#BugTesting

[sudarshannarwade]

Guidelines for Negative Test Cases

While it is important to verify that the software performs its basic functions as intended, it is also equally important to verify that the software can efficiently handle an abnormal situation. Testers generate most defects through creative situations. read more

[d0d0-b0i]

oh my god guys deltarune tomorrow so excited

[taqato-alim]

Analysis of: YouTube video "Découvrez les Coulisses de A Plague Tale Requiem la pépite d'Asobo Studio" by Julien Chièze

The term "document" in the following text refers to the video's subtitles.

Summary of the key discussions:

Concept art process with over 100 pieces created to inspire 3D art and level design. Iterative refinement shown.

Proprietary game engine development focused on optimizing and evolving between games to enable ambitious designs.

Art, programming, sound design, cinematics, QA testing and simulation techniques showcased.

Sound design emphasized composition, scores, foley, ambient layers and 3D audio support.

Cinematics utilize mocap/performance capture, facial matching for over 2 hours of cutscenes.

Level/environmental art creation inspired by concept art iterations into 3D worlds.

Simulation of up to 3 million rats through particle systems, Houdini and engine optimizations.

QA testing covered gameplay evaluation, bug fixing, developer guidance roles.

Culture appeared dedicated to teamwork, creativity, technical excellence and quality standards.

High production values indicated across disciplines like extensive art, animation, sound and polish.

Transparency shown in detailed explanations of various pipeline aspects and challenges.

Ambition to push technical boundaries and listen to player feedback between entries.

Summary of the document content:

The tour guide provides an introduction and discusses different departments within the studio such as art, programming, sound design, and quality assurance testing.

In the art department, they discuss concept art development and how concept art is used to inspire 3D art and level design. Over 100 pieces of concept art were created.

Programming discussions include using a proprietary game engine, improvements made between games, and optimizations to support increased numbers of simulated rats.

Sound design covers foley recording, ambiance design, music integration, and 3D spatial audio support.

Quality assurance testing encompasses gameplay testing, debugging, providing guidance to developers, and ensuring quality.

Cinematic development is discussed, showcasing motion capture, performance capture, facial animation matching, and integrating over 2 hours of cinematics.

Level design and environmental art creation is demonstrated through multiple concept art iterations and integration into the game world.

Simulation of large numbers of rats (up to 3 million) through particle systems and optimizations is highlighted.

Various workspaces, demonstration areas, and in-development assets are toured.

How concept art is used to inspire 3D art and level design:

The art department creates a large number (over 100 pieces) of concept art to establish the visual style and environments.

Concept art goes through multiple iterative refinements as more details are added.

It is used to inspire the 3D environmental artists and level designers in building out the game world.

Early concept art acts as a skeleton that later art adds more substance and realism to.

Level designers and 3D artists are able to get inspiration and ideas for how to construct levels, environments and assets from the conceptual artwork.

Assets shown changing from early concept artwork to highly detailed 3D versions incorporated into actual game levels.

The concept art process allows the creative vision to be established before full 3D art production and helps guide that production.

So in summary, extensive conceptual artwork forms the basis for the overall art style and acts as a starting point to inspire more realistic 3D art production and level design integration into the actual game.

The proprietary game engine:

The studio uses a custom-built, proprietary game engine to develop their games.

Having their own engine allows for greater flexibility than a third-party engine like Unity.

It enables them to more easily implement ambitious ideas that may be difficult in other engines.

Significant improvements were made to the engine between the first and second games to take advantage of more powerful consoles.

This allowed for things like larger maps, higher rat counts, new gameplay systems, and enhanced graphics.

Programming focuses on optimizing and evolving the proprietary engine to support the creative vision.

Engine changes are highly iterative, informed by ongoing design and testing needs.

Having the engine in-house facilitates close collaboration between programmers and designers.

This aids rapid iteration and adapting the tech to new gameplay prototypes or design requirements.

So in summary, the custom engine provides needed flexibility and creative control, and its ongoing refinement is a core focus of programming to enable ambitious game designs.

Simulating large numbers of rats:

Rat simulations utilize particle systems and other techniques in the game engine and authoring tools like Houdini.

Early experiments included physics-based simulations and tsunami-like waveforms.

Current approach injects velocity vectors in key locations to produce natural-looking wave motions.

Parameters control viscosity, speed, bounce behaviors and other properties.

Dividing simulations into modules allows precise timing/placement by level designers.

Individual rats are not tracked at these large volumes - it's about simulating coherent group movements.

Optimizations between games allowed for greatly increased rat counts from 3000 to 30000 to 3 million.

