Is unit testing viable in game programming?

Question

I\'m fond of the idea of unit testing but I\'m having trouble applying it to game programming. Games are highly stateful and often the code doesn\'t break itself into distinct u

Answer 1

Often the code doesn't break itself into distinct units.

That's just poor design. The code doesn't break itself into anything. You, the designer, have to impose a structure on the code so that you can demonstrate that it actually works.

However, this function will likely return no value...

So?

...and have the side effect of, player.velocity.y = -height and checkCollisions(player).

Then test for that.

I can't think of a clear unit test to build around this.

Why not? You just gave an excellent specification for the results of the function.

You might need a few mock objects to replace the full-blown Player with a simplified MockPlayer that's easier to test with.

But your specification of behavior was perfect. Just test for the things you described.