From August 21 to 25, Gamescom is set to be an incredible gathering of the game development industry’s experienced and emerging names. We caught up with three key members of the AltTester® team – Alex Rotaru (CEO), Ru Cindrea (CTO), and Dolly Pente (Implementation Manager) to get their insights on what’s new with AltTester® and their expectations for the upcoming days of networking and innovation at the conference.
Alex, AltTester® has been making active progress in test automation, especially in game testing. What exciting updates can you share with us as we head into Gamescom 2024?
Alex: From the beginning of AltTester®, our focus has been on making Automation more accessible for QAs working in gaming, and this year we’ve made great progress in this direction: adding support for Unreal Engine, making the Recorder functionality easier to use, adding AI assistance for test code generation. All these will be shown during Gamescom, and I’m excited to see the feedback we get for all these new features.
Networking is a key part of events like Gamescom. What goals do you have in mind when it comes to building connections during the conference?
Alex: I’ve been attending business events & conferences for 15 years, and I find Gamescom to be one of the best events organized for networking. This is our 3rd Gamescom, and it seems to me that this year everyone is more open to networking than before – maybe the post-pandemic period is gone and people are getting back to meeting in person. Or maybe we’ve been better at preparing for it ;). For the last two Gamescome editions our focus had been on Studios working with Unity. This year as we’re adding Unreal Engine support, I want to meet many studios working with this engine.
Ru, from a technical perspective, what advancements in AltTester®’s tools are you most excited to showcase at Gamescom?
Ru: I am quite excited about showing our technical solution for a record and replay functionality that is helpful to both experienced automation engineers and testers who are just getting started. We are making use of AI and LLMs to transform recorded actions into reusable and well-structured code, while also allowing you to record bits of code and have them integrate seamlessly into your existing automation projects. We are also harnessing the power and simplicity of Robot Framework to translate code into natural language that is accessible and understandable for game testers who have no coding experience.
How do you see these advancements impacting potential collaborations with other game developers and studios?
Ru: A lot of gaming studios have larger or smaller teams of game QA testers running repetitive regression testing suites with every new version of their game. AltTester®’s new AI-improved recorder can empower these testers to use automated scripts instead, speeding up the time it takes to validate new builds and allowing them to focus on testing the new features and levels introduced with every new build. We are hoping to foster new collaborations with such studios and help them solve some of their most pressing QA challenges.
Dolly, as someone involved in integrating AltTester®’s tools with client workflows, what kind of organizations will most likely resonate with what AltTester® offers?
Dolly: We have studios of various sizes already using AltTester®, from small studios (10-50 employees) to larger ones and up to AAA companies. Our tool was tailored for games developed with Unity and, soon, Unreal Engine, which QAs can use for various game platforms (PC, mobile, web, VR, AR, consoles). We are also open to collaborations that might need other technologies to integrate with AltTester® and build a custom solution to suit their specific needs.
Why should a studio look into Game QA Automation if their QA team doesn’t have the knowledge or the bandwidth to do automation?
Dolly: No matter what the level of coding skill is within a team, we have them covered. As we believe in the power of a testing community and we are actively involved in growing together, helping QAs to develop their code skills came naturally. We have different solutions that we usually discuss with our clients, and based on their needs we choose together the best fit for them.
For instance, we offer the possibility of a pilot project. In a designated time, the studio can work together with our AltTester® Service Team to learn how to use our tool, create a test strategy, start implementing automated tests, and set up a pipeline for the tests or other configurations they might need.
We have workshops customized to the client’s needs, taking the QA team through various stages of learning, from setup & configuration to creating a test strategy, writing automated tests, and learning different testing techniques that apply well to automation.
Overall, we stay dedicated to contributing to our community’s growth, and thus we continue developing features that keep up with the current trends and needs while keeping them accessible to testers with varying levels of technical experience.
What are your expectations from the discussions and partnerships that might emerge during the conference?
Dolly: We are very curious to learn everything our potential clients are willing to share. For us, it’s important to understand our customers’ circumstances and needs to make sure that what we offer can indeed be helpful to them. We value transparency and openness in our collaborations and we hope to receive the same from our clients as well.
We are also hoping to bring a fresh view of where test automation brings the most value in the process of game creation.
Final thoughts
As we gear up for another exciting edition of Gamescom, we are eager to meet new people, connect with organizations from across the global industry, and draw inspiration from the latest trends and happenings in the field. Gamescom has always been a place of innovation and we are happy to be part of the movement, so here’s to new connections, fresh ideas, and cool future projects.
📍 Will you be at Gamescom? Here’s where you can find us
AltTester® will be part of the Romanian delegation, supported by the Romanian Game Development Association (RGDA), along with three other companies – Amber, AMC – a Keywords Studio, and Funcom. You are welcome to stop by for a conversation, at the Romanian Pavilion | Hall 3.2, stand A041g. We will be there from August 21 to 23.
See you at Gamescom!