Task 1d

1. Preparation is the testing phase done before production and before alpha tests. The tests done in preparation are very detailed, each tester will be in charge of testing something different such as one person would test controls and another would test the menu.

2. When doing an alpha test in the alpha phase the game needs to be checked to see if it is following the brief and if the client is agreeing with how the game looks. The tests that happen usually are just defects because most of the assets would have been implemented at this point.

3. The Beta Phase is the phase that takes place after the alpha phase and is just more testing so there isn’t any more assets being implemented since alpha. There are two parts of the beta phase, closed and open beta, open beta is where the game is playable by anyone whereas closed beta is where the developer sends out invitation/accept help from the public to find bugs. This is almost like free QA tester.

4. The Gold Test Phase happens after the beta test, by this point most of the bugs have been fixed and is at the point where it can be released. Within the gold phase the QA testers must go through the game one last time and try and find any bugs left especially grade A bugs (Ones that stop people from completing the game), if any grade A bugs are left then the game may be delayed to allow for improvements.

5. Certification is where the game is checked by the platform manufacturers such as Sony to see whether the software meets the requirements. The certification phase checks certain things such as the age rating so games like Persona 5 which has swearing doesn’t get released with an age rating of 3.

6. Regression test is where you make sure the game works with different software and making sure the game is compatible with all the updates that the console has went through. This phase is basically you checking if you have made any more bugs while making other updates to the game.