We can offer exactly the same service at the Testology main office. It’s usually advantageous for Testology staff to be placed onsite with the developer teams, but we will endeavor to provide precisely the same quality of service when the teams are based at our HQ in Aldershot.
Gameplay consultancy is another service that Testology offer. The consultancy team has worked on multiple AAA titles and has worked very closely with the design teams and scripting teams during the development of a game. Andy Robson has worked alongside Peter Molyneux for 12 years giving gameplay feedback along with his test team. This service provides high level evaluation of all areas of gameplay mechanics. This is down to the fact that we have a huge wealth of experience in the games department thus making us well qualified to comment.
Gameplay Consultancy Services
Tutorials – These are a set of lessons that teach the user all he needs to know to play the game. We comment on the way that these are paced and arranged. We also ensure that the user is made aware of any vital information he needs and that all the information is watertight and easy to understand.
Story – The story exposes and links all the game mechanics together. It acts as central path to guide the user through the game. We comment on the structure, pace, quality and cohesion of the story within the game world. We have a BAFTA-winning games writer, a veteran of ten years and over 25 games, who can create, check, rewrite or edit written content.
Control method/GUI – This is the way the player controls the game. We generate multiple configurations of possible control methods that we feel are the most user friendly.
Camera – This is the way the player views the game world and everything in it. We comment on the ease of use, angle of viewing and the way the player controls it.
Regions/Levels/Lands – These are the areas that the game world is set and played in. We comment on the layout of these areas, their aesthetic qualities and general ambience through audio and visual methods.
Cut-scenes – These are cinema style clips that portray info to the player through a scripted scene. We comment on the visual style of these clips, the animations used to portray emotion, the camera angles and camera movements, the pacing and above all the coherence and content of the information that is given to the player.
Balancing – This is the set of values and attributes that determine the difficulty of the game. We comment on resource values, attack \ defence hit points, spell costs, enemy attack behaviour and many others…
If it has a value that can be changed, we will comment on it.
Artificial Intelligence – AI is the non-scripted behaviour of all Non Player Characters, or NPC’s, in the game. We comment on many aspects of AI including idle states, routines, combat methods and any ‘natural’ behaviour i.e.: navigation.
Scripts – These are staged events, triggered at set times in order to heighten the player’s game-play experience. They could take the form of a quest or mission that the player must complete, but they can also be used to ensure something very cool happens at a certain time in a certain way.
We comment on the difficulty, the playability, the audio/visual content, the dialogue, the pacing, the information given and the amount of fun there is to be had!
Audio – This is everything in-game that the player can hear from birds tweeting to people talking. We comment on the ambience and mood that is set through music and SFX, the pacing and delivery of speech from in-game characters \ narration, the match between speech and subtitles and basically all aspects of the audio side of the game.
Art – This covers the entire visual side of the game. We comment on and can review models, animations, textures, rendered cut scenes, GUI \ menu style, particle effects and art style consistency.
Multiplayer – This is the player against player side to the game. If included, we test this for stability, functionality testing and balancing
The other purpose of multiplayer is for balancing and exposing game-play flaws. Playing against another human is the best way to gauge and expose weakness in these areas.
Games should perform and function according to the original design. Every mission, quest, or task should function properly and give the proper experience. Testology conducts independent validation and verification tests on your game. We test titles to make certain that it follows game specification to the letter. Testology can do this by using our experienced leads to write in-depth test plans for single player and multiplayer along side your in-house Test Lead, Production and Designers, and then our contractor staff will run through these checklists as required.
Functionality services include:
Our Personal Computer (PC) Compatibility laboratory includes over 150 PCs, 250 additional video cards, 180 audio cards and a whole range of peripherals.
Test requirements are developed for each project including the selection of a suitable range of test configurations.
The PCs are prepared with selected clean operating systems and any required or supporting software such as MS Office, .net, internet browsers, utilities etc.
The applications under test, with patches/updates applied as required, are typically checked for:
Install process
Program folder path
Start up functionality
Game play performance
Frame rate at predetermined places
Save game functionality
Comprehensive results are provided including details on bugs such as;
Description
Log files
DXDIAG system information
And in exceptional cases the whole process can be filmed.
The available portfolio of test equipment is continually being updated both in response to market changes and in partnership with major chip, card, software and peripheral vendors.
Testology are pleased to announce a Load Testing offering for your Internet based applications.
Load testing targeted workloads will enable you to determine the capacity limits of your application.
Using a variety of test tools, automation of the most used functions of your application can be used to simulate 100's or 1000's of virtual users all accessing your application at the same time in the same way that real users would.
Whether you have a new interactive gaming platform, or, you require to Load test the online distribution of gaming files, this service will enable you to verify the capability and the level of service of your platform before it hits the gaming user.
There are two distinct offerings:
1) Load / Performance testing across the Internet whereby we supply all Load testing hardware, software, bandwidth and automation.
2) Load Performance testing from within your closed network whereby you supply to our specification hardware and internal network capacity.
