Tag Archives: QA

Train2Game News: Paradox Interactive announce A Game of Dwarves closed beta

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Paradox Interactive will be holding a closed beta for their upcoming strategy and management title A Game of Dwarves, and you can apply to be a part of it.

In  AGame of Dwarves, players build, dig and conduct research in a randomly generated dwavern settlement, as you build your dwarves up from being poor and weak to master craftsmen,all the while defending yourself against various enemies.

To apply to take part in the Game of Dwarves closed beta, simply visit Paradox Interactive’s signup page and enter all of the required details.  It could provide a great opportunity for Train2Game QA Testers to use their skills.

The beta scheduled to begin on Friday 13th July, with the selected applicants receiving more information nearer the time. A Game of Dwarves is pencilled in for release towards the end of the year.

Get a taste of A Game of Dwarves in the trailer below, here on The Train2Game Blog.

There’s more  beta testing news, and information on how it’s useful for developers and Train2Game students, here on The Train2Game Blog. And be sure to keep reading for the latest news from Paradox Interactive.

Will you apply to take part in the A Game of Dwarves beta? What are your initial thoughts on the game?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or here on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: ArenaNet on the importance of testing in making Guild Wars 2 fun

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QA testing and beta tests are hugely important when it comes to designing Guild Wars 2 to be as fun as possible.  That’s according to a huge blog post by ArenaNet, which discusses how they’re determining what will make their upcoming MMO – which isn’t based on a subscription model – successful and fun.

“When looking at content design for Guild Wars 2, we’ve tried to ask the question: What if the development of the game was based on…wait for it…fun?” writes Guild Wars 2 lead content designer Colin Johanson, in a highly informative piece.

He says QA Testers play a large role in development at ArenaNet.

“We ask our QA team to ask this question when they test everything that goes into the game. When they play an event, they don’t just file bugs, they write suggestions and ideas for how to make it better.

“I’ve never heard of a game company where the QA team is so integrated into the development process, where they can enact and impact change on a daily basis in the game. They aren’t just testers, they are developers who help make every part of the game better” said Johanson, adding that many Guild Wars 2 designers started in QA.

“As a result of allowing our QA team to be so involved in the development process, it helps us find people with amazing minds for design based on their feedback and suggestions. Many of our current content designers on GW2 originally started their careers in our QA department” he said.

The Guild Wars 2 lead content designer also discusses how important beta tests and player feedback are to development.

“We added surveys to the game that occur after you finish story steps, renown regions, events, and dungeons. Each of these asks players a few simple questions, but the most important question we always ask? “On a scale of 1 to 5, how much fun was what you just did?”

“From this, we print out giant reports of survey information, then meet as subteams and target the content that isn’t scoring well on “the fun factor” before brainstorming, together, on how to make that content more fun and exciting.”

There’s much, much more on how ArenaNet judge fun when designing Guild Wars 2 in the blog post, which should make interesting reading for anyone on a Train2Game course.

There’s more on Guild Wars 2 here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on how ArenaNet determine what’s fun? Is the fact that a number of their QA Testers have moved into design roles encouraging for you?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: QA Testing “crucial” says Brawl Busters developer Rock Hippo

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Train2Game students on the QA Testing course will be performing a crucial task during game development. That’s according to Brawl Busters developer Rock Hippo Productions who spoke to The Train2Game Blog in a soon to be published interview.

“QA is absolutely crucial to the development process. Something may seem like a good idea on paper, but we’ll never know for sure until we test it out.” Rock Hippo Productions Marketing Manager Flavio Caracas told The Train2Game Blog in an interview about their free-to-play combat title Brawl Busters.

Caracas added that beta testing is also a huge part of the game development process, and a helpful team of beta testers can provide great help to a studio.

“Beta testing allows us to involve our community in game balance decisions and with any bugs overlooked during QA.” He said.

“We’ve been very lucky so far with our community as they have been extremely helpful to us and new players during the open beta phase and our official release. We expect that to continue into 2012 and plan to involve them even more as the game progresses.” Caracas added.

Brawl Busters is a free-to-play multiplayer action combat title, which can be downloaded right here.

The full Train2Game Blog interview with Brawl Busters developer Rock Hippo Productions will be published in the near future.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Rock Hippos comments on QA? How crucial is it to development? And can helpful beta testers iron out troubles in games?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or the Train2Game forum.