Simulating impressive numbers of rats at scale creates compelling chase/swarm sequences.

Iterative tweaking synchronized emergent behavior with cutscene/gameplay needs.

So in summary, advanced simulation techniques leverage the latest technology to convincingly portray enormous rat hordes through controllable, optimized crowd systems.

Tricks and techniques for simulating large numbers of rats:

Using particle systems and tools like Houdini to define behaviors and simulations at scale. This allows simulating hundreds of thousands to millions of rats.

Injecting velocity vectors in key areas to create more natural, wave-like swarm motions rather than rigid shapes.

Controlling parameters like viscosity, speed, bounce, etc. to refine the simulation properties.

Modularizing simulations so individual effects/waves can be precisely timed/placed by level designers.

Not tracking rats individually at these volumes, instead simulating coherent group movements and behaviors.

Projecting geometry like rat sprites onto simpler collision proxies rather than using complex 3D geometry for each rat. This reduces draw calls and performance impact.

Generating variations in animation and sounds procedurally so it seems like many unique rats rather than repetitions.

Caching/pre-baking simulations where possible to optimize runtime performance.

Leveraging more powerful consoles to massively increase the number of simulated entities from previous games.

So in summary, particle systems, simplified collision, procedural variation and optimization tricks allowed convincing large-scale rat simulations within technical constraints.

Sound design:

Sound design involves recording foley, designing ambient audio layers, and integrating an original musical score.

Music aims to dynamically support gameplay/story pacing through interactive composition.

Key melodic themes are developed across multiple games to tie the narrative together.

3D spatialized audio is a focus to fully immerse the player in the virtual environment.

Next-gen consoles allow implementation of advanced audio technologies like 3D audio.

Breath sounds and subtle musical cues help establish character emotion/psychology.

Iteration occurs between sound designers, composers and other teams to synchronize audio with visuals/gameplay.

Sample audio showcased how layers like ambient atmosphere, music and effects combine.

Early concept music played to inspire writers during cinematic scripting.

So in summary, thoughtful sound design aims to fully immerse the player through rich ambient spaces, musical storytelling and 3D audio technologies supported by the latest consoles. Cross-team collaboration optimizes the audiovisual experience.

Cinematic development:

Cinematics play an important role in the storytelling and emotional impact of the game.

Motion capture and performance capture is used to capture actor performances.

Facial animation is matched closely to the captured performances through the use of cameras focused on the actors' faces.

Early storyboards help plan and visualize scene beats, timing and flow before capturing performances.

Storyboards can also be used to guide actors in their portrayals.

Extensive cinematics totaling over 2 hours were created for the game.

Iteration occurs to refine cinematics based on gameplay, level design and other factors.

Captured performances are integrated into the game engine alongside visual elements.

Streamers saw some of the raw emotional reactions from players experiencing cinematic moments.

So in summary, motion capture and performance-driven animation is used to create highly cinematic story moments totaling many hours, enhancing the narrative experience.

Level design and environmental art creation:

Concept art goes through numerous iterative refinements to evolve locations from basic sketches to fully realized 3D environments.

Early concepts establish the overall setting and vibe before production begins.

Later concepts add increased detail, lighting, textures and scene-specific elements.

Level designers and 3D artists are inspired by concept art to start constructing in-game areas.

Areas demonstrated include village exteriors, indoor spaces, arenas, camps and story-focused set pieces.

Designs consider narrative beats, gameplay functionality and visual cohesion.

Dozens or hundreds of concept pieces may be made to fully flesh out an environment.

3D versions integrate all design and technical work into the final integrated experience.

Collaboration between concept artists and level/enviromental teams brings each location to life.

So in summary, iterative concept art forms the backbone for fully realized 3D levels through inspiration and implementation by level/environmental production teams.

Quality assurance:

Quality assurance testing is a key part of the development process, alongside activities like programming, art and design.

Testers perform various testing roles from gameplay testing to debugging to providing guidance to developers.

The goal is to help ensure the overall quality of the final game.

Testing is done at every stage from early prototypes through to the finished product.

Testers help catch issues and provide feedback to improve various elements like gameplay, bugs, design choices etc.

It's not just playing the game but involves evaluating many parallel aspects to catch potential problems.

Quality assurance testers work closely with all development teams throughout the project.

Their role is to aid, follow and support the development process from the beginning to deliver the best possible experience.

So in summary, testing plays a vital transversal role in collaborating with other teams to improve the game at every step through comprehensive evaluation activities beyond just gameplay.

