Game Development Game Testing and QA Syllabus

Game Testing and QA syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Game Testing and QA in Game Development, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Types of Testing

   4 topics

   • Functional Testing
   • Performance Testing
   • Compatibility Testing
   • Usability Testing
2. 2

   Bug Tracking

   2 topics

   • Bug Tracking Systems
   • Reporting and Documentation
3. 3

   Playtesting

   3 topics

   • User Feedback
   • Focus Groups
   • A/B Testing

Game Testing and QA flashcards for Game Development

23 of 60 cards from the Game Testing and QA deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is Functional Testing in game QA?

   Testing that verifies each feature and mechanic of the game works according to its design specification and requirements — inputs produce the correct outputs and expected behavior.

2. What is the primary goal of Functional Testing?

   To confirm that the game does what it is supposed to do — validating features, game logic, UI interactions, and adherence to requirements — by detecting deviations from expected behavior.

3. Distinguish black-box, white-box, and gray-box testing.

   Black-box tests functionality without knowledge of internal code; white-box tests internal code structure/logic with full source knowledge; gray-box is a hybrid using partial internal knowledge to design black-box-style tests.

4. In functional testing, what is a test case versus a test suite?

   A test case is a single set of inputs, execution conditions, and expected results verifying one behavior; a test suite is an organized collection of related test cases run together.

5. What is smoke testing in game QA?

   A quick, shallow set of tests verifying that core/critical functions of a build work (e.g., the game launches and loads a level) before deeper testing — a 'build acceptance' check that decides if the build is stable enough to test.

6. What is regression testing and why is it important in game development?

   Re-running previously passed tests after code changes to ensure new changes did not break existing functionality — crucial because game systems are highly interdependent and a fix in one area can introduce bugs elsewhere.

7. Define ad-hoc testing versus exploratory testing.

   Ad-hoc testing is unstructured, informal testing with no plan or documentation; exploratory testing is simultaneous learning, test design, and execution guided by the tester's intuition but still purposeful and often loosely documented.

8. What is a soak (endurance) test in game QA?

   Running the game continuously for an extended period (hours or days) to detect issues like memory leaks, resource depletion, counter overflows, or degradation that only appear over long play sessions.

9. What is Performance Testing in games?

   Testing that measures how well the game runs under various conditions — evaluating responsiveness, stability, frame rate, memory usage, load times, and resource consumption to ensure smooth gameplay.

10. How is frame rate (FPS) defined, and give the relationship to frame time.

    Frames per second is the number of rendered frames displayed per second. It relates to frame time as $$\text{FPS} = \frac{1000}{\text{frame time (ms)}}$$ so a 16.67 ms frame time yields 60 FPS.

11. What frame time in milliseconds corresponds to a target of 60 FPS?

    $$t = \frac{1000\ \text{ms}}{60} \approx 16.67\ \text{ms per frame}$$

12. What frame time corresponds to 30 FPS and to 120 FPS?

    $$t_{30} = \frac{1000}{30} \approx 33.33\ \text{ms}, \qquad t_{120} = \frac{1000}{120} \approx 8.33\ \text{ms}$$

13. What is average FPS over a session with $n$ frames?

    $$\text{FPS}_{avg} = \frac{n}{\sum_{i=1}^{n} t_i}$$ where $t_i$ is each frame's time in seconds; equivalently the total frame count divided by total elapsed time.

14. Why is '1% low FPS' (or frame-time percentiles) used instead of only average FPS?

    Average FPS hides stutter; the 1% low (the worst 1% of frames) exposes hitches and inconsistency that hurt perceived smoothness, giving a better measure of the actual play experience.

15. What is a memory leak, and how does performance testing detect it?

    A memory leak is memory allocated but never freed, causing usage to grow over time until performance degrades or the game crashes. It is detected via profiling and soak tests that watch for steadily rising memory that never returns to baseline.

16. Distinguish CPU-bound from GPU-bound performance in a game.

    CPU-bound means the CPU (logic, physics, AI, draw calls) limits the frame rate; GPU-bound means the graphics processor (shading, fill rate, resolution) is the bottleneck. Profiling identifies which by comparing frame time spent on each.

17. What is load-time testing, and why does it matter?

    Measuring the time taken to start the game, load levels, or stream assets. It matters because long loads harm user retention and may indicate inefficient asset streaming or I/O bottlenecks.

18. What is stress testing in game QA?

    Pushing the game beyond normal operating limits (e.g., max entities on screen, thousands of concurrent players, huge save files) to find the breaking point and observe how gracefully it fails.

19. What is Compatibility Testing?

    Verifying that the game runs correctly across the intended range of hardware, operating systems, drivers, screen resolutions, input devices, and platforms.

20. What is a hardware/device matrix in compatibility testing?

    A grid mapping combinations of devices, OS versions, GPUs, resolutions, and configurations against test cases, used to plan and track coverage across the supported target environments.

21. Differentiate forward compatibility from backward compatibility.

    Backward compatibility means new hardware/software can run older games or content; forward compatibility means older systems can handle content/formats designed for newer versions (often gracefully ignoring unknown parts).

22. Why is testing across multiple aspect ratios and resolutions part of compatibility testing?

    UI elements can be clipped, stretched, or misaligned and gameplay-relevant view areas can differ across resolutions/aspect ratios (e.g., 16:9 vs 21:9), so each supported ratio must be verified for correct layout and no advantage/disadvantage.

23. What is peripheral/input compatibility testing?

    Verifying the game correctly detects and responds to different input devices — keyboard/mouse, various gamepads, touch, and specialty controllers — including remapping, hot-swapping, and correct button prompts.

See more Game Testing and QA flashcards →

Planning Game Testing and QA for Game Development

Game Testing and QA (Game Development) FAQ