Game update pet peeve

[Shadowofmyself]

I realize most of the games currently available are WIPs. It's one of the reasons I'll only download every third or so update. However, I'm starting to get annoyed with some game devs. You download a 2-4 gig file, only for there to be a game breaking scripting error. Yay, it's fixed right away, but why am I having to redownload the entire game when the fix is only 5 meg scripting file? Is this just me or do others also have this peeve?

[infiniteignorance]

I'd like to know why there are game breaking scripts in the first place. Do they not test the games before they release them?

[Shadowofmyself]

I can think of a couple ways(uploading a bad/older version/forgetting to save a bug fix/not checking sub-optimum routes/failure to properly initialize variables), but you are right game breakers should be caught in the QA testing phase prior to release.

[Nersão]

Well, I've seen a lot of different situations around. The two ones I've seen the most are:
- When a dev finds a big bug or an amount of bugs and he releases a bugfix like you said, a smaller file that focus only on solving the problem.
- When a dev finds some bugs that don't disturb so much the gameplay, and then they decide to fix them only on the next update/episode of the game, then you'll have to download it all, but because its a new episode indeed.
- And this situation you described... when there's nothing but fixing the bugs, but the dev releases a whole new version of the game to fix them!!! It's not nice at all, but I must say that I've seen the other two happen more often than this one....

For the games having bugs.... I've seen that sometimes the dev team is a one person team.... or two at most. So they can't test everything and sometimes they don't have the resources to do that the proper way, like don't having a way to test it on MAC for example or sometimes the game works fine on the devs computer, but have some bugs in others due to hardware differences....
I think we must have in mind that when we talk about adult games, in the vast majority of cases, we're not talking about a great game developing company like we see in console and computer games.... we'll be talking about a small team and in most of the times the game relies on one person only, with a few helpers, so they won't have all the resources to release a flawless game, and that's why they even ask for bug reports, they depend on the players to find what they couldn't...

[Wolfschadowe]

Do they not test the games before they release them?

Some clearly do not. Sometimes, even with thorough testing, things can slip through.

I know this thread isn't necessarily directed towards BEW, but I thought I'd give a brief overview of the testing that goes on here. As you all are aware, bugs and mistakes slip though the testing for BEW and require patches for just about ever episode, although usually our patches are just a few script files and not GB patches..in fact, BEW isn't even 1GB in size so....image compression, anyone? Anyone?

BEW Testing Stages:

• Logic flow testing: Microsoft Excel modeling.
  • Every path is modeled in excel for Min/Max score plus variables to help ensure every path is reachable. This includes all variables.
  • Downside: It's not practical to predict every possible combination of moves, so only intended paths are modeled along with a few alternate paths.This workbook is incredibly complex and the modeling takes a few minutes to run on a hefty system.
• Automated Regression Testing: Katalon Studio
  • Every main path (i.e. Emily Main, Faith Elite, etc..) is testing using automated tests that run through the entire story path.
  • Downside: There are over 80 story paths. Those are just happy path tests to ensure the story can be completed.
  • Full scan of every path is slowly being built by BEW Testers (Thanks Crossy!) however, there are so many combinations and possibilities, that only a small percentage of the game is full-scan tested so far.
• Internal Playtesting: Manual
  • Episode is released to BEW-Testers 1-2 weeks before early access. They hammer the game and try to break it. Usually succeeding because people find new and interesting paths that were not intended.
• Early Access: Manual
  • One week before general release, the game is released to guinea pigs...er...Patreons at the Early Access levels.
    They find even more bugs because more eyes, and more inventive ways and unintended paths to places can put the game into an unexpected state.

Even with all of that testing, a quick browse of the bug-tracker shows that there are still bugs in the game! Testing is a balance of taking time to make sure the game is right, and actually releasing the game. It's sometimes a hard balance to find. Personally, I feel that BEW hits it about right. If you think episodes take a long time to come out now, then just imagine how long it would take if we tested everything so much that it was guaranteed there are no bugs?

[infiniteignorance]

Do they not test the games before they release them?

Some clearly do not. Sometimes, even with thorough testing, things can slip through.

I know this thread isn't necessarily directed towards BEW

No, but I've never run into a critical error on BEW that caused the game to be unplayable. Those are more the types of errors that shouldn't even escape basic testing. Anyone who's ever coded knows it's easy to make a typo when you're writing hundreds or thousands of lines of code. One is all it takes to cause an error. Anyone who's ever used Windows knows they're still updating their versions five years later. And they have hundreds of developers and testers and a QA department.