Based on the details provided in the document, the quality of production for these games appears to be very high. Some factors that indicate this:

The studio uses a proprietary game engine that they have heavily optimized and improved over multiple titles. This allows them to implement ambitious designs.

Extensive concept art is produced, going through many iterations, to fully visualize all aspects of the game world and story. Over 100 concepts in some cases.

Cinematic cutscenes employ motion capture and involve over 2 hours of professionally captured/animated content.

Sound design creates rich, immersive audio through layering, composition and advanced spatial audio techniques.

Large development teams of 70-75 people, with specialized roles, enable high production values across many disciplines.

Systematic quality assurance testing catches issues at all stages to help ensure polish.

Advanced simulation techniques create impressive, convincing in-game effects like swarms of millions of rats.

Multiple awards and positive press/reception suggest released quality met ambitious creative goals.

Efforts to listen to players and iterate/improve between titles.

The depth of content, optimization efforts, collaborations between specialized teams, creative ambition and polish of things like art, animation and sound all indicate an extremely high standard of production for the games discussed. The studio appears dedicated to quality.

Based on the details provided in the document, some observations about the culture of the production studio include:

Strong emphasis on collaboration between different disciplines like art, programming, design, sound, QA. Suggests an integrated team-focused culture.

Creative autonomy coupled with technical constraints - willingness to adapt designs while optimizing engine capabilities. Balance of art and engineering.

Iterative testing and feedback cycles that help shape the final product. Openness to improving based on player input over multiple games.

Focus on ambitious creative goals and pushing the limits of latest generation technology to enable complex designs. Risk-taking innovative culture.

Passion for the craft evident in discussions - artists, programmers, etc. clearly invested in their work and medium. Sense of pride.

Transparency and enthusiasm in giving a full studio tour and technical explanations. Culture that values knowledge sharing.

Polish and attention to detail across sound, animation, visuals, etc. Quality-driven mindset.

Relative autonomy using their own proprietary engine. Suggests a culture that prizes control and flexibility.

Overall, aspects discussed point to a culture that values creativity, technical excellence, teamwork, continuous learning and sharing knowledge towards ambitious long-term goals. A passionate, quality-focused environment.

[irrealisms]

everyone qsmposting earlier about blue winning via a bug got me so excited. im not even a qsmp fan my lifesteal fan ass just heard "bug" and got excited like a dog that heard the word "walk". i immediately asked my qsmp fan friends for a recap on discord and they can confirm this. my overall view is i don't think bbh should be doomscrolling twitter live on stream however i also think everyone should exploit bugs significantly worse than this forever and ever amen.

[oztheterrific]

bugtesting

[valduin111]

I LOVE GAMBLING!!! #DELTARUNETOMORROW #BELIEVERSCANWIN #PLUEY

MANIFESTING . AMEN

[tvlandofficiall]

on the topic of ch3&4 2025 — ch4 is currently being bugtested! exciting news!

[drwhataretheodds]

toby posted last night on bluesky that chapter 4 is now being professionally bugtested!

in july 2024, he provided a list of things that still had to be finished before the game would release.

in the december newsletter, he said that the new game_change function had been for the most part successfully implemented, although doing so caused the emergence of both old and new bugs. as of this update, it sounds like this has been fixed well enough to allow for proper bug testing! he also stated in the same newsletter that the japanese translation has had a first pass finished.

i don't think we've gotten any updates on porting to console versions yet, but since things are apparently close enough for them to move to this penultimate bug testing step, id say the game may be finished even sooner than we think!

we WILL be getting a trailer before the game officially releases, so we know it won't be a complete surprise release! but all that being said i really would feel comfortable predicting a release in the next few months!!

[omorithedreamermod]

FEBRUARY DEVLOG - 2

Though it'd be fun to showcase a little bit of my portrait process, even if it's not specific! Anyways, it's time for the fourth DEVLOG...and...

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

I got sick. I am still sick. This unfortunately has thrown a wrench in my productivity despite my best efforts. March release will still be possible, it just probably won't be as early as I was originally hoping, sadly. I hope I'll be back to full productivity soon. On the bright side, basically all contributions made by others are complete, so everything left to do is just on me. The list is a lot but I chose to do 85% of the mod, so it is on me to see it through!

That's why, rather than listing progress this week, I'll just list everything that still needs to be done.

THINGS LEFT TO DO:

General writing is complete, I just need to do some more flavor text and a bunch of NPC dialogue to certain locations that got completed later on.

There's a couple bits of sprite art, but barely any. Most of that is completely done.

