Hey guys, so I've been reading up about Quality Assurance, and have had testing experience (reporting bugs etc), but only from a users standpoint. I'm just wondering if there's any software used for testing a game, or for the QA process other than playing the game. (stress testing? runtime diagnostics?)

Just wanna know more than whats on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_testing which i'm still in the midst of reading.

Also, first hand experiences are welcome to be shared!

Quite often there are in-house tools developed for bug-reporting; that and excel spreadsheets for differing sweeps/tests.

In-house eh? I guess that makes sense. How bout commercially though? Does an engine like Unreal3 have any testing software? I've gotten the role as a QA lead in a summer program, just wondering what are the must know tools and methods to it.

testtrack is what we use at work for tracking bugs. Another option is bugzilla which i hear is good.

Any diagnostics is done by programmers not qa. Qa pretty much plays the games and tells everyone else when its broken.

We've got smoke testing machines that run on every build, plus asset testers that check every asset for known issues.

Oh okay, coolio then. How does testtrack work? I'm looking to get more technically savvy with the terminologies and phrases like LOD, DOF etc... is there a dictionary for those around here? haha

thanks for the answers so far guys!

LOD = Level of detail....I think =\.

and yes there is a dictionary of that sort.

msdn.microsoft.com or google search msdn.

We use Jira right now for our bug tracking and reporting.

That, and verbal communication.

QA: I've noticed there's s--
Me, having worked 14 or so hours daily for the past 9 days straight: No.
QA: Well, there's a--
Me: I don't think so.
QA: But--
Me: I have 35 class A bugs assigned to me. Put yours in the database and assign it to my lead like we're supposed to do, and he'll prioritise and assign it to whomever is better suited for it. [Muttering under my breath:] And it better not be me....
QA: Oh. Okay.
Me: [Walks over 2 minutes later with a cupcake and apologises for being a moody bitch]

Okay, so this isn't exactly how it goes down when crunch gets insane, but pretty close.. :P

Rick Stirling - Haha sorry but what does smoke testing refer to? And the Asset testers are automated check sequences i presume?

Nitewalkr - Hey thx for the link! Looks like a lot to go through though, any idea where I could start?

East - I'd forgive you ;) and thanks for the link!

Why do you really want to know though?

Unless you are starting your own company or something you would get taught all this on the job.

Originally Posted by Muzz

Why do you really want to know though?

Unless you are starting your own company or something you would get taught all this on the job.

Because the way that is taught might not be the most efficient and can be improved upon by looking at how other people do it.

Haha I suppose it's true i could get taught on the job, but if it's anything that i've learnt about learning on the job is that it's not always all that it's cracked up to be, and being unprepared when i could have done my homework is probably the reason xP

Bug tracking software is vital for large projects. You should be able to assign bug classes and attach screenshots and videos.

Crasong: Smoketests are a commonly used system in software development for ensuring that the basic functionality of software is there BEFORE you send the code to others for testing. Google: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...13(VS.80).aspx

Asset testing is used to perform checks on the assets AFTER they come from your DCC via the exporter. The exporters should prevent any errors in the assets by refusing to let bad assets get out of the authoring package, but this won't always happen. Issues found with the asset testers SHOULD be fed back to the tools programmers to update the exporters, thus catching asset issues earlier in the project.

Asset testers are also used to make sure that the assets are in sync with the code - sometimes an update in code may require additional information to be encoded into the source art/audio, and perhaps there are still some assets that exist without this information. These assets worked properly before the code update, so are not bad assets per se, but they are now out of sync with the code. The asset tester should be able to identify these assets.

Ace stuff Rick Stirling, very informative. Digesting this atm. Keep em coming!

we used to use mantis bugtracker, but we're on somehing else now I've forgotten the name of

Devtrack and JIRA are the two most common bug trackers I've seen in use around here.

Yup, we use JIRA down here as well.

Your code is the key
For development teams, resolving issues means fixing code. With Atlassian IDE Connectors, developers interact with JIRA directly from Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA and soon Microsoft Visual Studio. Third-party integrations support many other IDEs, including FlexBuilder, JDeveloper, NetBeans and Zend Studio.
Connect JIRA issues directly to source code with native CVS integration and plugins to Subversion, Perforce, ClearCase, Mercurial, Bazaar and many other version control systems. Atlassian FishEye also provides enhanced integration for Git, CVS, Subversion and Perforce.
View related builds from continuous integration environments and comments from code reviews directly from each JIRA issue.

