We recently explained our extensive testing infrastructure and showed how various systems are checking ROBLOX’s code for errors and regressions at just about all hours of every day.
But get this: that wasn’t the full picture.
ROBLOX also has an experienced community of user testers, who round out our otherwise mechanized testing platform with good, old-fashioned – but no less vital – human interaction, and usually learn a few things in the process.
User testing’s place in ROBLOX
User testing is a cornerstone of ROBLOX’s elaborate testing infrastructure. It pits a release against the widest range of real-life user behavior. It’s the last line of defense before a work-in-progress ROBLOX gets promoted to official, player-facing release.
Before any new version of ROBLOX is released to users at large, we launch it on gametest.roblox.com – an exact replica of the real site, but running on a smaller scale. The extent of a given test depends on the release. While we generally follow the rule of “at least 100 testers over the course of three to seven days,” a minor patch usually doesn’t require the full-bore testing operation.
We notify users when a new test build is available by placing a notice on ROBLOX.com and making an announcement in our official forums. Then, ROBLOX users play games the same way they would on the live site.
That is, until they encounter a problem.
User testing is a two-way street
User testers’ key obligation is to inform us of the problems they encounter with solid information. Screenshots and video are always useful – easily attainable using ROBLOX’s in-game video- and screen-capture tools – but most important are the descriptive, detailed steps we use to reproduce the error. Even seemingly arbitrary details, such as what your character was wearing, are important.
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This is good, and the only thing that would have made it better is operating system information. Mac or PC? Windows XP or Windows 7? OS 10.6 or OS 10.7? |
There’s a lack of information, here. We’d like to know the operating system, browser and steps we could take to reproduce the error. We don’t know whether it was the build button, the stamper tool or something else that failed. |
ROBLOX users can also upload logs of their testing sessions by pressing F8. ROBLOX will record system information and more to help us find and fix bugs.
While users are searching for bugs, we watch our internal metrics – number of crashes, number of thumbnails failed, average time to join and more. For example, this is one of the reports we use:
The report shows what kind of crashes users experienced during the testing, how many people crashed the same way and whether crash happened on the user’s computer or the ROBLOX server. It also shows whether a crash happened for the first time; if so, we have a hint that it was caused by a recent change to ROBLOX.
We often reach out to users for more help. We might ask how, exactly, they got ROBLOX to crash and what they were doing when it crashed. When hunting for a bug, even the smallest detail might be the key to catching it.
Join the user-testing club
This is all fueled by the voluntary participation of ROBLOX users. It begs the question: Why become a tester?
Learn. Testing not only trains the critical-thinking part of your brain, but also gives you insight into the software development process, brings you into a passionate community of ROBLOX users and positions you as a leader in the greater ROBLOX world. In some cases, you’ll get to spend time chatting with ROBLOX developers, who would like to learn more about your bug report.
Early access. The reason you’re testing is to make sure the latest ROBLOX features are ready for prime-time. You see it first and know how it works, so you get the jump on other players and creators.
Rewards. It’s our tradition to give user testers in-game items as a token of appreciation for reporting bugs we missed.
Plus, you rightfully receive the intangible, but unending gratitude of ROBLOX’s developers. We value your time and effort, and do what we can to make it a worthwhile experience.
With an understanding of ROBLOX’s testing infrastructure, the only thing left for you to do is become a contributor. Head over to our Game Test forum and join the conversation, or check out our public testing environment at gametest.roblox.com. Help shape our platform.
I WUV ROBLOX I HATE BUGS!
Can you bring back old roblox?
What’s the progress on exploits? Having every one of Shedletskys games hacked is incredibly annoying.
This is awesome! I will always be willing to help, being rewarded or not!
The insert tool won’t work either. ugh please help roblox.
that was easy
to the people that are in studio and you insert parts, your supposed to hit insert>object>Part, then you resize and move it how you like… >.> why are people so dumb….. and also if you want a xedge, click on the part, and insert>object>mesh then change the mesh to “wedge”
I may have posted this before, but, I’ll post it again- I’ll be playing in a place- any place, and any mode- and when I exit the place and try to scroll down on the website, an error will occur. It’s quite annoying as I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Del to close ROBLOX and reopen it again. The error will pop up saying there’s a script on the page making it run slowly. No matter what I choose, though, it’ll just keep popping up. I’ve got a Windows 7 laptop. Do you think you could look into this? Along the lines of this, I kind of miss old ROBLOX. It’s turned into a Facebook for kids. Kinda makes me sad.
roblox seems good at the moment, but I’ve only got 1 problem. Scripting. I seriously don’t know how to script. Could you make it easier?
i aggree, Maybe a user interface to make it easier with drag and drop pre bult in features and a advance mode for manual script editing,creating
with easy to use varibales to tell the script what and how to use what you want it to without acualy doing any coiding yourself
I think that roblox is becomming too ‘easy’. Places are now using the terrain generater too often. Also new places are using the new build tool and this means they have no interaction with bricks or scripting in the way I did [2007-2008]. I think that this new idea would bring production of good places and players down [maybe again].
