TITLE
Late nights, high scores, and blanket forts: the challenges of testing music and fitness games
AUTHOR
Diego Nicolas Argüello
PUBLICATION
The Verge
YEAR
2021
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
“I hopped into the lounge, with myself, and was baffled to see that this dumb idea actually worked.”One day during the testing of Dance Central VR in the Harmonix office, Robbie Russell was struggling with a very particular problem. They were running a multiplayer check of a social hub feature where up to four players can hang out in a private visual space and take part in dances, play mini-games, or just chat. But everyone else in quality assurance (QA) was busy at the time. So Russell came up with a workaround.
“You can’t just log someone in and then take the headset off because eventually it’ll time out,” they say. “So me, in my infinite dumbassery, put two headsets on, one Oculus Quest and one Oculus Rift, and strapped two sets of controllers to my wrist. The Rift controllers had holes big enough that I could slip my hands through them and wear them like very stupid bracelets while the Quest controllers fit in my hand normally. That became my go-to way to check multiplayer stuff for the rest of the project.”
Finding ways to cheat video game features and mechanics is not uncommon in QA. Testers are expected to dive into each corner of the experience in a thorough manner, often multiple times, to ensure that everything is working as intended. DIY solutions and shortcuts are bound to happen to optimize time. When it comes to QA testing for music and fitness games, however, these hacks aren’t just a way to save time — they’re a necessity.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Electronic Arts
Harmonix
Nintendo
Ubisoft
GAMES MENTIONED
Dance Central 2
Dance Central 3
Dance Central VR
EA Sports Active 2
Just Dance 3
Just Dance 4
New International Track & Field
Ring Fit Adventure
Rock Band 4
Xbox Fitness
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Robbie Russell
Caelyn Sandel
TOPICS MENTIONED
Working Conditions