Beta Tester

Want to Beta test games?

Note All The Things

Make sure you have an easy way of taking many, many notes! I use Notepad++ and Paint to jot notes and paste screenshots because it’s easier to pull everything together at the end - but you might find a pencil and paper, plus Photobucket or similar, to be your preference. The important thing here is: Write down everything you do that has strange or unintended consequences. Screenshot everything (including before and after pics, if relevant) that shows a visual bug or supports an issue you have found. You want an accurate report at the end, so I can’t emphasise enough, everything helps! If you can (and really like to go the extra mile), you can use screen recording software to capture clips of bizarre behaviour, then upload and include links to these in your final document! Finally, if available, include client-side logs (e.g. crash logs) for further details. This might even include DirectX diagnostic reports if requested.

Beta.EXE Has Stopped Responding

This is a beta, and patience will be your greatest virtue - you will find beta games are likely to crash often during testing. Remember, you are trying to provide valuable feedback to a developer to help improve a game, and a beta test is not meant to be purely a chance to learn the game’s secrets, collect everything, or start earning achievements. Yes, these all need to be tested but remember your progress will likely be wiped at the end of the beta. Don’t work hard to complete the game; work hard on testing the game!

Cause And Effect

This is sections Note All The Things and Beta.EXE Has Stopped Responding combined. You are doing your job if you make the game crash! Make a note of what you were doing, jump back into the game, and try the same steps again. Verifying and reproducing a bug or a crash is invaluable information to a developer. If the game’s beta has an in-game reporting tool, you should use it and include screenshots and detailed notes if possible. This methodology starts as soon as you boot the game up, throughout menus, options, character customisation, and into the game. Try deliberately clicking on things that you wouldn’t normally click on. Try combinations of keystrokes that aren’t needed. Try changing the settings to something abnormal to see what happens. Always watch the graphics, listen for sound artefacts, glitches, errors, and strange animations - and note everything of interest!

That Doesn’t Look Right

So far, so good, but let’s look at the environment. Look for where textures aren’t rendered properly or where an object floats when it shouldn’t. Make a note of janky animations or anything jarring in the way NPCs or your character interacts with its surroundings. Do picked-up items show properly in your hands or inventory? Keep an eye open for items, monsters, or environment details that are obviously misplaced. This extends even to strange colours that don’t appear to be a deliberate palette choice. Participate in everything! But remember, you’re testing, not just playing. It’s easy to get drawn into fun games and forget why this is a beta in the first place.

Why Can I Do That

Gameplay and UI can have unexpected results. Try doing the things no one would expect anyone to try or aren’t part of the normal gameplay loop. Can you attack while fishing? Should you be able to? Can you attack environment objects that you shouldn’t be able to? Dropping items on the floor might be fine, but did you try dropping items on the rocks? In the snow? On an NPC? Your trying to find problems and break the game. Try opening and closing a door as an NPC walks through or getting behind the bar in the inn to check the floor is real there too. With the UI - click everything. Shift-click everything. Drag things around to where they shouldn’t do. Can you equip that apple in the boots slot? Can that sword be dragged onto the volume slider? If anything weird happens, note it and report it. Now set everything to defaults and try to reproduce the bug. Reset to defaults and spam the reset to defaults button… You get the idea.

There/Their/They’re

For some, this might be the most boring part of game testing, but also one of the most important for smaller indie dev teams working hard on the game itself. Read all the dialogue. Every. Piece. Of. Text… That includes item flavour text, quest descriptions, menu labels, signs, in-game art, and NPC names… I wasn’t joking when I said every piece of text. Not just checking for spelling errors - is it grammatically correct, or is punctuation missing? This counts even more if you are potentially helping with a game translated from its native development language into yours. Make sure there is consistency, too, “armour” in one menu and “armor” in the next is an easy mistake to make. Even check quest objectives - If the quest text asks you to kill 10 basilisks, does it complete at 8? Perhaps they drop livers instead that count towards quest completion, or the quest text says one location, but the basilisks are really in another?

The Numbers, Mason, What Do They Mean?

Worst still for some; keep an eye out for all numbers. Look carefully at the price of items, both buying and selling. Can you buy an item for cheaper than selling it? Make sure your bank balance is correct after purchasing multiple items. Try looking for inconsistencies in how items stack up and split. If you really like numbers and game mechanics, start tracking damage and healing, too, and check everything adds up correctly. Try healing at full health to see if you can go over max HP. If you want to go the extra mile, repeat a chance-based action and track its success - can this be broken with items or consumables?

No Detail Too Small

To sum up so far, then. Take screenshots and report ALL your findings as clearly as possible. “I can walk through a rock in the forest.” is not as helpful in your report as “The rock by the well in the forest (location name: Fairy’s Glade) doesn’t appear to have collision, but only after the quest ‘Restore Nature’ is complete.”. The more information, the better - “Here is a screenshot of me on the rocks before I complete the quest.” “Here I am in the same rocks once the mission is handed in.”. If the game features coordinates or a map with a more precise location finder, include this information at every opportunity! There is no such thing as too much information, especially where the playable character can get stuck or soft-locked.

Experimentation Is Key

Play with everything available. Beyond actual bugs and glitches, how is the game? Note if the tutorial is clear or if a game mechanic is intuitive. Try to be detailed and comprehensive about the game’s learning curve - imagine you are new to the genre or gaming in general. We might find using the WASD keys for movement second nature, but is there anywhere to tell a new player how to take their first steps? Look at the style choices and aesthetics. Dark-coloured text on a black background will be hard to read. Menu screens might be too busy with options when they could be collated into sub-options. Anything you could suggest to improve the player experience will be fantastic in your notes.

This. I Like This. More Of This Please.

It’s not all bugs, glitches, crashes, and constructive criticism. You should note down what worked well! Anything that really stood out to you is worth mentioning. It could be an impressive twist in the plot that you never saw coming, a beautiful environment that is jaw-droppingly gorgeous, or perhaps a piece of background music that you can’t get enough of. A developer may have taken a chance on a game mechanic that, with encouraging words, gets fleshed out further and becomes a unique selling point for the game.

Beta Test Complete

That’s it! As I’ve mentioned, verifying bugs and issues should be the main reason you’re beta testing. Test, test, and test some more. Verify anything you find. Note everything relevant or important, and take your time with detail. I cannot stress enough: the more info you collect and report, the better for a game’s release! Be creative, have fun, and do things you wouldn’t normally do playing an AAA-released game. Make a name for yourself, and who knows… you might end up with special thanks in the credits or even a cameo in the next big indie game!

Good Luck, and happy beta testing! Dave