About This Page

This page covers game bug tracking — how to classify, report, triage, and resolve bugs in a game development pipeline. Parent: Game Testing & QA. See also: Game Testing & QA - Playtesting, Game Testing & QA - Performance Profiling.

Good Bug Reports Save Days

A poorly written bug report can waste hours of developer time. A well-written report with clear repro steps, platform info, and a video/screenshot can be fixed in minutes.

Game Bug Severity Tiers

Severity Classification

S1 Blocker Examples

✗ Game crashes to desktop when entering Level 3
✗ Player softlocked after skipping cutscene (cannot move, no way out)
✗ Save file corrupted after returning to main menu
✗ Security exploit: duplicate any item using specific UI timing
✗ Platform cert requirement failed: no system notification for invites

S2 Critical Examples

✗ Boss AI breaks after being stunned twice — stops attacking
✗ Quest cannot be completed — NPC dialogue doesn't trigger
✗ Enemy spawner loops infinitely — unrecoverable lag after 5 min
✗ Major visual corruption: missing terrain mesh in open world

S3/S4/S5 Examples

S3 — Moderate:
  ✗ Character clips through low wall (workaround: avoid corner)
  ✗ Audio desync during cutscene but game continues normally
  ✗ Performance spike at specific spot (not consistent stutter)

S4 — Minor:
  ✗ Hair clips through shoulder pad in specific animation
  ✗ Background NPC animation loops incorrectly
  ✗ Button prompt flashes wrong icon for one frame on load

S5 — Cosmetic:
  ✗ Typo in lore book page 7
  ✗ Menu button 2px off alignment
  ✗ Minor inconsistency in font weight on settings screen

Game-Specific Bug Types

Core Game Bugs

Softlock         — Player stuck with no escape. Must restart.
Hardlock         — Full freeze. Requires force quit / reboot.
Progression Bug  — Cannot advance story/quest due to broken trigger.
Collision Bug    — Falls through world, walks through walls.
Save Bug         — Progress lost, save corrupted, data mismatch.
Exploit          — Player bypasses intended limits (dupe glitch, OOB).

Visual Bugs

T-Pose           — Skeleton defaults to rest pose (animation bug)
Z-Fighting       — Two surfaces at same depth, flickering
Texture Pop-In   — Texture loads visibly late during play
LOD Pop          — Model detail changes abruptly at wrong distance
Shadow Artifact  — Shadow flicker, banding, or disappearing
Clipping         — Characters/objects passing through each other

AI & Physics Bugs

Pathfinding Bug  — Enemy stuck on geometry, walking into walls
Aggro Bug        — Enemy attacks wrong target / ignores player
Physics Explosion — Objects flying out at extreme velocity
Ragdoll Break    — Character ragdoll glitches through floor
Joint Instability — Physics joint oscillates wildly (Jitter bug)

Audio Bugs

Missing SFX      — Sound effect never plays
Looping Audio    — Sound loops when it should stop (after death etc.)
Audio Desync     — Cutscene audio out of sync with video
Wrong SFX        — Wrong sound plays for wrong action
Volume Issue     — Sound too loud, too quiet, or missing entirely

Network / Multiplayer Bugs

Desync           — Players see different game states
Rubber-banding   — Player teleports back due to lag correction
Connection Drop  — Unexpected disconnection during session
Ghost Player     — Disconnected player appears stuck in world
Rollback Error   — State rollback causes visible duplication

Platform / Cert Bugs

TRC (Xbox) / TCR (PlayStation) / LOT (Nintendo) failures:

Common cert failures:
  ✗ Game doesn't respond to system notifications (trophy/achievement)
  ✗ Missing rating logo on start screen
  ✗ Wrong button icon displayed (platform-specific confirm button)
  ✗ Game doesn't handle account changes gracefully
  ✗ Unsafe content in wrong rating tier
  ✗ Game ignores parental controls
  ✗ Crashing during suspend/resume (console sleep mode)

