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Why you should find an external Game QA team.

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Today, we are going to talk about crucial factors that you should take into account when selecting an external game QA team.

1. In-house QA testing

For video game developers, QA testing has become a must-do process to ensure that a quality of the game at launch will meet the players’ high expectations. However, many small-to-medium-sized developers focus more on game development and spend less time on testing their finished product. On several occasions, they are even under pressure to meet a deadline, resulting in poor QA quality.

There is also a chance that the companies do not employ permanent QA team, and this might cause delay on your project’s QA process as the QA team is being recruited. It could also result in a lower quality of QA testing, if those delays cause a rush on the QA testing process.

2. 4 Essential Factors to Consider When Selecting Your QA team

1) Sufficient QA period

When you select an external QA team for the first time, you need at least a month before the launch to communicate your needs with the team. During the initial team meeting, you will have to discuss about several processes of your QA testing, including analyzing the game build, designing the test case, planning the test, and more.

There are many factors that could affect a time schedule, such as game developments, maintenance & release schedule as well as a genre of the game. In this regard, it is recommended to have a pre-meeting with a QA service provider to inquire and set an appropriate schedule for your QA testing.

2) Efficient QA schedule

You might think your QA testing could be completed faster if you hire more testers. However, this is not the case. To reach the peak/climax of a particular game, you will need enough time for the test. The amount of time invested in QA testing will proportionately result in the quality of the game.

With sufficient time, QA team can carefully run through your entire game to find any issues and bug; whereas insufficient QA period will force the team to mainly focus only on the main parts of your game.

3) QA team’s expertise

How many projects have they tested? How deep is their knowledge in the gaming industry? Which game genres and platforms have they tested recently? These are some of the many important questions you need to consider before selecting your QA testers.

In the past, QA testers might not have had much experience with a specific type of video games. However, nowadays it is essential that those working on video game QA have a deep understanding of each game and its mechanics, as it has a huge positive impact on the outcome of the QA testing.

4) Additional recommendation according to circumstances

Finding a QA team that not only can provide QA testing service but also suggest additional QA testing necessary for each project will definitely show a better result than hiring a QA team that only performs general testing without giving you additional QA advices.

A reliable business partner should give you a proposal with thorough business strategy beyond merely game understanding.

“After a sample test of the game build you sent us, we can verify that there is 60% of compatibility test fails. As there is a high possibility that your game might not run properly, we would like to recommend you to do additional Performance QA and Compatibility QA testing.”

Summary:

1. Sufficient QA period
2. Efficient QA schedule
3. QA team’s expertise
4. Additional recommendation according to circumstance.

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