Test your game everywhere
Is your game tested and ready?
During development of your game it is easy to forget how important it is to test the game regularly. Not just on your own development pc but on lots of computers. When the game runs fine on your own pc it can be a good indication of how finished and polished the game is but it will tell you almost nothing about how the game runs on other systems. What happens when the game suddenly has to work with a much faster and newer or slower and older processor or graphics card? Does it keep its intended speed or will it vary wildly – you don’t know until you actually try it. Guessing is not an option if you are serious about letting other people play your game.
Try to test on systems that at least expose the following differences from your own pc:
Operating system. If you developed on Windows 7 then test on Windows XP and Vista. If you support Linux or Mac then remember to actually test on a variety of these systems too.
Screen resolution. If you made the game on a wide screen monitor then test how it looks on an older 4:3 format screen at different resolutions. 1024x768 is still the most commonly used resolution for games so make sure the game runs perfectly for people using this resolution.
DirectX version. Depending on your chosen game engine and what version of Windows you are using then you probably need to consider what version of DirectX will be required to run your game. Windows XP only supports DirectX 9 while Windows 7 and Vista support DirectX 11. If you need your game to run on as many pc’s as possible then avoid engines that require more than DirectX 9. A lot of pc’s don’t have the necessary software updates or the graphics card to go any higher.
A remaining problem is that you probably don’t have access to enough computers. The best thing for a hobbyist game developer is therefore to upload a demo to a website and have the most people possible play your game. Tell people to write if they experience any problems and to share any details of the problem along with their basic system specifications. One excellent website for getting user feedback is ModDB where you can create a page for your game and upload demos, videos and screenshots. Not only will you find problems faster but you will also get increased exposure for your game and hopefully some fans.
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