Glossary of the Lecture 7 «Game testing» for the «Software Testing: Basics and Practice» course

Animation – a frame-by-frame image change to create a motion effect. In 3D games, a frame-by-frame change in the coordinates of objects or its parts (possibly points) to create a motion effect.

ADB (Android Debug Bridge) – a multifunctional utility for working with Android devices through the command line, the Android SDK component. ADB allows exchanging data with a running  Android emulator or a real connected (via USB, Wi-Fi network) Android device (tablet, phone).

Audio Drop – an error in the sound reproduction when words in dialogs disappear, as in case of poor communication during a telephone conversation.

Crash – an emergency application shutdown caused by a defect.

Cheat Code – a part of the game code, a small application that allows to test the individual parts of the games (levels, locations, scenes), accessing them without going through most of the game, as well as add unlimited resources to the characters (money, weapons, etc.).

Clipping bug – an error in texture displaying. A polygon overlays or passes through another polygon. For example, when a soldier stands outside the door and his weapon passes through the door.

Camera – an object that is the user's vantage point  in games. In 2D games, the camera is also present, but it is orthogonal (without perspective distortion) and its direction is fixed.

Cut-Scene – a narrative section of the gameplay in which the character can't walk around the location or interact with other objects.

Collisions – the game objects created to implement collision detection functionality between models. Thanks to collisions, the character does not fall through the floor.

Drag-and-Drop mechanics – a way to control objects in the game, which is implemented by «capturing» (by pressing and holding the mouse button) the object displayed on the screen.

3D Model – a geometric three-dimensional object in the game, consisting of points in space and polygons (facets) that form these points.

Distortion – an error in sound reproduction, distorted sound in conversations, etc.

(See also sound distortion, sound error)

Frame Drop – a defect that causes the frame rate to drop to critical levels.

Freeze – defined as the freezing  of frames, sound samples, most often associated with poor game performance or lack of RAM.

Functional Game Defect – a defect in the game logic or any other part of the game process («freezing», «slowing down playback», «unexpected actions», going out of the field, etc.).

Frame rate – the number of frames to change per unit of time, the standard measurement unit is FPS (Frames Per Second).

Gameplay – what distinguishes a computer game from non-interactive forms of entertainment such as books or movies. While watching a movie or reading a book, a person is only an observer. Gameplay allows us to interact with the game, to solve the tasks set by the game designer with the help of game mechanics.

Game Mechanics – defined as a set of rules and feedback loops designed to create enjoyable gameplay. Game Mechanics are building blocks applied and combined with a game and non-game context (e.g. quests, points, achievements).

(See also in-game mechanics, main game mechanics, main game mechanics, minor game mechanics)

Game genre – a collection of games united by common characteristics of a game process.

Hint – a game tip explaining the player the details of the gameplay.

(See also tip)

Hitboxes – collisions, sometimes separated game objects that are superimposed on top of models to implement damage mechanics.

Hardlock – a software defect, due to which the passage of the game beyond a certain point becomes impossible. It can be fixed only by a complete progress reset or by game reinstalling.

Input Lag – defined as an input delay (both short and long), most often associated with a low frame rate, can also be caused by the delay of input devices (mouse, keyboard, gamepad, steering wheel, etc.).

Invisible Wall – an error in textures displaying. Additional geometry without texture, which makes it invisible, so the player can not pass through it.

(See also the invisible wall, geometry without texture)

Localization testing – the verification of the correct display of an application/game texts in supported languages. 

Lockit – a document provided by the customer, that lists all the texts of the application in all supported languages.

Loading Screen – a picture that is displayed to players during the map/game level loading.

Lag – a short-term freeze/lag of the image output to the screen.

Landing page – an advertisement that allows the user to get acquainted with other released projects of the company or subscribe to newsletters. It usually appears at the beginning of the game before loading the main menu.

Memory leak – an allocated and not freed memory that is no longer used, which, in turn, leads to more memory allocation and results in lower system performance, and, in the case of iOS, emergency program termination.

Missing Geometry – an error in displaying textures. The wall or barrier is not assigned to the textures and the player can safely pass through them.

(See also lost geometry, texture without geometry)

Missing Textures – an error in displaying textures. No texture assigned to the object.

Out of bounds – an unintended exit of game elements beyond the permitted limits. For example, a player can go beyond the boundaries of a location, or the text goes beyond the text field.

Point-and-Tap mechanics – a way to control objects in a game, which is implemented by selecting an object or area to which this object is needed to be applied.

Pause Menu – a menu that can be called and stopped directly from the gameplay  . It should contain at least three buttons: continue the game, go to the menu, call the setup menu.

Retina – the general marketing name for LCDs used in Apple devices and with such a high pixel density that the human eye is not able to notice that the image consists of them. Apple determines the different pixel density for different devices and sets them according to the typical viewing distance for this class of devices - the larger the typical distance, the lower the pixel density is required to achieve indistinguishability. According to research, the human eye can only distinguish 300 PPI, the manufacturer claims that on such displays the pixelation of the image is not visible. 

(See also retina display, Super Retina display)

Softlock – a software defect, due to which the passage of the game beyond a certain point becomes impossible. Unlike the hard lock, restarting the game, launching a breakpoint, pausing can fix this defect.

Splash Screen – an image that appears during the loading of a program/game. Usually a logo or just a picture with information about the game or the developer.

(See also boot screen)

Sprite – a 2D model, a geometric object created most often as a raster image. 2D animations can be created using sprites.

Texture – the image that is superimposed on the surface of the model giving   it a color, tint, or illusion of relief. The approximate use of textures can be easily imagined as a pattern on the surface of a sculptural image.

Tile graphics – a method of creating large images (usually, levels in computer games). The image consists of small fragments of the same dimensions (patterns), like a picture of tiles.

Umlaut – in linguistics is a various superscript, subscript, and less often in-line characters used in the letter and syllabic writing systems, not as independent designations of sounds, but to change or clarify the meaning of other characters.

(See also diacritical mark)

Xcode – an integrated software development environment for OS X and iOS developed by Apple.

Z-Fighting bug – an error in textures displaying. Two objects have a close Z-coordinate and, depending on the viewpoint, one or another is shown, or both are displayed in a striped pattern.

(See also texture error, object coordinate error)