Wait what? I don't even...

Wow there's so much I don't understand! In the higher levels of QA, would i need to understand the intricacies of this part?

I understand and like the Issue and Bug report creation in JIRA so far.

Wait a sec... You're a QA Lead?

It's cool that you're trying to get as much info as possible on the subject, but really there isn't a great deal to it.
It's understanding the routine of testing (this will vary from studio to studio), creating solid test plans, understanding the bug priority ratings (how severe the bug is) and keeping track of already listed bugs (nothing worse than receiveing the same bug five times and from the same person!).

Learning the bug tracking software is the easy part. At my former studio we've used TestTrack, Mantis and Hansoft. All of which are simple to use and are easy to learn (wouldn't need more than a day to get the gist of everything).

The biggest thing is making sure all your bugs are clearly written, screenshots/videos are provided (if neccessary), the bugs are being produced on the latest build of the game (not from a four or five builds ago) and are assigned to the right people.

As lead, you'll most likely be doing more of the managerial stuff and the scheduling (but once again, this varies from studio to studio as well as staff numbers and project scope). So it's definitely vital you understand the software you're using and understanding how to get the most out of your QA team.

Best of luck.

Originally Posted by Emil Mujanovic

Wait a sec... You're a QA Lead?

It's cool that you're trying to get as much info as possible on the subject, but really there isn't a great deal to it.
It's understanding the routine of testing (this will vary from studio to studio), creating solid test plans, understanding the bug priority ratings (how severe the bug is) and keeping track of already listed bugs (nothing worse than receiveing the same bug five times and from the same person!).

Learning the bug tracking software is the easy part. At my former studio we've used TestTrack, Mantis and Hansoft. All of which are simple to use and are easy to learn (wouldn't need more than a day to get the gist of everything).

The biggest thing is making sure all your bugs are clearly written, screenshots/videos are provided (if neccessary), the bugs are being produced on the latest build of the game (not from a four or five builds ago) and are assigned to the right people.

As lead, you'll most likely be doing more of the managerial stuff and the scheduling (but once again, this varies from studio to studio as well as staff numbers and project scope). So it's definitely vital you understand the software you're using and understanding how to get the most out of your QA team.

Best of luck.

http://gambit.mit.edu/

They've got a summer program where they send people from Singapore to MIT in Boston to work on game projects. I chanced out with the tests and interviews, and got the role of QA lead on one of 6 teams. And QA is entirely new to me, but it's something I've always wanted to try. (some soul searching in my future career here)

All in all I'm just in love with the game dev process, working on a team will always be my number 1 motivation. Thx for the insight!

P.S I should be down in Boston from early June till early August.

Originally Posted by crasong

Wait what? I don't even...

Wow there's so much I don't understand! In the higher levels of QA, would i need to understand the intricacies of this part?

I understand and like the Issue and Bug report creation in JIRA so far.

It said "Connect your programming environment and version control system with your bug tracker" in very elaborate terms.

Originally Posted by crasong

Rick Stirling - Haha sorry but what does smoke testing refer to? And the Asset testers are automated check sequences i presume?

Nitewalkr - Hey thx for the link! Looks like a lot to go through though, any idea where I could start?

East - I'd forgive you ;) and thanks for the link!

I usually go bypass through the VisualStudio.net to find something that I dont understand. Mostly it is used to understand the libraries of C/C++ and C# in most cases.

But their search engine is to help you resolve the understanding issue. like if you dont know whats BSOD you type it there and it will give you the links to go forth and see how many people figured out before you that it means "Blue Screen of Death"<.<

And other terms that are used in the Software industry in general. and somewhat in game industry.

If you state the problem in PM or here I'd be happy to help you out with it.

acc - I'd never have figured that out... Why must they confuse me!?

Nitewalkr - Then I'll get to reading whatever comes to mind ^^ thx a bunch!

Devtrack is a popular bug tracker and one of the main ones used.

fogbugz is one bug database that hasn't been mentioned.

Of course if you're in QA you'll also need to know the version control software. Such as Perforce, alienbrain, sourcesafe, subversion.

My advice is to not throw around buzzwords in your bug reports unless you really, really, know what you're doing. Because the person who gets your bug won't be impressed.