features:
● Each possible combination of values of the parameters is covered
using this test

9. ● Systematically generate combination for testing
● Identify distinct attributes which can be varied either in data or
configuration
2. Clean room testing — This is a software development process that intends
to develop gaming software with a certifiable level of reliability.
Salient features:
● Programming commences after the formal specification
● Combines mathematical reasoning, statistical reasoning, and design
refinement during test case generation and testing
● The key goal is to produce a minimal defect in the software
3. Functionality testing — This testing mode involves identifying bugs and
other game errors that might affect the user experience.
Salient features:
● Determining whether the application is working according to the
specifications.
● It is a complex method under the black-box testing category.
● Requires more time to execute as testers look for gameplay issues,
graphics issues, and audio-visual issues
● Validates whether installation proceeds smoothly, the app functions
in minimized mode, allows social networking options, supports
payment gateways, and much more.

10. 4. Performance testing — Evaluating the performance of gaming apps on
different parameters like scalability, stability, speed, and responsiveness
assists real user conditions for varying levels of traffic and load, which is
essential for building a robust gaming app. Some of the parameters checked
during mobile app performance testing are:
● Response time on client and servers, transaction completion times,
peak load performance, network coverage, low memory, reliability,
and many more.
● Battery consumption should be optimal, and game responses must
be stable under varying loads.
● Response time across different network types like WiFi, 2G, 3G, and
4G. It also helps check connectivity between mobile devices, data
centers, or the cloud, and monitor peak times, jittery connections,
duplications of data, packet loss, and data fragmentation.
5. Compatibility testing — This testing type assists in finding out whether a
game is functioning correctly, not concerning the hardware, software
configuration, and graphics with which the device is built. This is one of the
most important tests that evaluates whether the gaming application works
across different devices and screen sizes without compromising the quality of
the user's experience.
Salient features:
● Validates the user interface of the app by comparing its design, text,
and functionality across different screen sizes

11. ● Checks the performance of the app with different OS, browsers, and
devices
● Ensures the stability, workability, scalability, and usability of the app
on multiple platforms
6. Soak testing — This is an automated game testing technique that involves
leaving the game running for a long time in various modes of operation, for
instance, idling paused or at the title screen. Soaking can help identify
memory leaks or rounding errors.
7. Tree testing — Such a testing technique helps organize the test cases and
puts together the selection of a proper set of tests that are better suitable for
the given set of code changes.
Salient features:
● Can be conducted prior to designing page layouts or navigation
menus
● Enhances overall understanding of the complex features in the game
● Monitors potential deviations, especially when functions interact with
other game rules, functions, and other elements
● Doesn't require sketching wireframe or preparing content for testing
and only requires tasks and trees, i.e., instructions and menus
8. Play testing — This is a game testing technique where the testers can play
the game as real users and analyze the quality of the game application. They
can play the game to verify the functional workflow as well as non-functional

12. aspects of the game like the entertainment value, difficulty level, level design,
and many more.
Salient feature:
● Focuses on judging the game instead of identifying bugs in the app
● Checks whether the game is properly structured and character-centric
● Verifies the game's storyline, challenges, and fun elements to
evaluate if the game is innovative, engaging, and player-centric.
9. Recovery testing — For software, recovery testing helps check how well the
app can be recovered from crashes, hardware failures, and other similar
failures. The app is forced to fail, and later it is evaluated how it recovers from
the failure conditions and the environment.
For instance, while the gaming app is running, suddenly restarting the gaming
console and check the validation of the data integrity.
10. Regression testing — The regression testing is executed to retest the
unchanged parts of the software. The test cases are checked to analyze the
working of the previous functions of the app and if the new features or
changes have not caused any new errors or vulnerabilities.
Salient features:
● Re-run the previously conducted tests
● Assists in comparing the previous results with current results and
identifying errors, if any
● Critical to quality control

13. ● Saves time by detecting bugs at the initial stage
11. Ad hoc testing — This is an unplanned testing technique that is generally
utilized for breaking down the system where testers randomly test the app
without test cases or any documents.
Salient features:
● Doesn't follow any structured way of testing; randomly executed on
any part of the app
● Primarily done to find defects using random checking
● Achieved using error guessing testing method
● As the defects are not mapped to test cases, it is difficult to
reproduce the defects
12. Load testing — This is a type of performance testing for determining the
system's performance under real-time loads. Load testing helps to find out the
reaction of an app when multiple users are simultaneously using the app.
Salient features:
● Determining if the current infrastructure is sufficient for the smooth
running of the game
● Checking the sustainability of the app with the peak user load
● Accommodating strategies for performance management

