Win Free Testing For Your Game + Using Game Testing To Improve Your Games

Gagan, from Global Step, talks about their game testing capabilities

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/agdc-global-step-interview-final.mp3

Or listen to it here…

Show Notes:
Interviewer: So, what are the specific examples again of other gaming developers or small development studios that have benefited from your testing service?

Gagan: Well, just to mention a few, Action, one studio that comes to mind is Media Art in Ukraine, a very small DIAS game. And their feedback was that they found what we did so helpful that they can’t imagine putting a DIAS title out without dealing with us on every other title what they’ve done on this one.

Another very small studio that is a client of ours is Triangle Studios which is three people based in Holland. We’ve tested a couple of games from them, and they’ve also been absolutely delighted.

And we’ve got a bunch of other studios like that, very small studios, starting out and we also encourage anybody who’s just starting out, if they want to call us for advice. If there is anything that we can do to help them succeed at what they’re doing, whether or not we test, we’d be very glad to do that and look upon that as our bit to promote their effort.

Interviewer: Do you offer testing then for Flash and online stuff, or is it mainly console?

Gagan: Yes, we do. We are offer testing on Flash and console.

Interviewer: And iPhone and stuff like that?

Gagan: Yes, on iPhone the most critical thing for a developer is: functionality is easy. Most developers ought to do that themselves because it’s small applications, but what you want to put specific focus on is testing on the iPhone. Using other iPhone functions to make sure that your game is not crashing or it’s functioning perfectly when the iPhone is using its memory on other applications. So, that’s a very critical test of the phone.

Interviewer: What about internationalization? Is that something you guys offer in terms of a service, or is that outside of the domain of testing?

Gagan: We offer localization testing and localization from English into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch. And we do this when we help one of our affiliate studios that is based in Holland.

Interviewer: You mentioned quick turn-around time. Can you talk about how that can benefit a developer and exactly what you mean by quick turn-around time for testing?

Gagan: Yes, Action. As a part of our process, when we start testing, we try and find out what is the time cycle on which the developers work. And then, we are very flexible at using time zones for competitive advantage, and our objective is to have 75 percent of the testing done while the developers are sleeping.

So, when they come in to start their day, they have the test results from the day prior on what they’ve done. We want the product to be tested, the results available to them so they can take action immediately which means that rather than development waiting for test results, you lose no time over testing. And this can save about 30 percent of the overall development time.

Interviewer: Sure. Do you have any testing techniques that independent users can use themselves to improve the quality of their project and their game?

Gagan: One piece of advice that I give is take a structured approach, even if it’s a small game. Create a game outline, so you’ve got all the options from the main menu.

What are the different parts of the game? Then, take a look very carefully and see what are the key attributes in each game part and create a test index to make sure that each of those parts is properly tested. Then, create a separate index that looks at all the key functions and all the key features.

Create a very simple check list. If it’s a small game, you can do this on your own. Just create that check list and just make sure that while you’re in the detailed testing you also step back and make sure that you’ve done a good job in covering the entire game.

Interviewer: Great. What’s the website again where they can visit to find out more information about your service.

Gagan: That’s www.GlobalStep.com, g-l-o-b-a-l-s-t-e-p .com.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.