Spent the last two days doing more bug testing on Space Ark and have been pleased to find how well it is holding up. I’m not finding as many bugs as expected (the bug count has only gone up by about 10) which is a sign of how stable the code is. There are the usual weird bugs of course, such as Arkonauts getting trapped inside walls, weird animation glitches and levels designs not working due to new features that have changed the game play. Despite that large parts of the game are playable and there aren’t a whole lot of crash bugs.

I’m not sure what the level designers have been taking but they are producing really amazing levels now. Challenging but at the same time immense fun to play. Going to have to produce another video soon showing some of the more bizarre levels.

There is a part of every game development project that is a little disheartening. It is the point around Alpha, where the game is starting to take shape, but isn’t quite complete enough to be in full test.

Sure there is the positive morale boost from seeing new stuff appear in the game but it is also the point at which people start noticing bugs and errors in the game. The bug database starts to fill up and, because the team aren’t in full Beta test mode, there isn’t an all out effort to clear bugs. The result is that the bug count starts to climb…. and keeps climbing. Sure some (lots) get fixed during this phase but the general trend is upwards.

So far we have 160 closed bugs on Space Ark and only 92 active ones. Somehow I think it will get worse before it gets better. Luckily it will get better in the end