The QA Process - Dillon Lane

Hello everyone! QA Manager Dillon Lane here!

System Design? Huh? No idea what you're talking about. Must be someone else.

Anyway, this post will be the first in a series, going into the QA process and my approach to bug testing and mechanic refinement in City of Abominations!

For starters, let's get the basics out of the way and then dive into specifics in later posts.
We have several key things in the QA process that are used to evaluate the game's state.

First off is the game itself. We use the most stable version we have (the main one, which is kept up to date and is the build that all other builds merge to as their purposes are fulfilled). This makes sure we're not only experiencing a bug because we're fiddling with something unfinished in another part of that build.

Second are the report forms, one for general usage, which outlines what specific aspect if the game the testers were checking. The other form is a bug report form, which is used to report issues found in testing.

The third step is having those bug forms organized in a spreadsheet, which is then transferred to the issue tracker on Github.

Fourth step is to assign an engineer to fix the issue.

Fifth is to test the issue again to verify it's gone, and voilà! You have the cycle of bug testing and bug fixing.

This requires a LOT of back and forth between departments and individuals, so it can be a challenge if there isn't a clear line of communication. Luckily, our studio is fairly small, and we meet in person regularly.

The next post will dive into the devised QA plan for City of Abominations!

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