Game QA & Testing

Systematic gameplay testing across all features, levels, and systems. Edge case and boundary testing: what happens at max values, empty states, rapid input sequences, and unexpected player behaviour. Save/load verification covering data integrity across save, load, migration, and corruption scenarios. For multiplayer games, functional testing includes connection handling, desync detection, latency simulation, player count limit testing, and host migration scenarios. For localised games, we test string overflow, character encoding, right-to-left layout, and cultural appropriateness of translated content.

Apple App Store guidelines verification covering privacy manifests, IAP flows, and content ratings. Google Play policy compliance including data safety declarations, families policy, and target API requirements. For console, we test against PlayStation TRC, Xbox XR, Nintendo Lotcheck, and Steam technical requirements including Deck compatibility. Our console porting service includes full certification testing. Our App Store Launch service includes mobile submission compliance testing.

Frame rate profiling across representative gameplay scenarios, not just the title screen. Memory usage monitoring over extended play sessions to detect leaks that only manifest after 30+ minutes. Loading time measurement against platform-specific requirements. Thermal behaviour testing on mobile devices to verify sustained performance over long sessions. Minimum-spec device testing, because your game needs to run on mid-range hardware, not just the flagship phone on your desk. Battery drain measurement for mobile games during active play and idle/background states. Our Performance Optimisation service addresses the issues found during performance testing.

Device matrix testing across target hardware: iOS devices (iPhone SE through iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPad Mini through iPad Pro), Android devices (budget through flagship across Samsung, Pixel, Xiaomi, and other manufacturers), and PC configurations (minimum spec through high-end). OS version testing covering minimum supported and current versions. Screen resolution and aspect ratio testing including notch displays, Dynamic Island, and foldable screens. Controller compatibility for console controllers, MFi controllers, and Bluetooth gamepads. Browser testing for WebGL builds across Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge on both desktop and mobile.

Testing after each build to verify that fixes have not broken existing functionality. We maintain a regression suite that grows with the project: every bug fix adds a new test case to ensure the issue never returns. Smoke testing provides rapid verification of critical paths after each deployment, giving your team confidence that the build is stable before broader testing begins.

Unity Test Framework integration with both EditMode and PlayMode tests. Automated UI testing for menu navigation and common user flows that would be tedious and error-prone to test manually every build. Automated performance benchmarking with frame time budgets and memory thresholds that fail the build if exceeded. CI/CD integration: tests run automatically on every commit or build via GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins. For multiplayer games, bot testing simulates player behaviour at scale, stress-testing your servers with hundreds of simulated concurrent users.

Testing is integrated throughout development, not bolted on at the end. Test plans are written during pre-production alongside the game design document. Automated tests are set up early and run continuously via CI/CD. Every sprint includes testing time, and no sprint ships without a QA pass. This approach catches issues when they are small and inexpensive to fix rather than discovering them the week before submission.

Structured bug reports with steps to reproduce, expected vs actual behaviour, severity classification, platform, device, build number, and screenshots or video evidence. We use your preferred bug tracking tool: Jira, Linear, GitHub Issues, or anything else your team already uses. Severity classification follows a consistent framework: critical (crashes, data loss, certification blockers), major (broken features, progression blockers), minor (visual glitches, polish issues), cosmetic (non-functional visual improvements). Daily bug triage with the development team ensures fixes are prioritised based on impact and deadline proximity.

Testing on real devices, not just simulators or emulators. Simulators miss real-world issues like thermal throttling, actual memory pressure, GPU driver differences, and touch input precision. Our representative device matrix covers minimum spec, mid-range, and flagship tiers across iOS and Android, including multiple OS versions, screen sizes, and chipset generations. Console dev kits are available for platform-specific testing.

Regular test reports covering tests executed, pass/fail rates, open bugs by severity, and risk areas that need attention. Release readiness assessment before each milestone or platform submission: a clear yes/no recommendation with supporting evidence. Post-release monitoring recommendations so your team knows what to watch for after launch.

Developers are the worst testers of their own code. They unconsciously avoid the paths they know are fragile and test the happy path that they designed for. External testers find the bugs your team has been walking around for months. Fresh eyes on a codebase consistently find issues that internal testing misses.

Concentrated QA effort in the weeks before submission catches issues that trickle-in testing during development misses. A focused test pass with fresh eyes is the highest-value testing investment you can make. This is especially true for platform submissions (App Store, Google Play, console certification) where a rejection costs weeks.

Every new platform multiplies the testing surface. If you are adding mobile, console, or WebGL to an existing game, the testing load increases significantly. Device compatibility, input adaptation, performance on new hardware, and platform-specific certification all need dedicated testing.

Multiplayer testing requires multiple devices, network condition simulation, and systematic testing of edge cases: disconnection, reconnection, host migration, desync, and simultaneous actions. This is difficult to do thoroughly with a small team and requires test infrastructure that may not be worth building for a single project.

If your App Store or console submission has been rejected, you need someone who knows the certification requirements to do a targeted compliance test pass. We have navigated TRC, XR, Lotcheck, and App Store rejections and know exactly what the certification teams are looking for. See our console porting checklist for common failure points.

Many indie studios and small teams have no dedicated tester. Every hour of developer time spent testing is an hour not spent developing. External QA is often cheaper than the opportunity cost of developer time, and a dedicated tester with a structured process finds issues that ad-hoc developer testing misses.

Test a single build before submission, or ongoing testing throughout a sprint cycle. There is no minimum engagement length. If you need a focused two-day test pass before your Steam launch, that is a valid scope. If you need ongoing weekly testing during Early Access, we can do that too.

Focused test passes on critical paths rather than exhaustive coverage of every edge case. We prioritise the testing that has the highest impact on your launch: certification compliance, first-time user experience, core gameplay loop stability, and save data integrity. This targeted approach delivers the highest value per hour. Get a project cost estimate that includes QA with our Cost Estimator.

If you only need iOS App Store compliance testing, Steam Deck compatibility verification, or a pre-certification pass against Nintendo Lotcheck requirements, we can scope to exactly that. You do not need to buy a full QA programme to get targeted testing for a specific platform or submission. Check your readiness with our Platform Readiness Checklist.

Domi Online is a live MMORPG requiring continuous QA across every update. Testing covers multiplayer edge cases at 1,000+ concurrent users, server stability verification under sustained load, economy exploit detection, and regression testing across weekly patches. Live service QA demands a different discipline from launch testing: you are testing against an active player base where bugs have immediate, visible consequences.

Empires Rise required device matrix testing across 20+ Android devices and multiple iOS device generations to ensure playable performance on mid-range hardware, not just flagships. Performance testing identified thermal throttling issues on budget Android devices that only appeared after 15+ minutes of sustained gameplay, which would have been missed by testing on flagship hardware alone.

The founder's team at Jagex navigated PlayStation, Xbox, and mobile certification for RuneScape across multiple submission cycles. This experience with the full certification lifecycle, from initial TRC/XR compliance testing through feedback rounds to final approval, directly informs our approach to console and platform certification testing. Further reading: Platform Readiness Before Launch.