Who should test your game?

A small studio makes a football game. The team has played it for months. They think it is perfect.

Then 200 players try it. In one hour they find 30 problems. The team never saw them.

People who build a product get used to it. Other people see things the team does not. Who tests, and when, matters.

Key words

Word	What it means	Example
Acceptance testing	The client checks that the product does what was agreed.	The college checks the timetable app
Alpha testing	An early test by people inside the company.	Staff play the new game
Beta testing	A test by real users outside the company, before the final release.	200 players try the game
Requirement	Something the product must do.	Users can log in
Client	The person or company that asks for the product.	A college
Feedback	What testers tell you about the product.	The menu is hard to find
Release	Giving the product to its users.	Version 1.0 goes on the app store
Manual testing	A person uses the product and checks it.	You press every button

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Three kinds of testing compared

	Alpha	Beta	Acceptance
Who tests	Staff inside the company	Real users outside the company	The client, or the users it chooses
When	Early, the product is not finished	Late, the product is nearly finished	At the end, before the client says yes
Main question	What is broken?	What do real people find?	Does it meet the requirements we agreed?
Result	A list of bugs to fix	Feedback and bugs	Yes or no from the client

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The order can change

data-callouts.note.label

Projects differ. Some clients accept before a beta. The idea stays the same: staff first, real users next, and the client says yes before release.

Acceptance testing in detail

At the start of a project the client and the team agree a list of requirements. Each one is something the product must do.

Acceptance testing goes down that list. Some requirements are must-have: the client cannot say yes without them. Some are nice-to-have: it is good to have them, but the client can say yes without them.