Examining the Quality Assurance of Tropico 6
Greetings, Tropicans!
The Tropican Ministry of Propaganda and Misinformation has the honour of sharing a new interview with the righteous Senor Konstantin Sauer, QA Manager for Tropico 6. Penultimo and Sunny are visiting to have a little talk about the QA department’s valuable work in making Tropico 6 even greater!
Penultimo: QA is short for Quality Assurance, right? – Yes, what is the daily routine of a QA employee working on Tropico 6?
Konstantin: The daily routine is dedicated to working with our developers on the latest version of the game that they have uploaded to our internal test servers, so that we can test and analyze the build.
The bugtracker is always at our disposal, where all bugs, glitches, and feedback are stored. We then continue checking and testing to ensure that the proper fixes have been made.
Sunny Flowers: Why don’t you just update the beta with new versions right away? Why bother with these internal test servers?
Konstantin: We want the players to give us feedback on the game itself, and for that, the version we put out to the beta has to be playable. Even the slightest change in code can break many crucial components of the game. If the community wouldn’t be able to play a new build because of a game-breaking bug, then we need to test new versions internally first to ensure it’s playable.
Penultimo: What about your own suggestions and ideas? Are those considered?
Konstantin: Definitely. We don’t just find bugs, we also test for balancing, playability and much more. When you play Tropico 6 for a while, you get a feel for the mechanics, and what can be improved.
Sunny Flowers: What about community feedback and the reports you receive from beta players? How are those handled?
Konstantin: We work directly on community feedback. I monitor the Tropico 6 Beta Steam Community Hub daily together with our Community Management team. If you’ve posted there before, you may have received a reply from me! We evaluate all feedback to decide what needs to be worked on. With the rest of the QA team, we help prioritize those reports and test and approve any actioned changes and fixes once they are implemented into our internal test servers.
Penultimo: One more question before we go. What is your opinion about having a beta before launch?
Konstantin: It definitely helps us out a lot. Anyone and everyone that plays the beta is actively helping us improve the game. It’s not just about ironing out bugs, but also about improving the overall balance, and gamers’ opinions are so important for that.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask the developers of Tropico 6, feel free to get in touch with us on Twitter with our @KalypsoMedia, @KalypsoMediaUK, @KalypsoMediaUSA and @El_Prez handles using the hashtag #AskElPrez and #Tropico6.
Adios, comrades!
The Ministry of Propaganda and Misinformation
Authors
Konstantin Sauer – Loyal servant and QA Manager for Tropico 6 at Kalypso Media.
Sunny Flowers – Freelance writer. Loves Tropico and its flora and fauna.
Penultimo – The voice of Tropico, and right-hand of our beloved El Presidente