There is only one more map to be made. A super small one! :D

Three music tracks are still pending. The full OST for the PRELUDE (including the 8 from the DEMO) is 48 tracks! I named them all recently it was very fun. Everyone worked hard!

Cutscene writing is complete up until a certain point. There's only one more section that needs writing. But, a lot of cutscenes still need to be programmed, so I really hope I can get better soon so I can do all of that. There's also other general programming to be done that I need to get around to.

BASIL real world portraits are done. SUNNY's are not. He doesn't need as many as BASIL, though.

I still have a couple NPCS to hand draw. Nothing fancy, though.

Badges all need to be made and then implemented. Wish me luck, there's quite a few!

After that, the playtest will be able to be sent off to people to bugtest while I then continue onto:

Drawing three whole cutscenes. Two on the longer side, one shorter.

(If time allows) A still image of DREAMER holding a thing! (Its a secret)

A certain separate thing needs to be completely written, then have a bunch of things drawn for it.

Credits video!!! Very important!!!!!

After everything above is implemented, I need to draw the additional art for the trailer...

CONCLUSION:

Hoping I can get back on track soon. I'm still sick and I'm frustrated about that. I'm really hoping I get better soon, as it's really set me behind on my intended schedule. Still, the goal is for full PRELUDE release in March, and I believe it's completely possible as long as I recover sooner than later. I know it might seem like a lot, but I did the DEMO all on my own. Trust me! March release is the plan! And the help I did get with sprite art (so many npcs!!!), OST(so many tracks...), some maps, and being able to ask people questions about programming when I'm lost has been absolutely wonderful. I wouldn't have been able to do everything on my own this quickly.

Though, I do hope after PRELUDE and I revamp the signups, I'll get even more help, because the plans for the future are quite hefty haha. I'll scale back if I need to, of course. Either way, I'm really excited, even if I am anxious and want it out ASAP. I'm so excited for everyone to see what THE DREAMER is truly going to be like!

[hangezoehq]

SEE THE FULL VIDEO BELOW

/ / /

(WARNINGS: heavy plot spoilers for alien stage, canon typical violence/death though it's not particularly gory, light flashing but no strobing)

slides this across the table.

i'll leave the description of the video below to explain the details but anyone who watches it (even if they're uninterested in alien stage) will be deeply appreciated because this piece specifically means the world to me.

honestly this is one of the most personally meaningful works i've created in a long time. this took me almost three months of nonstop work. i started it as a small character study when i got into alnst, but then i lost my cat - my best friend of 18 years earlier this year. i threw myself into working on this and eventually found it ran out of my control and morphed into a musing on the nature of grief; letting go of someone you can't save, or something that you wanted desperately but was never meant to be in this universe. i hope that comes across and speaks to someone out there.

on a more lighthearted funny note - at one point it was briefly consumed by a glitch so bizarre that capcut had to push a new patch specifically to fix my problem. i couldn't see the screen because it was being distorted by what i called "the dimension", a corrupted pixel vortex you could see nothing behind. i just edited blind for a few weeks because cmon - you think that'll stop me? i used wlmm for almost a decade. i've had worse. so that will be the legacy of this video forever behind the scenes, the free bugtester.

enjoy

-alex :]

p.s: go check out alien stage please i love it

[sudarshannarwade]

What is Black Box Testing?

Behavioral, opaque-box, closed-box, specification-based, and eye-to-eye testing are other names for black box testing. read more

[faelingdraws]

So uh…I assume you didn’t like the watcher dlc very much, then? (I’ve seen barely any of it myself and don’t have much of an opinion on it)

I don't. I really wish I could have, but unfortunately it has some very glaring issues to me that I cannot overlook; namely, the DLC was not only incredibly time crunched (playtesters onboarded a month before release, bugs fixed as late as last minute) but also unfinished in the eyes of the developers, as per a discord announcement that had a snippet from James, as seen here.

"Hello @RW News! This is James from Videocult bringing you good tidings. Right now we are hard at work finishing up development on The Watcher... ... On March 28th Rain World: The Watcher will release on PC. But that will not be the whole story. We have multiple updates planned, and the final arc of the Watcher will conclude with the console release, at a date TBD."

