Applying automated testing in an existing client-server game : A pursuit for fault localization in Quake 3

Abstract: This paper addresses the question formulation “Is it possible to implement automated testing in an existing client-server game in order to pinpoint faults and achieve credibility to tests?” The gaming industry’s goal, in most cases, is to release games that appeal to both their financial goals and the enjoyment factor of the players. In order to fulfill these goals, the game will need to function properly and the process to assure this is testing the game to find possible faults. This process is time and cost consuming in an exponential rate in accordance to game extensiveness, which makes this problem a very important decision in the process of development. The problem is most commonly tackled by using massive manual testing session, called alpha or beta sessions. In these session the game is at an early stage of development and gets released to a set player base to test and report issues encountered. We believe that the process of testing games could be more effective by utilizing automated testing. This thesis will investigate the possibilities to our claim. The result is a visual representation of the tests we managed to apply, while focusing on the client-server connectivity of Quake 3 and a graph of measurements for our improvised fault localization. This paper describes a solution in form of automated tests within a existing client-server game and a start to what could be early stages of a pattern obtained throughout this project.