Testing for non-normal play

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Testing for non-normal play

Or, ur plaing it rong

2011-02-27, 23:35 #1

Member since Oct 2007 · 271 posts
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Subject: Testing for non-normal play

I've been repairing a PS3, and I'll post about that later over on GamesX (after I succeed, or after I give up.) But as one of the test cases I've been popping a random Playstation game into the system to see if I can make the unit crash after a particular repair attempt, and the one that's been on hand the most is Colony Wars: Vengeance. I discovered an interesting aspect of the game, in that the introductory mission doesn't appear to require your input at all. I left the game running without steering the ship or shooting at anything while tidying up, and somehow the first three enemy cruisers were destroyed entirely by my AI teammates.

This discovery doesn't negate or change the opinion I gave in my original review of the series at http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/1006-Colony-Wars. If you're playing to win, or at very least to be entertained, the Colony Wars games still stand as a very compelling presentation of spacecraft conflict. But I do wonder how often game testing includes test cases outside of normal play. What happens if I drive on the track the wrong way around? What happens if I move left instead of right? What happens if I leave the epic sword battle and come back an hour later? It's impossible for a programmer to account for all the crazy decisions a gamer might make (intentional or otherwise) but surely thorough development means that a player is either rewarded or punished for coloring outside the box, so to speak.

(Administrator) 2011-02-28, 09:18 #2

Member since May 2011 · 2201 posts · Location: Brisbane
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I've always considered this a problem more closely linked to programming skill and experience than anything actually impossible. Granted, however, this becomes a more difficult problem as game hardware becomes more complex, and the author further removed from the metal.

Handling edge cases of player muckery was a lot easier when you only had two dimensions, 16kB RAM and small levels to work with. That said, I don't think the basic rules have changed so much: Throw in some timers to watch for idle or struggling players, add some position watchdogs to make sure they don't slip outside the game zone or slide under the floor, (as so often happened in early 3D games), and you're most of the way there.

Your example of clearing the first stage of Colony Wars without actually doing anything reminds me of the rather excellent Iron Soldier for Atari's Jaguar. In one stage you're tasked with shepherding a convoy through a city which is under constant attack. But the enemies are homing in on YOU, so if you leave the convoy to its own devices and head off to empty pastures, the enemy comes after you, ignores the convoy, and you can pass the level very easily. Once again, a simple problem to fix if you're a slightly more experienced developer (hint: send the enemy after the convoy, not the player).

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/throwaway/Iron Soldier.png]

BLEARGH

2011-02-28, 09:35 #3

Member since Oct 2007 · 271 posts
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That edge case of the enemy focusing on the wrong target happens a lot in the Grand Theft Auto series. Granted, that game shoots more for knowingly contrived narrative than it does for convincing immersion, but at least people have taken that limitation and turned it into a metagame unto itself. A lot of missions delete police from the world temporarily to support whatever plot point is happening at the time, so the player is free to do crazy stunts in traffic or collect specific resources without fear of reprisal. I don't know if that's intentional or not.

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