I'm tired of publisher meddling. I would have been happy to have waited an additional year for the DLC to have proper bugtesting, polish, and be the full story they wanted to tell, alongside feeling fully implemented - with things like pearls or even steam achievements, both of which the DLC lacks. I don't hold any ill will to the developers, because I know the internals of this kind of thing look awful, especially with publishers involved, due to my experience with Downpour. At a certain point a product, regardless of where it's at in development, has to be shoved out because publishers promised a certain date and already paid for merchandise to be ready for sale to celebrate. As it stands, that's how I feel about the DLC without any spoilers about it or it's gameplay, but if you're interested in that, I could do a writeup about it as well. I can't confidently recommend trying the DLC if you're on the fence until, at the very least, more updates roll out that fix more game breaking bugs and hopefully add more QOL to make the experience flow more smoothly.

[tricitymonsters]

CLARIFICATION: TCM will work on Mac on Steam and should also work from Itch.io too once that goes up in July.

Hello. I am here for multiple things.

1.) does TCM work on Mac on steam :( I looked for a download button in hopes steam hadn’t done Mac users dirty in the long run but I think they have.

2.) kicking my feet like a lil freak about raath popping buttons off of my oc’s shirt with a knife with intense eye contact and heavy breathing!

3.) thank you for writing this story for the lil freaks.

TCM does work on Mac! :D

It's been beta tested by several Mac owners I know and the Mac build launching correctly was confirmed by Steam during the approval process. If Steam's not downloading games correctly, you might need to clear your download cache. I recommend looking into this on Mac-specific steam or Reddit forums cause I actually don't personally own any Mac products and can't test it myself. But the Mac build is there and should work like any other game. (Perhaps submitting a steam support ticket may offer some wisdom as well)

ALSO thank you so much. I love Raath but know his violent weird ass is absolutely an acquired taste so it's really heartwarming when people find him as Neat as I do. I'm very excited that he'll have a larger part in TCM's story very soon.

I love the lil freaks. I am a lil freak. I want to write so much porn with plot and I'm so #blessed to be able to share it with yall.

[tellioari]

We're getting closer and closer to a testing build! join our discord if you wanna be notified when bugtesting begins!

[kafus]

very important comment widget update!

hi, if you've used my comment widget for neocities, i just pushed an extremely important bugfix that you should download as soon as possible. instructions on how to update are in the update log section of the page. if you don't update, replies won't show up for people of different timezones than you, and they won't be able to submit comments! (you may need to hard refresh the page if you don't see the update log)

i want to deeply apologize for the bug and not detecting it and fixing it sooner. i did not intend to leave broken code on anyone's site and i take great care with bugtesting and making sure everything is functional before pushing it live, and unfortunately i missed the mark this time. also unfortunately as is the nature of neocities, i can't exactly push an update to everyone and prompt you to update your site, so if you know anyone using the widget, please poke them on the shoulder to update! spreading this post if you've spread the original post would also be deeply appreciated. thank you so much for your patience. i am doing my best.

it would also be meaningful to me if you could confirm that the update works for you if you live in a non-USAmerican country, with a different timezone or date format. and of course, if you run into any issues with the new update, please let me know and i'll fix them as soon as possible.

[rainworld-name-verifier]

here's some DELTARUNE-themed names in celebration of the official release and chapters 3 + 4 coming out on june 4th/5th!

An Enigma Made Null and Void (gaster, supposed to be an iterator name but could also be an echo i guess)

The Surveyor (also gaster, reference to the original "SURVEY_PROGRAM" from 2018)

The Vessel/The Discarded (the player customized "goner" from the very beginning of chapter 1)

Seven Colored Threads, Countless Puppeteers (the players and fandom as a whole)

The Unwilling/The Commander (kris, in the light and dark world respectively)

The Delinquent/The Bruiser (susie, ditto)

The Dark Prince/The Shadowmage (ralsei)

The Lancer (lancer, because i couldnt think of a better bame for him. yes i know it's already taken ;v;)

A King of Spades, One Broken Heart/The Patriarch (king)

A Vast Database, 17 Glasses of Wine/The Matriarch (queen)

Unorthodox Approach (noelle)

The Festive/The Bugtester/The Cryomancer (noelle alt names)

The Gamer/The Intellect (berdly)

A Grave of Snow, Untimely Demise (berdly after not surviving)

A Old Plush, Too Many Stitches/The Shopkeep (seam)

A Canvas, Three Primary Colors/The Painter (swatch)

Ceaseless Chaos, Endless Mirth/The Jester (jevil)

A Disconnected Phone, Deals Gone Wrong/The Salesman (spamton)

A Repurposed Form, Reaching for Heaven/The Dealmaker (spamton neo)

and finally...

FRIEND INSIDE ME

sorry for making this so long, i got excited ;v;

Deltarune tomorrow

Except by the time this makes it through the post queue deltarune will already be out

I hope it’s as good as these names these are all great