Scriptless Testing for an Industrial 3D Sandbox Game

Computer games have reached unprecedented importance, exceeding two billion users in the early 2020s. Human game testers bring invaluable expertise to evaluate complex games like 3D sandbox games. However, the sheer scale and diversity of game content constrain their ability to explore all scenarios manually. Recognizing the significance and inherent complexity of game testing, our research aims to investigate new automated testing approaches. To achieve this goal, we have integrated scriptless testing into the industrial game Space Engineers, enabling an automated approach to explore and test sandbox game scenarios. Our approach involves the development of a Space Engineers-plugin, leveraging the Intelligent Verification and Validation for Extended Reality-Based Systems (IV4XR) framework and extending the capabilities of the open-source scriptless testing tool TESTAR. Through this research, we unveil the potential of a scriptless agent to explore 3D sandbox game scenarios autonomously. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of an autonomous scriptless agent in achieving spatial coverage when exploring and (dis)covering elements within the 3D sandbox game.