作者：Paul Sztajer

游戏测试听起来很简单，但测试游戏的第一步就是弄清测试目的。理清目的很重要，这会影响到接下来的测试对象、测试时间以及测试方式。

game from cnet.com

本文主要探讨把握测试目的的重要性，以及各制作阶段的普遍测试目标。

弄清测试目的的重要性体现在：

* 测试无法覆盖所有内容

* 获悉测试内容便能够找准测试对象

* 便知道如何取舍反馈信息

上述最后一点尤其重要：若游戏图像不是当前关注焦点，其相关反馈信息就要暂放一旁，待到制作此内容时再进行参考。若你没有理清测试目的，难免就会瞄准和“修复”所有发现内容（游戏邦注：致使提前制作本不该制作的功能）。

这不足为怪，测试目的会随开发进程的变化而变化。早期测试通常具有考察性质，你需测试的内容是：

* 构思测试（基本游戏构思是否有趣？什么是保持其趣味的元素？）

* 游戏模式测试（应采取什么游戏模式？多人模式是否可行？）

* 关卡模式促使（关卡设置是否合理？）

* 指导性发现（我们应如何把玩家变成有效玩家？实现此目标的首选方式是什么？）

接着，你会希望优化游戏。此时的测试目的是：

* 关卡设计优化（此关卡是否有趣？是否存在任何无趣内容？）

* 机制调整（强化重力设置，效果是否更佳？）

* 发现漏洞（它们是否会破坏游戏？以何种方式？）

* 指导测试（游戏是否给予适当指导？是否以合适节奏进行？）

* 图像和音效测试（各种音效是否充足？图像和音效是否有向玩家传递正确信息？）

再来就是制作阶段，我们也会倾向测试所有内容。你希望所有内容都顺利运作。但重要的是，制作末期不适合调整基本游戏概念（游戏邦注：就像制作初期，图像和音效不是测试关键）。

当然游戏测试完全取决于你所制作的游戏，上述内容还不够详尽。若有遗漏点，欢迎告知。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Playtesting 101: Finding the Purpose

by Paul Sztajer

This is the first of a series of posts about playtesting, where we’ll be looking at the process of testing your game step by step.

It may sound ridiculously simple, but the first step of playtesting your game is to figure out why you’re testing your game. It’s surprisingly important to work out the nuances of the ‘why’, which will affect who, when and how you structure the rest of the process.

In this post, I’ll be going over why you need to find the purpose of the test and some common testing goals at different stages of development.

There are three reasons that finding out the ‘why’ is important:

* You can’t test for everything every time you test;

* If you know what you’re testing, you know who you should be asking what about your game; and

* You know what feedback to disregard, file away and/or come back to at a later time

The last of these is possibly the most important: if you get some feedback about the graphics of your game at a point where graphics really don’t matter to you, it’s vital that you set it aside and only consider it once you’re actually creating the graphics. If you haven’t specifically stated what the purpose of the test is, there’s a great temptation to go and ‘fix’ everything that people come up with, leading to premature development of features you shouldn’t be developing yet.

It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, that your playtesting purpose will change as development progresses. Early tests are usually exploratory in nature, some aspects you might be testing are:

* Concept testing (is the basic game concept fun? what exactly makes it fun?)

* Game Mode testing (which game modes should we have? Does multiplayer work here?)

* Level format testing (is this what a level should be?)

* Teaching Discovery (what do we have to teach the player to make them an effective player? Is there a preferred method for doing this?)

Once you’re a bit further on, you’ll be wanting to start refining your game. This is where you’ll find testing purposes like:

* Level design refinement (is this level fun? are there any dull parts?)

* Mechanics Tweaking (would it be better if gravity were a little stronger?)

* Bug Discovery (can they break the game? how?)

* Teaching Testing (does the game teach properly, and at the right pace?)

* Graphics and Sound Tests (is there enough whiz, bang and pop? are you conveying the right information to the player through the graphics and sound?)

Late on in the development, there’s a temptation to test for everything, as, well, you need everything to be right. However, it’s just as important to realise that you’re probably not in a position to change your basic game concept late in development as it is to realise that graphics and sound are probably not that important for your first test.

Of course, this all depends on the game you’re making, and the lists above are far from exhaustive (if there’s any glaring omissions, please let me know and I’ll update them).

That’s it for now. Next time, we’ll be looking at who and where you should test.（Source：gamasutra）