60 Tons - No Unit Tests
by kcpdad · 02/21/2014 (3:27 pm) · 2 comments
Recently I watched this great video on the The Architecture of StackOverflow. Highly recommend watching it.
Unit Tests
While the video isn't about developing games it does have some valuable insights. It made me realized that my game had something in common with StackOverFlow, no unit tests! How do we get by without this bedrock of modern development? By having a loyal base of testers.
In StackOverFlow's case they push out new builds to a test server where they have about 1000 volunteers bang on the system helping to find bugs. In my case, I've enlisted ex players of the now defunct game Tanarus who are starved for a decent tank game. I push out builds fairly frequently, about once every month or two.
While my testers don't number in the hundreds I get enough to find many bugs I don't find on my own. Plus it's always great fun playing the game with others to test it.
Having said that, I do occasionally write "unit tests". E.g. I run into a 256 byte limit of commandToClient that showed up in my Player List when I got more than 7 players at once. To test and debug I simulated 20 users which happens to be the max that an mission can hold. I initially found the bug with my testers but to work on it I created the tests. It should be fixed in the latest build.
Tonight some of us will be getting together to play, feel free to join us at 9pm EST.
Getting the game
The 4share download is a lot faster than the regular download but it requires a free registration.
4share
Regular
Links
Facebook
Home page
Development progress
Forums - Use the tank name Vanguard to register.
Twitter
Screenshots
Unit Tests
While the video isn't about developing games it does have some valuable insights. It made me realized that my game had something in common with StackOverFlow, no unit tests! How do we get by without this bedrock of modern development? By having a loyal base of testers.
In StackOverFlow's case they push out new builds to a test server where they have about 1000 volunteers bang on the system helping to find bugs. In my case, I've enlisted ex players of the now defunct game Tanarus who are starved for a decent tank game. I push out builds fairly frequently, about once every month or two.
While my testers don't number in the hundreds I get enough to find many bugs I don't find on my own. Plus it's always great fun playing the game with others to test it.
Having said that, I do occasionally write "unit tests". E.g. I run into a 256 byte limit of commandToClient that showed up in my Player List when I got more than 7 players at once. To test and debug I simulated 20 users which happens to be the max that an mission can hold. I initially found the bug with my testers but to work on it I created the tests. It should be fixed in the latest build.
Tonight some of us will be getting together to play, feel free to join us at 9pm EST.
Getting the game
The 4share download is a lot faster than the regular download but it requires a free registration.
4share
Regular
Links
Home page
Development progress
Forums - Use the tank name Vanguard to register.
Screenshots
About the author
Hobbyist working on a tank game when time allows. Play the prototype at => http://www.sytrept.com/60tons/
Torque Owner Nils Eikelenboom
Studio DimSum
Good luck with testing!
(and nice to see you have that rader working :)