Online gambling gained broad popularity and even became a multi-billion-dollar industry because gamblers worldwide play on a computer casino game striving to fulfill the adrenaline rush and eagerness to win. Thus, the sector was boosted, and along with that, the need for secure services that users would trust increased as well.
Game testing aims to ensure that games meet the quality standards and expectations of publishers. When testing games, we follow testing standards and pay attention to specific areas which are applied for games. It includes but not limited to evaluating gameplay experience, identifying bugs, and providing feedback on various aspects of the game.
I have been testing video games for over five years. In this post, I want to share my experience with online gambling testing.
Some aspects of testing a game are not so different from testing other software, in particular when executing test types like regression testing, performance testing, or usability testing.
Here are some testing types must be considered for any online gambling testing:
Compatibility Testing
The tester team ensures that the gambling platform runs smoothly in different environments. The software market is constantly developing, so developers must be sure to make software for online gambling platforms available for all possible platforms, browsers, and OS. A casino must run smoothly on each of them, either Windows or macOS or mobile platforms. Besides, gamblers worldwide use a variety of devices to play on, either mobile casino, PC version, or tablet. Thus, testers also check this aspect, trying online casinos on all possible devices. Using crowd testing is perfect for this case because testers from all around the world can try gambling platforms on different devices and OS, providing a comprehensive quality assessment of the product.
Controls and User Interface (UI)
This type of testing aims to test all game controls, including touch, swipe, and accelerometer-based interactions… to ensure the UI elements, buttons, and menus are responsive and functional. Also, verify that the UI elements are appropriately sized and placed for different screen sizes.
Gameplay Mechanics
This type of testing tests all gameplay mechanics, such as character movement, abilities, game physics, and collision detection… to verify that game rules, objectives, and scoring are implemented correctly and also check for any inconsistencies, bugs, or glitches during gameplay.
Localization testing
This type of testing aims to make the online casino product localized to the local market and target audience. That is, users, take into account their nation, language, and other unique local aspects. Localization testing aims to provide high linguistic quality of the product and adapt the platform to users from different countries, cultures, and local tax policies. For example, when users fill out specific forms on a gambling platform, they should know what is expected before they start typing. Casino developers should provide a list of all requirements for the users, visual aids on how they can find a certain number of their ID documents, hints on where they can find local tax references on payslips or letters about tax, etc. Those instructions must be localized for different markets and refer to the local tax reference, such as the National Insurance number for a particular country. During this testing, each country’s specific gambling laws and rules must be considered. It is essential to use local testers from the actual target markets to ensure that real people from the specific location check all the localization points to be tested.
Regression testing
Regression testing is all about finding bugs in the software after modifications of the code or the release. It checks if the new version of the gambling platform works better than the previous one
Game rewards
Online gambling apps involve payment transactions. The player must make deposits and withdrawals during the session. Therefore, payment transaction testing must be a major part of the testing process before releasing the product.
In addition, game rewards are crucial to ensuring that the payout is expected to return in winnings. We use a cheat tool to trigger all potential winnings in order to ensure the coverage of payout testing.
Usability testing
Usability testing of online gambling apps is meant to be carried out from the end user’s perspective. The widespread practice is to attract gamblers to test the online casino and estimate if it operates smoothly and what are the bugs. Nonprofessional people who have nothing to do with testers sometimes better determine defects, especially in such a narrow sector as gambling and casino. When it comes to gambling, users more easily enter their personal data if they understand why. So gambling operators should explain the purpose of each stage of the registration. And only ask for the minimum amount of information needed to onboard a user. Online gambling platforms can access many beta testers through crowd testing to receive accurate user feedback from real users, using real devices.
Audio and Visuals
This type of testing aims to test all in-game sounds, including background music, sound effects, and voiceovers… to verify that the game’s visuals, graphics, and animations are of high quality and consistent across devices. Also check for any visual artifacts, clipping issues, or audio synchronization problems.
Conclusion
Gambling testing is often a challenge for testers. It requires experience, the latest technologies and tools, the fundamental techniques for testing, and above all, a passion for casino games playing. Otherwise, gambling platforms would only lose their audience without testers and quality online bug tests that will ensure smooth and seamless operations of all game aspects. While, the market is highly competitive, and gamblers have a wide variety of platforms to choose from.
Reference:
- https://research.ncl.ac.uk/game/mastersdegree/workshops/technicalrequirementschecklists/Technical%20Requirements%20Checklist%20Workshop.pdf
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming/gdk/_content/gc/live/get-started/live-xbl-overview
- https://gamepad-tester.com/
- https://igda-website.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/09142137/Best-Practices-for-Game-Localization-v22.pdf
