Kuzuan
Method in Madness
Hello and welcome to a new installment of the "zOMG! Behind the Scenes" series! Today we would like to share with you the different testing strategies that we use while working on zOMG!. QA is often a very structured approach and below you will see how we use different testing methods to cover as much of the game as possible prior to releasing a new update for everyone to enjoy.
Whenever we receive a new build we first have to ask: "Is this build stable enough for us to test?" To this end, we conduct acceptance tests on new builds in order to determine what shape they are in and whether we can work on them. 
Roughly speaking, our acceptance test is a long checklist of basic game features, functions and abilities that we look at before we work on any updates that were included with the build. With the game as big and complex as zOMG!, new updates may break existing features in ways that are not readily apparent. We check the game fundamentals early in order to give the developers the most time to work on any problems that may arise from the changes they have included in a new build.
After we make sure that the new build is in good shape we take a look at the list of changes that were introduced. We conduct functionality testing in order to see how the new features or changes actually work in the game and whether they meet the description provided to us by the designer.
While running these tests we may take either a positive or a negative testing approach in order to maximize coverage and find as many bugs as we can. If we are doing positive testing then we follow provided directions and try to play by the rules. In contrast, negative testing has us do our best to break the game and its new features as best as we can!
Regression testing serves two important goals: to make sure that a bug fixed by a developer has actually been fixed and to verify that this fix doesn't breaking anything else. Each member of the QA team is responsible for regressing his or her own bugs and they do so by trying to reproduce what caused the original issue in the first place. If we fail to reproduce the problem and we don't see anything broken in relation to this bug then our regression test is a success! 
We do our best to run these tests as soon as we receive an update that contains the fix because fixes sometimes fail. If we are still able to reproduce the issue in the game then we send the bug back to the developers so they can take another stab at fixing it.
The QA team engages in monkey (or ad hoc) testing when we are in between builds or waiting for an update. Sometimes these tests are targeted (for example: coverage of all quests in a specific zone or testing of all Power Ups), however most often we take this time to explore leads that have been provided to us by player reports or to follow up on potential issues that we saw while performing any of the above-described tests. Monkey testing can be very interesting as this is the area where we can be most creative in how we construct our tests or approach a given problem. While testing computer games is often far removed from the way regular players enjoy the game, monkey testing is an area where we tend to have the most fun while finding bugs.
Beta testing with the help of beta testers is, by far, the most powerful and far-reaching testing approach at our disposal. Every person who plays zOMG! contributes in their own way to improving the game! Many users post their game feedback or bug reports on the forums and we draw from these to refine the gameplay and identify bugs that our small team may have otherwise missed. Folks who prefer to simply enjoy the game also help us by providing us with patterns and statistics that can be used to improve different aspects of the game. 
This week's article gave you a glimpse into the five testing methods we use most often while working on zOMG!. We'll be happy to take any questions you might have! Check back next Friday for a new article in this series that will describe how we file all the bugs that we find!
Previous topics:
zOMG! Behind the Scenes - The Great Cycle of Builds
zOMG! Behind the Scenes - Toolkit of Trade
Hello and welcome to a new installment of the "zOMG! Behind the Scenes" series! Today we would like to share with you the different testing strategies that we use while working on zOMG!. QA is often a very structured approach and below you will see how we use different testing methods to cover as much of the game as possible prior to releasing a new update for everyone to enjoy.
- Acceptance Testing
Whenever we receive a new build we first have to ask: "Is this build stable enough for us to test?" To this end, we conduct acceptance tests on new builds in order to determine what shape they are in and whether we can work on them. Roughly speaking, our acceptance test is a long checklist of basic game features, functions and abilities that we look at before we work on any updates that were included with the build. With the game as big and complex as zOMG!, new updates may break existing features in ways that are not readily apparent. We check the game fundamentals early in order to give the developers the most time to work on any problems that may arise from the changes they have included in a new build.
- Functional Testing
After we make sure that the new build is in good shape we take a look at the list of changes that were introduced. We conduct functionality testing in order to see how the new features or changes actually work in the game and whether they meet the description provided to us by the designer.While running these tests we may take either a positive or a negative testing approach in order to maximize coverage and find as many bugs as we can. If we are doing positive testing then we follow provided directions and try to play by the rules. In contrast, negative testing has us do our best to break the game and its new features as best as we can!
- Regression Testing
Regression testing serves two important goals: to make sure that a bug fixed by a developer has actually been fixed and to verify that this fix doesn't breaking anything else. Each member of the QA team is responsible for regressing his or her own bugs and they do so by trying to reproduce what caused the original issue in the first place. If we fail to reproduce the problem and we don't see anything broken in relation to this bug then our regression test is a success! We do our best to run these tests as soon as we receive an update that contains the fix because fixes sometimes fail. If we are still able to reproduce the issue in the game then we send the bug back to the developers so they can take another stab at fixing it.
- Monkey Testing
The QA team engages in monkey (or ad hoc) testing when we are in between builds or waiting for an update. Sometimes these tests are targeted (for example: coverage of all quests in a specific zone or testing of all Power Ups), however most often we take this time to explore leads that have been provided to us by player reports or to follow up on potential issues that we saw while performing any of the above-described tests. Monkey testing can be very interesting as this is the area where we can be most creative in how we construct our tests or approach a given problem. While testing computer games is often far removed from the way regular players enjoy the game, monkey testing is an area where we tend to have the most fun while finding bugs.- Beta Testing
Beta testing with the help of beta testers is, by far, the most powerful and far-reaching testing approach at our disposal. Every person who plays zOMG! contributes in their own way to improving the game! Many users post their game feedback or bug reports on the forums and we draw from these to refine the gameplay and identify bugs that our small team may have otherwise missed. Folks who prefer to simply enjoy the game also help us by providing us with patterns and statistics that can be used to improve different aspects of the game. This week's article gave you a glimpse into the five testing methods we use most often while working on zOMG!. We'll be happy to take any questions you might have! Check back next Friday for a new article in this series that will describe how we file all the bugs that we find!
Previous topics:
zOMG! Behind the Scenes - The Great Cycle of Builds
zOMG! Behind the Scenes - Toolkit of Trade
