Playtesting: The Unsung Hero of Game Development
Testing is one of the most crucial parts of the development process. While development follows a specific plan and given specifications, this does not always ensure that the final product will function as intended. The end user, the player, may experience issues that make the experience unpleasant. There are several ways to perform testing. It can focus on the technical state of the game, where testers look for bugs in the graphics or performance fluctuations, or on the user experience, where they primarily identify issues with game mechanics and assess how the player feels and what bothers them while playing. Another subdivision includes internal and external testing. In this article, however, we will focus on the internal testing conducted here at Victoria VR.
The first phase of testing typically involves the developers themselves, to check whether the implemented mechanics function correctly and if the game’s overall framework aligns with the brief. Once the basics are in place, performance issues, imperfections, and minor bugs can be addressed. Only after the game’s foundation has been refined in this way does testing shift to focus on the user experience, where it is crucial to involve people who were not part of the development team. These individuals can provide unbiased feedback on their feelings about the game. Development parts and new versions of the game are divided into iterations, and it is essential that each iteration is thoroughly tested and that feedback data is collected. To make data-driven decisions, it is critical to gather accurate and consistent data from playtests.
A practical example at Victoria VR is the creation of a focus group, primarily consisting of members of the marketing department, who provide periodic feedback from user experience testing on a weekly basis. First, they determine the session’s length and scope and decide which game components are most important to them and which should receive less attention. Then comes the actual playtest, where players go through parts of the game together and try to recall their feelings about the game as accurately as possible, noting improvements since the last iteration and highlighting areas that need attention for the next iteration. After this phase, it is essential for each participant to provide feedback using a pre-designed template. Based on these comments, the focus group leader creates a comprehensive report, which is sent to the relevant departments to address these deficiencies in the next iteration. It is also important that the feedback includes sections for positive comments to motivate the department positively for future projects. It’s important to understand that, no matter how prepared we are for post-release player feedback, there will always be insights or issues that we may not have anticipated. That’s why we take the time between iterations to address and implement feedback from playtesting.
Playtesting should not be underestimated, as it is vital to the development of any project. It may be overshadowed by other, more eye-catching parts of development, but without it, delivering a final product in a polished state that meets expectations would be impossible.
About Victoria VR — www.victoriavr.com
Victoria VR is a revolutionary Blockchain-based Virtual Reality Metaverse. Powered by Unreal Engine and featuring realistic, highly detailed graphics, it combines a massively-multiplayer-online role-playing game (MMORPG) with a unique Social Experience Playground.
Like never before, players will be immersed in a virtual reality world where they get to live their digital life. Whether you want to Play games, Develop your digital real estate (VR Land), Own a business, Work up or Get some entertainment, your imagination is the only limitation.
