PS5 Exclusives Will Take at Least One Year to Launch on PC

[KiryuRealty]

Yes, but what I meant when replying to your "With most engines, there's no point to testing before you get to the platform-specific stuff" sentence is that before the point you mention testing (even if not only from the QA/testers team, they have a small role in this early stage) is also constantly needed, even in the earliest, simplest and ugliest prototypes.

To see if each mechanic or any other stuff they develop at this point work, if people undeRstand them, if they combine well with other stuff, if the game feels good and fun, etc.

Concept testing is part of the initial development build process, so I don't tend to think of it as TESTING, since they are different things, and you don't do concept testing on multiple platforms, as it would be a waste of time. While you may test things in early development as far as seeing if they are fun or practical to implement, that's part of the building phase of development, and is done on the build platform only, as proof of concept is universal. Quality checks and polish come in the separate Testing phase, which is near the end of the process, once you have ported your base to all your target platforms.

You're conflating all testing as being the same thing, and they definitely are not.

 

[Yurinka]

Concept testing is part of the initial development build process, so I don't tend to think of it as TESTING, since they are different things, and you don't do concept testing on multiple platforms, as it would be a waste of time. While you may test things in early development as far as seeing if they are fun or practical to implement, that's part of the building phase of development, and is done on the build platform only, as proof of concept is universal. Quality checks and polish come in the separate Testing phase, which is near the end of the process, once you have ported your base to all your target platforms.

You're conflating all testing as being the same thing, and they definitely are not.

There are different types of testing performed by different people and in different stages of development event post launch, but they are all testing.

There are also even other types of testing like play testing, focus testing, localization testing, A/B testing, ASO testing etc.

There are no magic formulas and there are no enlightened devs with infinite knowledge and mastery or perfect execution, so everything has to be tested. Specially because developments are time and resource constrained, so they have to detect what fails as fast as possible to reduce as much as possible the amount of stuff they have to fix/change/remake, or more exactly, reduce as much as possible the amount of work trown to the garbage bin.

 

[KiryuRealty]

They are different types of testing, but they are all testing.

Semantically, yes, but proof of concept is not the same as quality testing in any way, which is why quality testing is its own phase in product development, and proof of concept is just part of the build process.

Take the L, further arguing is making you look like a pedantic twat grasping for a way to not make your initial argument that a game should be tested on all platforms from the build process onward look like a silly idea.

 

[ksdixon]

Yes, but what I meant when replying to your "With most engines, there's no point to testing before you get to the platform-specific stuff" sentence is that before the point you mention testing (even if not only from the QA/testers team, they have a small role in this early stage) is also constantly needed, even in the earliest, simplest and ugliest prototypes.

To see if each mechanic or any other stuff they develop at this point work, if people undestand them, if they combine well with other stuff, if the game feels good and fun, etc. Basically, I meant that who implements something tests if it works just after developing it. And typically also their department lead, the designer who designed it and depending on the case also the producer/director/etc. And sometimes also 'external' people like Q&A folks to get early player feedback.

And well, I also meant that all this early testing typically is done in the development PCs, often without needing to compile and export a new PC(or console) build unless they want to test it in a separate computer as it would be to do it in a meeting room: they test most of this stuff in the same game engine tool they use to develop the game.

Well... Yeah we know there their basic approach, as well as having studios share tech and techniques as floating support. And that's cool, other than it still feels like its takes 5 odd years for some sequels.

My question is over missed things that would seem to better serve that goal. Not getting Western SE to take the prior mobile team's knowledge on things like the GO series of games, for a jump speed back into the mobile gaming space after previously shuttering PS mobile/minis efforts etc, I don't get it?

 

[Yurinka]

Semantically, yes, but proof of concept is not the same as quality testing in any way, which is why quality testing is its own phase in product development, and proof of concept is just part of the build process.

Take the L, further arguing is making you look like a pedantic twat grasping or a way to not make your initial argument that a game should be tested on all platforms from the build process onward look like a silly idea.

As I mentioned all of them are different types of testing, not only semantically. During the whole development process (not only in the prototype or vertical slice portions, what I assume you mean when mentioning 'proof of content') stuff gets tested by different people after each thing gets implemented.

There's no specific 'quality testing' phase, but I think you mean alpha/beta/release canditate/gold milestones where there's more involvement from the Q&A team even if many people from many departments make other stuff during these milestones. Even if as I mentioned, Q&A folks also play a role in other stages of development and they aren't the only ones who test the game.

And no, I never said that a game (before console specific stuff is implemented) should be tested on all platforms, in fact the point was the opposite: that even in console exclusive games during development devs test internally the games on their PCs, mostly outside the final stages of development when console specific stuff is already in the game and can't be shown in a PC.

Mostly because it's faster to make a build or run and test the game on the game engine on a PC than in a dev kit / test kit, and also because devkits and test kits are typically pretty expensive, so it's better for them if everyone can test whatever they just implemented (a new enemy, a new weapon, a level design, having placed some decorative props in a background, etc) in their own PC. Many studios only have one or a few dev kits of each console, so can't have all of their devs testing many different builds at the same time.

They test the stuff they implemented on their own computers, and once done if gets the ok from whoever is needed (leads, producers, etc.) it gets added to the next build of that milestone. And once all the tasks of that milestone are implemented they test the build (on a PC or in a devkit/testkit, depending on the milestone/stage of development/state of the game) to see everything together and analize if they -and more imporantly, the higher ups and the publisher if isn't the same company- consider that they reached the milestone and have the greenlight to move on to the next one of if instead they'll need to do/change/fix/remove something else before moving on.

Well... Yeah we know there their basic approach, as well as having studios share tech and techniques as floating support. And that's cool, other than it still feels like its takes 5 odd years for some sequels.

My question is over missed things that would seem to better serve that goal. Not getting Western SE to take the prior mobile team's knowledge on things like the GO series of games, for a jump speed back into the mobile gaming space after previously shuttering PS mobile/minis efforts etc, I don't get it?

As I remember the first GO games from SE were pretty successful and got some awards but weren't a huge hit in the context of mobile gaming market. And later GO games weren't that successful.

Sony bought Lasengle, a studio who developed a way more successful mobile game for Sony that generated over a billion per year. Also did it being particularly successful in a region and market where Sony wants to grow and were consoles aren't and won't be as big as in the west: Asia, particularly outside Japan.

Sony also bought Savage, a new studio with key people from leading western mobile gaming teams who worked in other top, even more successful, mobile teams like Rovio, King, Supercell and others but also experienced on console and PC stuff at places like Rockstar or Wargaming.

Sony plans to continue acquiring, partnering with or hiring top staff from mobile market. The GO games, specially the first ones were cool, but were way less successful than other people. According to what Sony said seems that for mobile they'll focus both in top hit people and also on small buotique stuff (I assume meaning like the mobile games published by Annapurna and Devolver).