14. Difference between game testing and
software testing
Though game testing and software testing may be fundamentally similar as
they involve testing code to deliver high-quality, working software, there are a
number of significant differences in both.
Unlike game testing, software testing uses automation scripts developed pre
and post-production of test cases. For setting up automation scripts, testers
utilize many tools and frameworks in the software testing process.
Unlike software testing, there are a wide number of areas in game testing,
especially in the case of mobile game testing that require more focus. Some
of these aspects are:
Graphic performance
● Graphics are a crucial factor in engaging the users to a particular
game. Gamers usually love being involved in high graphics supported
by the device and accompanied by the gaming engine. In fact, today,
no game can thrive in the market without being graphically excellent.
The performance metrics aren't a single parameter in this case but a
collection of many that every player keeps in mind. For instance,
battery drain rate—if a mobile game is causing battery drain at an
unusual rate, players opt-out of such games.
● Another factor is the GPU of the mobile phone that is used most. The
GPU might be running at the highest clock rate, and hence if it isn't

15. implemented appropriately, the game can slow down the device due
to excessive heating. Hence the testers should test the games on
multiple devices before zeroing on the supported devices.
● Additionally, game testers must run the game on different devices
and log vital device parameters like CPU consumption, device
temperature, GPU consumption, data consumption, GPU
consumption, and much more.
Very often, specific frameworks are required for functional testing. Several
elements of the game design and behavior need to be tested manually as
automation is not the most suitable option. Even if it is deployed, it needs
substantial effort and test automation tools to generate the test scripts
because game test use cases are usually beyond the simplicity of searching
static elements on the screen.
Usually, it requires you to embed an agent into the test script for identifying
objects and testing if specific actions are triggered within a game. These
factors add complexities to game testing as compared to software testing.
● In the case of software testing, we require qualified professionals
with Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) certification.
However, for game testing, there is no specific requirement for formal
qualifications. While, in most cases, niche specialists execute the
tests, gaming enthusiasts are often called to test new games.
● Software testing focuses primarily on UI/UX, functionality, security,
and system, while game testing focuses on realism, AI, and
multiplayer.

16. How to test a game?
The generic workflow of testing a game includes the following steps:
● Gather the requirement: One must collect and understand the details
such as storyboards, characters, architecture involved in the game,
and the concept behind the game, its rules, and stages.
● Prepare the strategy: It is essential to make the decisions and
document details like the required timeline, number of testing cycles,
testers, in-scope, out-scope, testing types, service level agreements,
risk-based test analysis, and mitigation, defect logging process, and
much more.
● Design test cases: One must consider both the positive and negative
test cases for mobile games as well as desktop games. Few effective
ways to test gaming apps are critical path testing, exceptional path
testing, and basic black box testing techniques.
● Execute test cases: In this step, test cases are executed to uncover
bugs. For even better results, alpha testing, beta testing, and
respective age group testing are executed.
● Record the results: Every aspect is recorded in the form of videos and
screenshots. This helps achieve a better perspective of how the
application is being used. These details help analyze the behavior of
the app.
● Maintain the defect log: This action helps record, review, prioritize,
categorize, and efficiently track the bug.

17. Using Mobile Game Testing Tools to
Improve Testing
In the fast-paced world of mobile game development, ensuring the flawless
performance of your game is paramount. Mobile game testing tools are
pivotal in achieving this goal, empowering developers and testers with
advanced capabilities to identify and rectify issues efficiently. By integrating
these powerful tools into your testing process, you can elevate the quality of
your game and provide players with a seamless gaming experience.
Mobile game testing tools offer diverse features, including real-device testing,
automated testing, performance monitoring, and user experience analysis.
Leveraging these tools, you can comprehensively assess your game's
compatibility across different devices and operating systems, uncovering
potential bugs and glitches that might have gone unnoticed. Moreover, with
the automation capabilities of these mobile game testing tools, you can
conduct repetitive test scenarios, ensuring thoroughness while significantly
reducing manual effort.
The real-time monitoring features of mobile game testing tools enable you to
closely monitor your game's performance under various conditions, such as
heavy user traffic or network fluctuations. With mobile game testing tools you
can deliver a smoother gaming experience and increase player retention by
identifying performance bottlenecks and optimizing resource utilization.
Beyond technical aspects, mobile game testing tools also allow you to delve
into the user experience. Gathering valuable insights into how players interact

