How To Use Agile Development to Launch Mobile

Game Apps

Mobile Game Development - Achieving Speed and Effectiveness

Speed is a crucial factor in mobile game development process. Every website owner

wants developers to build and deploy the mobile application as quickly as possible.

They also don't want any bugs to creep into the apps. However, the big question here

is that is it really possible to create a mobile application speedily without letting any

bugs to creep in.

There is an increased demand for gaming apps which are free of glitches. Developers

do realize the impatience of application users and understand that they don't

withstand any errors in the application. It can be stressful for mobile game

developers to create an error free application within a limited time frame. However,

with the use of right mobile game development company in Australia they can

ensure that they create impeccable apps that meet the standards set by the users.

Agile is the solution

Mobile game testing, traditionally, meant QA and performance testing at the end of

the development cycle, right before the launch of the application. The bad thing

about this method is that it eats a lot of time in fixing bugs at such late stage (when

other components of the application have already been built over these bugs). If they

are detected in the earlier stages of development lifecycle then it is easy to solve

them.

In the scenario where the bugs are discovered just before the launch, the role of

developers is akin to fire fighters. However, this must not be the case. They must be

able to proactive in preventing the errors in the first place. If not managed

appropriately, it can increase the amount of time to the SDLC.

With Agile development and testing, you can integrate testing and QA into

production and all through the development lifecycle so as to generate high quality

apps on-time.

There are a number of aspects surrounding Agile development. This article focuses

on testing methodologies.

Test Automation – A Keystone of Agile and constant Delivery Development

Manual testing demands a lot of time, and is unrealistic in this era of rapid release

software development. It might also give a chance to errors for creeping in. For

effective Agile development high level of automation is the basic requirement. The

number of regression and functionality tests that need to be performed after each

code change or update makes it essential to utilize an automated approach for

testing. This must be accompanied with quick feedback to developers.

Following are some of the standard testing procedures used.

Smoke Testing

This must be conducted prior to conducting advanced testing. It is used for validating

the fact that an application's fundamental features are functioning as expected. Here,

the main aim is to arrest glaring, high-level code issues which might impede the basic

functionality of the application.

Regression Testing

This testing involves repeating a test post a change or update in the code. Regression

testing aims to catch the faults that arose due to recent change in code or software.

By comparing the same test before and after a change in a code was brought,

developers can locate the origin of the issue.

Functional Testing

This is type of game QA testing which brings to the mind the term game testing. This

process of testing a game is from the perspective of the user. The developers literally

play the game to test ease of use, UI functionality, and other features. This seems to

a number of programmers as a type of manual QA testing. However, functional

testing must be automated at possible stages.

Performance Testing

This type of testing helps in testing speed and overall performance of the game

developed by you. It aims to arrest the chief bottlenecks. It sets a beginning point

from which regression tests can be performed. It also gives programmers an idea

about how the game must be performed in actual world. Performance testing is of

significant importance as most players will not play the game again if it doesn't

deliver high performance.

Performance testing must be performed on a number of device types and

ecosystems. It must be done from all important locations, across the world, from

where your game might be played.

Performance with Load Testing

Performance testing has multiple aspects and features three fundamental testing

procedures.

Baseline Performance testing

Loading testing

Stress testing

Though these three are related and built on each other, there are some clear

differences between them.

Whilst performance testing is mainly directed at catching glaring bottlenecks and

hindrances to seamless game functionality, Load testing takes it further to help

developers identify if performance remains the same when load is increased. Load

testing process involves incrementally increasing load to substantially observe and

view the application's reaction.

In the end, stress testing aims at overwhelming the application to the point where it

collapses so that it can be viewed or analyzed how the system reacts. For all the

above scenarios, you must be ready with the right testing service so that you can be

a step ahead in the game development software. You should use a performance and

load testing software which provides a solution for agile, regular integration testing

so that you can incorporate it seamlessly in your present development stack.

To Sum it up

The rapid apps development trend has kept developers amazed. Whilst this process

will be ever challenging, a regular integration approach towards game development

can ensure that the process is more efficient. Agile development aims to improve the

fluidity between Production and Testing, so that both can be used conjointly to result

in a better product in the end. All in all, with Agile developers can create effectively

with less number of errors.