I think that a sort of scripting “interface” would be good, but ROBLOX would have to include an “advanced” mode for the more proficient scripters.
When I go to drag in a model or a brick, It duplicates by itself and it’s annoying because I always need to delete the duplicate everytime…
When i use roblox studio, i try to insert my huge tycoons less than a million parts. but roblox crashes every time i try to insert it why is this? ive tried on different types of computers even gamming computers
If you try to insert large models, it may take a while to load. You just have to wait.
Inserting Big items take a while, it may say it has stopped responding but it is still working. If it takes more then 20 mins then close it, otherwise wait, it will load.
same with me.. every time (i don’t use FREE MODELS) i go to free models and type in “wedge” i select the wedge i want…. but sometimes it ends up not responding
Yeah.. But I just don’t like waiting so long for 1 Thing to load..
When I put in a brick, it copies it and I end up with like 5 bricks!
Me to
I tried game.test once and my system kept crashing, when i tried to get out of gametest to build normally on my map. It wasn’t easy switching from normal roblox to gametest and back. If you made it an easier switch I would give you more of my time. It worked fine when I was playing games but I couldn’t use gametest to build my maps, Lack of fav tools.
Oh, I get it. You gotta go into the details, You can’t just say “I can’t build. Help.” You gotta try and find it yourself.
I wish i knew what they’re saying
What would be great is if new items were released during the times when both UK and US are awake. This means we don’t wake up, turn on our computers and discover that there’s been limited or limited U items on sale while we were sleeping.
You can see the results of bug fixes on our game Change Log on our wiki. It lists all the game releases, new features, and updates. http://wiki.roblox.com/index.php/Change_Log#Client
I think the top bar with, “My Home, Catalog, Forums” Should be able to be customized by the user!
That, and add a “British English” option to correct spellings and words. Such as Catalog: Catalogue; Pants: Trousers; $: £;
TROUSERS??? :3
Ah, its good your working on bugs now.
They’ve been working on bugs, essentially since they finally ended up with a program instead of a few lines of script when they began ROBLOX.
Guys. i dont have that problem but i got the worse but it’s fixed by buying Window 7 Professional cause ounce i use Windows XP if you play a game in ROBLOX it say’s Roblox crashed!
i use to have the same problem but my xp was junk anyways it used to crash from anything but i moved on to vista and its working fine know
When i go to My ROBLOX, I tried to scroll but it’s REALLY SLOW
I saw a rocket at this one place turn, no, not in a straight line, A TURN. That is a bug.
That’s physics. A nearby explosion or something else hit the rocket but didn’t cause it to explode and it turned as a normal brick would when hit with the shockwave of an explosion.
Ditto. (Might also have been a Homing or an R/C rocket. Creativity knows no bounds.)
Wait how can u report it
ROBLOX Studio (Game Test Install)>Tools>Report Crashes.
That’s one way.
How about you guys stop the stupid roblox place stealing! ITS TICKING ME OFF!!!
Place stealing won’t be fixed for two reasons:
1.People usually do it with an exploit, making it always updatable
2.Most “copiers” are just people who found a freemodel version.
1: It’s been around for a very long time. How do you know it’s update-able?
2: And where did the free model version come from?
When are they going to fix the plugin glitch where you can keep the plugins on your screen during a online game
Right on, this show your past roblox profile and test the old roblox. Really it just a test to see if there is a glitches or something wrong
Whenever I try to play games via Gametest, it pulls up an odd error message with a bunch of Chinese lettering. After that, the game doesn’t even pull up the ROBLOX client.
The thing that pops up is a download, you have to download a different version to play gametest games. It being in Chinese is to do with your computer, try playing it in google chrome and a pop-up will come up asking if you want it translated to English.
bad bug report
wai?
when you say chinese letters do you mean chinese letters or a bunch of numbers?
and if i were try to fix tht i wouldnt know what the heck your talking about!
we need to know exactly what you mean by “chinese2 lettering so telll us what it says etc.
Glad we could help ;)
Yeah, helping to test stuff seems awesome, but… I haven’t learned how to script just yet, I am great with building, and doing stuff on studio mode.
I just don’t know how scripting works, like.. if I learned the code, I feel like, hm, how do people like crazyman 32 get an intro video in-game. I will learn soon though. :3
You don’t need to know how to script to bug-report. All you need to do is post whatever bug you found, in as much detail as you can, in the Technical Issues Forum(http://www.roblox.com/Forum/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14).