18. with your game, you can fine-tune gameplay mechanics, address pain points,
and enhance overall engagement.
Embracing mobile game testing tools in your development lifecycle fosters
team collaboration and streamlines the testing process. Through seamless
bug tracking and reporting, developers and testers can effectively
communicate issues and work together to expedite resolutions.
Mobile App Testing Tools
In mobile gaming, ensuring a seamless and engaging user experience is
paramount. This necessitates adopting robust mobile game testing tools to
evaluate the game's performance, functionality, and usability across various
devices and OS. These tools help identify and rectify glitches before release
and play a crucial role in optimizing game quality to meet the high
expectations of today's gamers. Here are five indispensable mobile game
testing tools that developers can leverage to elevate their game's quality:
● Unity Test Tools: Unity Test Tools allow developers to conduct
automated testing directly within the Unity environment, making it
easier to test game scenarios and logic across multiple devices and
platforms. This is especially beneficial for games developed in Unity,
offering a seamless integration for unit testing, integration testing,
and performance benchmarking.
● Appium: Appium helps automate mobile applications on iOS and
Android platforms. It supports testing native, hybrid, and mobile web
apps, providing a flexible testing framework that integrates well with

19. continuous integration tools. Appium's compatibility with multiple
programming languages and frameworks makes it a versatile choice
for game testers.
● TestFlight: Exclusively for iOS games, TestFlight offers a convenient
platform for beta testing by allowing developers to invite users to test
their games before the official launch. It's an essential tool for
gathering early feedback and ensuring your game performs well on all
supported Apple devices.
● Google Play Console's Pre-launch Report: For Android game
developers, the Google Play Console provides a pre-launch report
feature that automatically tests your game on a wide range of
devices, generating reports on performance, usability, and security
vulnerabilities. This tool is invaluable for spotting issues across
different Android versions and device models.
● Selenium: Although Selenium is primarily known for web app testing,
it can also be used for mobile game testing through web views. It is
particularly useful for testing mobile web games or the web
components of hybrid games, ensuring compatibility and
responsiveness across different browsers and screen sizes.
By integrating these tools into the mobile game development process,
developers can significantly enhance the quality and reliability of their games,
providing players with unforgettable gaming experiences that keep them
coming back for more.

20. HeadSpin and game testing
HeadSpin and its capabilities have percolated well into the gaming industry,
allowing the companies to deliver flawless gaming applications for the
gamers.
Prominent social gaming developers have leveraged the HeadSpin platform to
solve key challenges, including:
● Hike in the number of concurrent players during the pandemic
situation
● Geographically distributed user base
● Dynamic and difficult-to-automate game user journeys
● Need for quick ramp-up of testing infrastructure
As a solution to these challenges, HeadSpin is able to deploy dedicated
Android, and iOS devices on HeadSpin hosted cloud across different locations
in a short time frame.
Further, the HeadSpin platform is capable of identifying multiple factors that
affect battery drain, which is a significant concern of game developers and
testers. This helps improve the overall playtime for the users of lower-end
devices.
Impact
● Deliver test automation for the game engine used by the clients

21. ● Deliver required infrastructure to the clients to help them better
understand user experience across major market geographies
In addition to the HeadSpin platform, the company's add-on product, Create
Your Own Lab (CYOL), enables businesses that have their own devices to
connect to the HeadSpin platform and run automated tests on products
extensively.
Other benefits that CYOL offers include:
● Allowing reverse bridging of client devices, helping client companies
save their investment and also leverage HeadSpin Platform.
HeadSpin offers the industry's only reverse bridge solution that allows
you to connect your devices to the HeadSpin Cloud through local
machines, and the test device is not required to be physically plugged
into the HS appliance. You can run the tests on your devices manually
or automate through the HeadSpin Platform. The platform then
captures session data and analyzes the session data to get insights.
simultaneously to deal with other existing challenges
● Help setup automation from processes to training in client's manual
labs
Conclusion
As the popularity of gaming continues to increase, the focus on testing will
increase too. Therefore, every gaming business today concentrates on
deploying efficient testing methods and strategies to deliver the right gaming

22. experiences for its customers. It is necessary to carefully follow the game
development life cycle at the beginning and consider the various types of
testing to ensure building the game just as your customers would want it to
be. Moreover, game testing is a repetitive process that must be executed to
identify and eliminate newer defects and bugs with every new release of the
game.
Originally Published:-
https://www.headspin.io/blog/game-testing-a-complete-guide-to-its-types-and-processes