Helping Curiscope bring its underwater VR world to more players

Curiscope

Education Technology & SaaS

What we delivered

We helped Curiscope test a major update to its underwater VR adventure, combining structured and exploratory testing to improve the player experience ahead of launch.

Curiscope creates immersive experiences that bring science and education to life.

Its virtual reality game, Operation Apex, takes players on an underwater research mission, using a drone to explore marine environments and discover the wildlife living there.

Following its initial launch in 2017, Curiscope was preparing a substantial update that would introduce Oculus Rift support and a new way for players to move between environments.

Testing for an immersive experience

Testing a VR game brings challenges that don't arise with conventional desktop applications.

As well as checking functionality, it's important to understand how players experience the game through a headset, including how they navigate environments, interact with objects and respond to extended periods of play.

Curiscope approached us to test Operation Apex 1.1 ahead of release, drawing on our AR/VR testing experience and range of VR hardware.

We approached Zoonou with the task of Quality Assurance testing Operation Apex 1.1 ahead of its release. Zoonou had already impressed us with the clarity of their website, the range of devices they were able to test on and the high standard of the initial communications we had had with them.

Ciaran O'Connor Producer at Curiscope

Exploring beyond the expected gameplay

Our testers carried out functional testing across the game's main missions, using Curiscope's test scripts as a starting point while also exploring the environments more freely.

This helped us identify edge cases that might only arise when players took an unexpected route or interacted with the game differently from its designers' intentions.

To manage the physical demands of VR testing, we worked in pairs, alternating between playing the game and observing how it behaved. This approach gave us another perspective on the experience and helped us investigate potential issues more thoroughly.

While we provided Zoonou with a test script, they quite wisely monitored how much information to pass on to the testing team on the grounds that working from a position of unknowing was the best way to recreate the end user experience.

Ciaran O'Connor Producer at Curiscope

We recorded findings in an online issue tracker as they were discovered, allowing Curiscope to review and address issues throughout testing.

A better experience for players

Operation Apex 1.1 launched successfully on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Our testing identified edge cases that could have affected the finished game, alongside opportunities to improve gameplay balance and usability.

For Curiscope, this meant more than a list of bugs. The findings helped its team refine the experience before release, giving players a more polished and engaging underwater adventure.

The project showed the value of combining structured testing with the curiosity to explore how people might actually use a product, particularly when the experience extends beyond a conventional screen.