Task 1 – Understand types of defects present within a game build

Before you start testing computer games, there are 3 things you need to consider: Defect Types, Defect Triggers and Operating Regions.

Defect Types

When writing about defect or bug types there are many things you need to think about, such as classes and functions. There are 4 classes: Class A, Class B, Class C and Class D

• Class A – A bug that is marked as Class A means that the bug is a game-breaking bug for example they crash the game. They need to be fixed asap in order to allow the game to progress and work properly. For example, if the game keeps crashing, every time you play it and doesn’t let you progress through the game, then this is a ground-breaking bug. There have been many different examples for this, Donkey Kong 64 is reportedly a game that had this bug and caused the game to have  to use an expansion pack that increased the systems memory 4MB to 8MB, this corrected the bug. Within this video (a directors cut of  Conker’s Bad Fur Day) one of the games programmers let slip that the reason the expansion pack was bought was indeed to fix a bug in Donkey Kong 64. 
• Class B – A bug that is marked as Class B means that the bug still needs to be fixed asap but the game could still be playable. If you get multiple Class B bugs then they are equally severe as Class A bugs. For example, if a character is able to walk through an NPC, then that is marked as a Class B bug, because it’s something that needs to be fixed but the game is still playable.
• Class C – A bug that is marked as Class C means that the bug is an inconvenience in the game, it still needs to be fixed but it isn’t as important as a bug marked Class B or Class A. For example, if the player controlled character is walking towards a wall and the character starts sinking through the floor, then that is an inconvenience and needs to be fixed but again is not as important as a Class A or Class B.
• Class D – A bug that is marked as Class D is more of a suggestion to make the game work and run better, rather than an actual bug.

A function bug is one that affects the game capability or how the player experiences the game. The reason this happens is that the code is missing or incorrect in instances where it is needed. For example, when using your secondary fire it is supposed to shoot out a grenade however it does not do this.

Defect Triggers

There are different defect triggers that cause the bugs. 3 of which are hardware configurations, software configurations and start-up triggers.

Hardware configurations can trigger defects by a number of different things. GPU’s are one of the lead defect triggers within computer games, this is because it has either not been inserted properly or the graphics card is too good or bad to actually run the game. A faulty controller can also be a defect trigger, this is because the controller cannot do the functions that it is programmed to do within the game, the buttons may not work properly and that could stop the character from moving or interacting with things.

Software configurations are also defect triggers. Drivers are defect triggers, the reason for this is because the driver isn’t up to date, this is a problem because the game could be searching for a specific driver and is unable to find this will cause an error within the game and it will not be able to progress. Firewalls are also defect triggers, this is because they block incoming connections and could cause the NAT setting to become closed, which means you cannot connect to the internet within your game.

Start-up triggers are another example of defect triggers. When the game tries to access the memory of the previous save game, if there is a problem with the game accessing the memory then the game cannot be played or progress.

Operating Regions

This can be broken down into 3 categories: Game Start, In Game and Post Game

Game start accounts for operations that are performed in the time between where you start the game and the time you are ready to play the game. Some activities such as cinematic sequences that show an introduction can be interrupted and skipped, however some activities like the loading screen cannot be interrupted or skipped. The software also performs different operations that the play is unable to see. At the end of all this process the game will be in a ready state then the player can press any button or a certain button to progress within the game. Looking through different forums, I found a bug that had been reported in the game Sim City, where the game will not load up, even when nothing is being run in the background and restarting the computer, the game still will not load up, this is a Game Start bug.

In game region covers all things that can be done whilst playing the game. Some functions can only be used once throughout the course of the game whereas others can be repeated, some need the player to meet a condition before they occur. NPC’s are also controlled during this operation period. An in game bug can be a bug that happens anywhere in the game, for example in the recent FIFA games there have been many bugs in the game, the reason for this is the new physics engine that they have included into the game, there are many things that happen such as when a player is tackled the player would go spinning into the air or flip over and hit another player. This video shows some of the things that can happen in FIFA12. 

Post Game means the way the game is ended. The player can end the game a number of ways, they can quit the game without saving which requires less processing than when saving. The player is given many opportunities to save the game before the game ends. On a handheld gaming device the game can be ended by turning the device off. Games which are story-based usually finish with a cinematic sequence and credits. An example of this is that the game doesn’t save properly and loses the game data. A reason for this could be that the system is working faster than the game and loads up the menu whilst the game is still be saved, this makes you think that the game is saved, when it isn’t and you turn the game off before it has finished saving.