Testing practices in indie game development from a software engineering perspective: an exploratory study

Abstract

The games industry produces software with a main focus of entertainment, as opposed to fulfilling a certain business need. As a result, technical aspects of the final product are prioritised only at a base minimum level, keeping them from getting in the way of the game’s entertainment value. Product testing is thus separated into these two concerns, with playtesting covering mostly gameplay design and quality assurance testing assessing the technical performance. However, literature lacks empirical evidence regarding the distinction from both types of testing, particularly, from a software engineering perspective. Moreover, this limited understanding is a hindrance for effective testing activities, since practitioners may not be familiar with known benefits and drawbacks in different software testing practices. This paper collects data from various sources bridge this gap in empirical evidence to: i) clarify the outlook of the game development industry from a software engineering perspective, ii) note down any particular challenges which might be faced due to this difference between the fields, and iii) propose solution from a software engineering practical perspective. Our findings reveal some insights about QA testing and playtesting, such as: i) the similarities between paytesting and exploratory testing, and ii) effects of using test-first approaches to support QA testing. Moreover, we report on problem and a list of suggested solutions to further bridge game development and software engineering.