As a subset of ‘game development’, testing is a software testing process used in the quality control and regulation of video games. The primary goal of game testing is to discover and document software flaws that may have escaped the programming process. A game must be tried and tested before it is released to the market in order to gain customer satisfaction and maintain a high-quality gaming experience for its audience.

During the early stages of design and development, the developer used to do all the testing. A maximum of 2 testers were allowed for each game and there were also cases where all the tests were done by the programmers.

Quality assurance has always been an integral part of every programming process. As video games became more sophisticated, quality assurance became a necessity and this is where “on-site” game testers came in.

Game testing generally begins as soon as the initial code is created and continues until the game is complete. Fame is typically monitored by the core QA team from its initial submission to the establishment of a test plan. The testing team generally focuses on new code at the early stage of game development.

Alpha tests. This form of game testing is done to make sure that the initial foundations of the game actually work. Alpha testing is the initial testing done during the early stages of the game, and the procedure is usually run by development studio staff or people hired directly by the publishers. These alpha testers are usually required to work in the game development studio and are asked to run the entire course of the game until it is fully operational.

Beta game design. Beta testing can be done in-house or by other subcontractors. In special cases, it can also be done by unpaid volunteers just like in online games where basic technology and cross-server stress testing is done. Paid game testers are much more involved at this stage because of all the details needed to determine how well the game is performing.

Quality assurance. When a video game reaches its final state, testers are an integral part of quality control. This is where many testers get their starter jobs and run the same levels over and over again to check for even the smallest bugs and glitches in the game.

hardware console. Console testing is usually done on a consumer system, and a special test facility is often provided for publishers and developers. Among the most popular tools used are “devkits” (software development kits) and debug/test kits. Devkits are often used by programmers for lower level game testing and typically show higher hardware specs and larger memory. This allows developers to estimate a game’s performance without focusing too much on optimizations.

Test kits typically have similar hardware specifications and a similar appearance to a consumer drive, but with additional connectors and ports for testing.