Rain or shine, the gaming industry is always coming up with new offerings for its customers. It’s a busy battleground because players expect the best.
Be it supporting varying resolutions and devices or minimizing performance snags through multiple hours of continuous gameplay, gaming apps must deliver efficiently.
But with frequent updates to gameplay features, game performance optimization becomes a valid concern. It’s here that the need arises for a digital engineering services provider.
Digital engineering (DE) is key to strengthening the media and entertainment industry. One of DE’s crucial aspects includes gaming app QA. It encompasses solutions that enhance the quality and performance of gaming applications.
Gaming software optimization, as part of DE includes testing crucial aspects such as website performance, end-user experience, security and accessibility.
In this blog, you’ll discover how a DE services impacts these critical areas. You’ll also learn how a DE provider is instrumental for you to deliver high-quality gaming apps that captivate and engage players worldwide.
Ready to dive in?
Digitally engineered gaming apps: How are they better?
One of the key areas where digital engineering is making a significant impact is in gaming app QA. In gaming QA, the DE services will ideally use artificial intelligence techniques to enhance the testing process. This approach enables fast, efficient and effective testing. It ensures gaming apps are thoroughly evaluated for stability, functionality and compatibility across different platforms and devices.
Given the unique challenges faced by gaming companies, digital engineering for gaming needs deep domain expertise. Service providers are expected to offer bespoke solutions that address these challenges. An experienced DE firm should have the required expertise in user experience (UX) and non-functional testing.
Services include digital automation, web and mobile testing, IoT testing and quality engineering. By using advanced technologies and methodologies, a DE services provider can help you ensure that your gaming apps meet the highest standards of functionality, performance and user experience. Here are seven digital engineering strategies that can help you make your gaming apps better:
- Quality assurance
Quality assurance is necessary if you want to create truly reliable gaming apps. QA entails a comprehensive testing process. In this process, testers find bugs, glitches, performance issues, or anything that could potentially disrupt the UX.
As a game developer, you understand that the industry can be highly competitive. Even the smallest, most minor issues can sometimes lead to negative reviews. And as a result, you end up losing player trust. So, QA cannot be overlooked.
Also, the integration of artificial intelligence into QA has been a game changer. AI has changed the course of testing by automating tests, identifying error patterns and predicting potential issues in your game before they even arise.
- Cross-platform compatibility and performance optimization
Another key challenge in gaming app dev is making sure your game has cross-platform compatibility. Players use a variety of devices. This could be high-end gaming PCs, mobile phones or specialized gaming consoles. Each of these devices has a different specification. The digital engineering services provider can test your game for all of these devices. It checks various resolutions, operating systems and hardware capabilities. An optimization like this ensures your customers experience smooth gameplay, no matter what device they’re on.
- UX testing
Your gaming app’s user experience can decide and seal its fate. So, it’s important that you put a lot of thought into it. Factors like design and interface can significantly impact player engagement.
As part of a broader digital engineering strategy, UX testing steps up to assess the intuitiveness, responsiveness and overall appeal of the game’s UI. This helps you pinpoint exact areas for improvement and resultantly ensure the game is both fun to play and easy to navigate.
- Security testing
Security is another critical aspect covered by DE in gaming apps. With online features and in-app purchases being integrated into modern-day games, the question regarding the security of user data and potential cyber threats comes into the picture.
Digital engineering is a safety net that protects your gaming software by implementing robust security measures. It involves security testing, where testers run several pen tests and vulnerability assessments. This helps them root out as many security issues as they can.
Another vital aspect of digital engineering in gaming is secure data management. Using cloud-based solutions, it ensures that all game data is securely stored and managed. This includes sensitive information like player accounts and in-game transactions, protected by advanced security protocols.
By integrating these practices, digital engineering not only complies with data protection regulations but also enhances player trust by safeguarding people’s data.
- Accessibility testing
Accessibility is another growing concern for game developers. 41% of gamers worldwide, or roughly 300 million people, have some form of disability, according to PC and console games data platform, Newzoo. These figures show how important accessibility in gaming is to a substantial and diverse segment of the global gaming community. Ensuring that games are accessible to differently-abled players is also typically a legal requirement in most territories.
Digital engineering includes various accessibility tests that tackle this issue and guarantee that your game is inclusive and can be enjoyed by everyone.
- AR/VR systems testing
Virtual and augmented reality technologies are the two power-ups to the always evolving gaming industry.
Players love AR & VR as they offer new and exciting levels of immersion and interaction. VR in particular lets you create rich, lifelike environments that take players into entirely new worlds.
In digital engineering, testers can run tests to check if the detailed virtual landscapes and realistic characters are providing the experiences as expected. They also validate the intuitive controls that enhance the overall user experience in VR and AR games.
The interface and control mechanisms are expected to be user-friendly and responsive. It also falls on testers to optimize performance to make sure that the games are seamless, have reduced latency, enhanced graphic rendering and stable frame rate. All of this is instrumental in providing your players with an engaging and comfortable gaming experience.
- Cloud and scalability testing
Cloud computing has a critical role in digital engineering, especially for scaling gaming applications. As your game gains popularity, the cloud ensures seamless scalability. This means your game can handle increasing player demand without sacrificing performance or availability. By dynamically allocating resources, digital engineering maintains optimal game functionality during peak times, providing a smooth player experience.
Also, digital engineering harnesses cloud computing for efficient real-time data processing. This is important because you want to analyze player behavior and track in-game events to optimize gameplay. By using real-time analytics, digital engineering facilitates quick adjustments to game mechanics. This ends up enhancing the overall player experience while supporting continuous improvement and innovation.
Summing up
Digital engineering services and its providers are reshaping the media and entertainment landscape. This is particularly in the area of gaming app QA and development. By harnessing advanced technologies and specialized expertise, DE services ensure gaming apps deliver exceptional user experiences. For gaming companies striving to stay competitive, investing in DE is strongly advised.
DE enhances every aspect of game development, from initial design to testing and deployment. By adopting this holistic approach, your game can exceed players’ expectations, setting you apart in a crowded market.