Video games testing could be as good as playing a video game. However, it is not the case every time. Testing a video game is little different from a conventional software testing, as many of the practices can’t be applied to it. Moreover, it is difficult to automate the process.
Today, unit testing and few other good practices help in improving the quality of a software application. But, it’s rare to see such approaches adopted by testers. It is mainly because of the functionality of the game that is tied together and dependency of the rendering process on the game mechanics. Moreover, when adopted, it often proves to be unpredictable, unreliable, and time-consuming.
The key to successful video games testing lies in playing the game as an actual user. This can be done emulating real users by creating AI bots. It can help in executing a number of tasks and ensures that everything is working fine.
Though AI bots can’t match the human performance, it could be helpful in saving many testing hours. Some of the advantages associated with automated AIs are discussed below.
- It can help in creating characters and other scriptable UI test. In addition, it allows you to try all possible options along with verification. You can trace a number of bugs with a remarkable speed.
- The bots does random activities, including jumping, shooting, swimming, etc. and helps in identifying infrastructural related issues.
- In case of transactions, the automation process can help with the performance and security aspects.
- In case of interactions of non-player characters, you can automate dialog options as well.
However, the behavior of AI is supposed to be very unpredictable. The above points prove to be true while performing simple activities.
