Compliance

To start, let's introduce a few key concepts about certification as a whole that will help to put the following information specifically about Compliance into some context. XNA Game Quality is responsible for testing a large range of submission types that target Xbox 360 disc based products, Xbox LIVE Marketplace or in some cases, both.

These submission types include, but are not limited to boxed Retail Games, Title Updates, Marketplace Game Demos, Marketplace Game Add-ons, Compilation Discs and Xbox LIVE Arcade Games; all of which fall into two primary certification types, namely a Pre-Cert and Final-Cert.

So, what's the difference? Well, without going into too much detail, a Pre-Cert is comparable to a rehearsal for the real thing (the Final-Cert), and acts as a heads-up about the general health of a submission and potential issues that may cause problems when the Final-Cert submission enters Compliance testing. The Final-Cert, as the name suggests is the final version of a submission that is intended for public release, it's the real deal!

Importantly, Pre-Cert testing is an optional service provided to publishers that is only performed on Full Titles and isn't something that is run on other submission types, e.g. game demos. This is simply an added service that allows a publisher to determine the likelihood of their submission successfully completing Compliance testing.

Similarly, XNA Game Quality also offers an Optional Final-Cert service to publishers. This is identical in every way to a standard Final-Cert, except that it must be requested by the publisher prior to Final-Cert. An Optional Final-Cert is tested by both Compliance and Functional.

Compliance is responsible for testing all submissions, so once a game submission has completed all applicable Mastering Lab checks without issue, Compliance will execute a short list of shallow pre-test checks to catch any obvious issues. These checks are very broad, such as checking if the game functions on Xbox LIVE, posting scores to Leaderboards or starting and saving a new game. Together with some brief supported feature checking, this pre-test phase allows Compliance to build a suitable test team and determine which tests apply to a particular submission.

Once a submission has successfully completed the pre-test phase, it can officially enter a Compliance test cycle where it will be subjected to a variety of tests, a collection of which remain the same for all submissions, but some of which are tailored specifically to the platform features that are supported.

This is as good a time as any to introduce the Technical Certification Requirements (TCRs), as these form the foundation of what Compliance is all about and dictate the test approach that is taken. TCRs have existed all the way back to the start of the original Xbox program, albeit in a different form than the current TCRs for the Xbox 360. Each TCR outlines a specific rule, or a small collection of interdependent rules, that must be adhered to in order for a game to be ‘compliant'.

Collectively, these TCRs form a kind of golden-rule-book, and the intention of this rule book is to protect both the user and the platform. From a user perspective, the majority of work they do isn't always obvious, as the primary objective is not to impose on the original vision and functionality of the game, but to maintain consistency and security of the user experience across hardware (Console) and services (Xbox LIVE).

To give a simple example of this, have you ever noticed how, for the vast majority of Xbox 360 games, pressing ‘A' will progress through, and pressing ‘B' will regress through, a menu system? This is something that was once a TCR for the original Xbox some seven years ago, but its influence has persisted and has resulted in a consistent user experience for all Xbox 360 users.

From a developer perspective, there's obviously some legwork that has to go into making a submission compliant with the TCRs, and as such the TCRs are sometimes viewed as an additional hurdle in releasing a game. To clarify, each TCR has been through numerous reviews to ensure that its existence is justified and it avoids restricting game creativity and design wherever possible, while promoting the intended use of a range of system features.