Jade Empire: A Labour of Love

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QA - Alain Baxter, QA Lead on Jade Empire

What is the role of the QA Lead?

My main task is to make sure my team is working. I carry a large club, and 'motivate' my team with a few whacks. It's tough, but I've developed a mighty fine swing with all the practice I get.

Alain: Oh? You want the formal answer.... (Buttons up top button of shirt, places clip-on tie, and inserts slide rule into shirt pocket.)

My main task is to ensure the design and technical elements of the game function as intended. I've got a great team here, and we are always looking for ways to make the game better. The highlight of a typical day is when someone finds an issue that they bring to the group. Ideas and possible resolutions are heard, and all angles are looked at before a consensus is made. QA's feedback is valued, and this makes my role of lead that much easier.

There's still the daily routine monitoring testing cycles, planning design passes, and just playing the game over and over until it's perfect. This has to be done since fans expect this from our games. With this in mind, there's one key element we always have to keep in search of: Is the game fun? This is probably the hardest thing to test within a game, and is something you cannot loose sight of when you are buried deep into a testing cycle.

For a big game like Jade Empire, how difficult is it to find every possible bug?

Alain: Honestly, there is no way anyone can find all bugs in a game. One person's bug is another gamer's favoured feature. All we can do is plan, target, and test systems as they come down the pipe, and most of all, play the game.

We've split our QA team into technical and design groups. The tech team focuses on the core systems, and as they develop and are implemented into the game, broader testing is done to see how they work in-game. On the design side, this starts with the concept story, its implementation, and then final playability within the game. Does this catch everything? We are confident it does. Do I sleep well at night? No. There is always that nagging feeling we've missed something, and this drives me and my team to find it.

When does testing and Quality Assurance really kick-in for a game? Is it near the start of development? After the game goes alpha? Somewhere in-between?

Alain: We've been lucky with Jim (Producer) in that he wanted the QA team on as early as possible. Getting feedback on design concepts, being part of the developing technical architecture allowed us to plan and find ways to automate what we could to help out our testing.

We started with just the three of us (myself, and the tech and design gurus), and helped with the early combat systems, storyline, pre-alpha stage demos, etc. As the game developed, the team grew, and testing became more complex.

As of now, the room is a buzz, everyone is busy filing bugs, and I have my tech guru behind me wondering why I'm not testing (he's pushy that way...). Things are good.

How do you know you've reached the point where the game's as good as it can be?

Alain: QA is generally never ready to release a new game into the world. We've been with the game for many years, and when you've looked at the game for that long, all you see are its faults. QA gets possessive that way. It's OUR precious. I firmly believe that Gollum would've made a fine addition to any QA team. By I digress....

It's only after we've done some external testing (outside of QA), and start getting positive feedback, that we then start the see what we have. We have to take a step back at this point and see the game as a whole game. If we're happy, we then give it thumbs up. But when is QA ever happy?

When Jade Empire goes gold, how are you planning on celebrating?

Alain: At that point, champagne corks will fly and a mighty sigh of relief will be heard throughout the team. I'll most likely take a week off and find out if I'm still married and see if my children still recognize me.

It's at this point that the WAIT begins. Anyone in the gaming industry should know what this is. This is the time between the game hitting the shelves (knowing the old and new fans are playing the game) and the feedback begins to pour in. Will they like it? Did we miss something? Is it too hard/easy? Did they like the secret banana phone mission?

Most of the QA team will be on the community boards that day and for weeks after. For me, that is the final moment at the end of the long development of the game. Did we succeed and hit our main objective? Is it Fun?

Damn straight it is :)

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