The Rest of the Story

The rest of this book equips you to apply the two rules to your game testing. Don't feel like you have to incorporate everything at once to be successful. You may already consider yourself an effective tester. Use new insights from this book to refine your existing skills and add the techniques you learn in Chapters 10 ‚ 17 where it makes the most sense for your projects.

You should also apply the two rules to what you read in this book. Don't trust that what you read here will work every time for everything you do. If you get results that don't make sense, find out why. Try something, and then measure or evaluate it to decide whether to go on using it and refining it, whether to try something new, or whether to go back to what you were doing in the first place. But do try it before passing judgment. I would just caution you not to trust yourself too much before you make sure you are applying the technique properly. Then you can decide if it works for you. These methods are good ‚ trust me.

Remember, as a game tester, everyone is trusting in you to find problems before the game ships. Don't give them cause to panic!

Note ‚  

Chapter 10, "Combinatorial Testing," Chapter 11, "Test Flow Diagrams," and Chapter 13, "Test Trees," introduce you to three important game testing methods. Use them to understand the game software early in development and systematically explore the game's features and functions throughout the project.