Common Video Game Glitches You Must Identify as a QA Expert

The gaming industry has experienced a paradigm shift in the past decade. Its not just for fun anymore. It’s a serious business opportunity for game development companies.

One of the major factors that pushed gaming industry beyond the boundaries was the Covid-19 pandemic when people had limited options while staying in their homes most of the time.

Gaming witnessed a huge surge as a great way of entertainment.

Since then, it has reached to a whole new level.

Now that we are in mid-2023, with some of the most powerful and advanced gaming hardware especially mobile phones, it feels we on the doorway to a sci-fi world of gaming.

Gamers want extreme performance for their gameplay. Game streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch have transformed the gaming industry into a multi-million-dollar entertainment industry. Gamers stream their gameplays on such platforms for the world to see their skills online.

PUBG has become a household name in the entire gaming world. It’s not only meant to be played for fun but huge tournaments are being organized to host players for PUBG and similar other battle-royale games like Fortnite and Apex Legends.

Performance lags and game glitches are unacceptable.

The gameplay is expected to be bug-free and smooth. With the availability of some of the fastest and latest hardware for multiple platforms like consoles, PC, and mobile devices, games are becoming more and more demanding and complex from the development perspective.

Glitches and bugs while gaming can be a huge turn-off for the audience. These errors in the game code can cause unexpected or unwanted behaviors leading to frustration and disappointment.

That’s where Quality Assurance (QA) experts come into play for game testing. Proper testing is essential in identifying common video game glitches and removing them promptly.

In this blog, we will learn about common glitches and essential tips to identify them as a QA professional.

Table of Content

1. 9 Common Video Game Glitches You Must Identify as a QA Professional
2. QAble Utilizes Top 4 Game Testing Tools Recommendations to Identify Game Glitches Bugs
3. FAQs

9 Common Video Game Glitches

Gamers are extremely dedicated to conquering their quests and increasing their levels. Thus, even a minor glitch in the game can be a major drawback as they may lose their cool in no time.

So, let’s deeply understand the common glitches that QA professionals must focus on to provide a seamless and engaging gaming experience.

Graphics Glitches

Have you encountered screen tearing, and flickering textures, while playing any video game? Yes, that’s called graphic glitches.

• It is mainly caused due to rendering issues.
• Two or more frames overlap each other, also known as screen tearing.
• It makes the game look unstable as the objects flicker rapidly and distracts gamers.
• Affects the player’s ability to conduct any action such as dodging, jumping, etc. affecting the game performance.

Audio Issues

Audio related issues are caused due to problems in the game's audio engine, audio files, and coding errors.

• Background music, voiceovers, and sound effects become muffled and distorted.
• Jarring audio loops affect the quality experience.
• Particular sound effects may not play causing silence in specific crucial moments.
• The delay between the corresponding sound effect and the event causes asynchronous audio.

Error in Loading/ Saving Achievements

Error in loading/saving achievements game glitches bugs that affect tracking the rewards and milestones of the game.

• Players complete their goals to unlock the achievement, but the game fails to register the accomplishment.
• The game progression may not be correct. As the player progresses, unlocking achievements, there might be issues with the accomplished tasks. This can be really frustrating.
• Achievements can get unlocked in non-sequential order leading to the confusing display of the achievements with load and performance testing.

Also Read: 7 Types of Game Testing Techniques

Text Problem

Text problem is also a crucial video game glitch related to the textual and display elements of the game.

• Text issues in the game comprise misspellings and typographical errors.
• Textual elements can also stack on top of each other making it difficult to read the content properly.
• While the games are released in different regions of the world, the language barrier could lead to inconsistencies in the displayed game text. This could further escalate to miscommunication between gamers and even the game could end up leaving users very confused.
• Layout issues can cause texts to be cut off, preventing the users from reading the full message.

Game Freeze

There are many times when the game suddenly becomes unresponsive, and the screen appears to be stuck in a single frame.

• There are many reasons for game freeze such as hardware, coding errors, memory leaks, conflicts, etc.
• Players lose progress due to frequent interruptions during intense gameplay moments.
• Game freeze and lag are different from each other as the game completely stops responding.

Crashes

During a crash, the game application terminates and returns to the home screen. Here are the key points that you must learn about video game glitches related to crashes.

• Game crashes happen due to conflicts in hardware, memory issues, and programming errors.
• It forces players to replay the segments they have already played.
• Developers release crucial updates and patches to address crash-related issues based on QA feedback.
• The frequency of crashes mainly depends on the game’s complexity and stability.

Also Read: Why A Professional Game Tester Is Important for Game Testing?

Distorted Texture

Game glitch bugs also disrupt the visual quality of the game. It causes the characters or environments to appear stretched and pixelated.

• Errors in texture mapping and problems in the game’s graphics are some primary reasons for distorted textures.
• Textures can also hold incorrectly and slowly causing momentary distortion before rendering.
• There could be distortions in the game visuals or game texture that could completely ruin gameplay experience.

Gameplay Defect

Certain gameplay defects are the prominent issues affecting the core and interactive elements of the game.

• Gameplay defects can affect the behavior of the game characters during gameplay or even break the game sequence or the plot. Additionally, it could result in non-functioning of game controls leaving players disappointed.
• It can hinder players from achieving success and force them to start from the previous points.
• Gameplay video game glitches cause an imbalance in maintaining the fairness of the game.

Physics Glitches

In-game Physical glitches is another category of video game glitches that affects the physics simulation causing unintended and unrealistic reactions.

• It occurs due to improper collision detection.
• Game players observe that characters move in unusual ways, passing through opaque surfaces, etc. causing awkward animations.
• Objects which must rest on the surfaces start hovering is also a physics glitch.
• It has a significant impact on the gameplay mechanics that heavily rely on physics interactions.

Also Read: Winning Strategies: Essential Tips for Effective Game Testing of PUBG

QAble Utilizes Top 4 Game Testing Tools Recommendations to Identify Game Glitches Bugs

Are you looking for a game-testing expert?

As a Top Software Testing Company in India, QAble stands by your side transforming the way you test your game with the Best Game Testing Services.

Our seasoned experts are always present to adapt and innovate to meet the unique challenges of game testing. Analyzing every aspect of the game has led to achieving the best satisfaction for our clients.

Now that you know about the prominent glitches, let’s look at the tools that you must utilize to identify game glitches and bugs.

• Appium: Appium framework is used for mobile game testing. Image recognition is a way of automating tests for graphics-based content, such as mobile games, by comparing screenshots or images of the game UI with expected ones.
• Bugzilla: Bugzilla offers great versatility as it is an open-source bug-tracking system. It facilitates tracking, bug reporting, and collaboration among team members.
• TestComplete: It is an automated testing tool that supports video game testing on various platforms to address bugs and glitches.
• Unity Test Framework: It is mainly designed for Unity games but plays a crucial role in identifying bugs and glitches.

The above tools will help you in resolving glitches and bugs to deliver a high-quality gaming experience.

In conclusion, partnering with QAble will help you deliver a performant game to your users and help you stand out in the competitive world of mobile gaming.