How to Choose the Right Mobile Application Testing Company for Your Gaming App

Live streaming of online gaming sessions and live reviews by gamers of any new game has taken the popularity of gaming apps to the next level. The gaming experience can make or break the popularity of a game. Playability, longevity, clearly defined gaming outcomes and a reward system are components that make a mobile game successful.       

But how do you know all these elements are working smoothly? Gaming app testing is the answer. 

What is gaming app testing? 

Game app testing is a method of software testing used to guarantee the caliber of video games. Game testing’s main goal is to find and fix bugs and flaws in video games to enhance their stability and performance. 

Why is game testing so crucial, though? 

To begin with, modern video games are interactive, use complex gaming platforms, and have multiple users playing them simultaneously on various platforms. All this makes them more susceptible to bugs and errors. And these could go unnoticed and unresolved in the absence of an adequate testing mechanism. 

A thorough testing process is required to prevent player backlash and loss of sales for your game. Not all gaming firms have the capacity to do this themselves though. This is where an external testing company can help.

How to find your ideal gaming app testing company?

Before choosing any gaming app testing company, you should consider the following factors: 

• Game testing has a direct impact on a video game’s ranking. Testing greatly affects how gamers react to a new game when it is about to be released. So, you need a testing company that knows what it’s doing. 
• Every game developer wants to give players the best experience possible. Hiring a skilled games tester is one of the easiest ways to achieve this. Effective testing will find weaknesses and potential flaws.
• Most video games undergo frequent updates while they’re on the market. Developers can find areas that need to be improved by testing their games before each release.

Gaming app testing elements

You should look for amobile application testing company that tests gaming apps for these 7 factors: 

• Functionality testing
• Compatibility 
• Performance 
• Localization 
• Security 
• Recovery 
• Compliance 
• Functionality Testing 

QA testers examine the game’s user interface and graphics for problems with the game’s stability and mechanics, and the integrity of its assets. The game’s usability is ensured through user interface testing. The following game components are usually tested for functionality:

• Colors and backgrounds
•  Menu structure
•  Screen orientation and resolution
•  Font size and alignment errors
•  Usability
•  System navigational aspects of the game- 
• loading time 
• timeout
• display
• sorting
• confirmation messages 
• sequences 
• Animations, and audio elements 
• Instructions and dialogue messages 
• User interactions 
• User interfaces 

Some other functionality testing elements include: 

• Transaction testing 
• Mobile phone camera calibration and accuracy testing 
• Display resolutions 
• Audio quality testing
• Mobile responsive design testing
• Compatibility Testing

There are various types of phones, tablets and other mobile devices available today, all with different screen resolutions, e.g., take the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series with its foldable screen. There are also different OS (operating systems) as well—IOS and Android OS are a couple of them. 

Gaming app compatibility testing keeps track of how the game performs on these various OS and screen resolutions. It also tests that the gaming app can be successfully installed or removed from all supported OS. 

• Performance Testing

Performance testing is necessary for every app, but it’s even more crucial for gaming apps. The popularity of a game depends on how all the features in a game perform. The game’s performance is evaluated through performance testing covering the following.

• Response times 
• Battery consumption and graphics performance
• Processor and memory constraints
• Network connectivity

• Localization Testing

Localization testing is crucial when a game is intended for international markets. Texts, game titles, and other materials must be translated and tested on multilingual-capable hardware. With the aid of test automation and cloud-based device access, these tests can be completed quickly.

• Recovery Testing

An application’s ability to recover from a crash, hardware issues, and other similar failures is determined by software recovery testing. The application is made to fail, and its recovery is observed. 

• Security Testing 

Security testing is done to assess how protected the software is from outside threats. Data protection can take many forms. These include defending against external threats, data breaches and shoddy encryption techniques.

Compliance Testing

Compliance testing should cover:

• Age restrictions 
• Payment processing
• Intellectual property (copyright)
• Privacy and data protection
• Accessibility

Requirements for game testing

Once you’re satisfied that your game is compliant with standards and regulations, the second step is to make sure that the game tester can follow the necessary requirements for testing. 

A gaming tester needs to take care of the following points while testing: 

• Identify interdependent requirements.
• Put the requirements in order of uniqueness, complexity, and importance.  
• Identify the game’s theme, characters, animation, artificial intelligence (AI), cinematics, camera view, and gameplay. 
• Determine the goals, benchmarks, testable, and non-testable elements of the functional and non-functional requirements.  
• Separate the user and system requirements into functional, non-functional, and domain requirements. 
• Sort the requirements according to the intended use and intended audience.

Conclusion 

Mobile gaming apps are made up of an array of major and minor components, ranging from character skins and power-ups to level-ups and side quests, among others. As a result, comprehensive testing is essential, particularly during the initial stages of game development, as bugs can manifest easily and frequently. 

Not all mobile application testing companies specialize in gaming apps. So, it’s critical to verify that their services adhere to established standards before engaging their services.