Bug Lifecycle

Standard States

flowchart LR
    A[New] --> B[Assigned]
    B --> C[In Progress]
    C --> D[Fixed]
    D --> E[Retest]
    E -->|Pass| F[Closed]
    E -->|Fail| G[Reopen]
    G --> B
    B -->|Not a bug| H[Rejected]
    B -->|Future patch| I[Deferred]

State Descriptions

New        — Bug submitted, not yet reviewed
Assigned   — Assigned to developer
In Progress — Developer actively working on fix
Fixed      — Developer marked as fixed, awaiting QA retest
Retest     — QA verifying the fix on the fixed build
Closed     — Fix verified. Bug resolved.
Reopen     — Fix did not work, or fix caused regression
Rejected   — Not a bug (by design, duplicate, cannot reproduce)
Deferred   — Valid bug, intentionally moved to future patch

Bug Report Template

Full Bug Report Template

TITLE: [Short, clear one-line summary of the bug]

Bug ID:        BUG-[XXX]
Reporter:      [Name]
Date:          [YYYY-MM-DD]
Build:         [Version / Commit hash]
Platform:      [PC / PS5 / Xbox / Switch / iOS / Android]
Severity:      [S1 / S2 / S3 / S4 / S5]
Priority:      [P1 / P2 / P3 / P4]
Status:        New
Assignee:      [Developer name or TBD]

Environment:
  OS:          [Windows 11 / PS5 firmware 9.0 / etc.]
  GPU:         [RTX 4080 / etc. (PC only)]
  RAM:         [16 GB (PC only)]
  Resolution:  [1920×1080 / 4K]
  Game Mode:   [Single / Multiplayer / Co-op]

Steps to Reproduce:
  1. [Exact step]
  2. [Exact step]
  3. [Exact step]

Expected Result:
  [What should happen]

Actual Result:
  [What actually happens]

Reproducibility:  Always / Intermittent (X/10) / Rare (X/10)

Attachments:
  □ Screenshot / Video clip (MANDATORY for visual bugs)
  □ Save file (for save-related bugs)
  □ Crash log / output_log.txt
  □ Network log (for multiplayer bugs)

Notes:
  [Any additional context, workaround, related bugs]

Good vs Bad Bug Reports

❌ BAD:
Title: "Game crashes"
Steps: Played the game and it crashed.

✅ GOOD:
Title: "Game crashes to desktop entering Level 3 after collecting Key Item"
Platform: PC (Windows 11, RTX 3080, 16GB RAM), Build 0.9.4.1
Steps:
  1. Start new game, choose Hard difficulty
  2. Complete Level 2 and collect the "Rusted Key" item
  3. Enter Level 3 through the main door
  4. Game crashes immediately on zone load
Expected: Level 3 loads normally
Actual: Crash to desktop. Error: NullReferenceException in EnemySpawner.cs:147
Reproducibility: Always (5/5 attempts)
Attachments: crash_log_20250512.txt, gameplay_clip.mp4

Bug Triage Workflow

Triage Process

Daily triage meeting (15–30 min):

1. Review all "New" bugs from past 24 hours
2. Validate each bug:
   □ Is it reproducible?
   □ Is it actually a bug (not by design)?
   □ Is it a duplicate?
3. Set severity and priority
4. Assign to responsible developer
5. Escalate any S1 blockers immediately

Triage roles:
  QA Lead     — Validates bugs, sets severity
  Producer    — Sets priority based on milestone
  Dev Lead    — Assigns to correct developer

Priority vs Severity

Severity = Technical impact (how bad is the problem?)
  S1: Game-breaking
  S2: Major feature broken
  S3: Moderate impact
  S4: Minor
  S5: Cosmetic

Priority = Business urgency (how soon must it be fixed?)
  P1: Fix today (blocks QA / milestone / cert)
  P2: Fix this sprint
  P3: Fix next sprint
  P4: Fix when time allows

Common mismatches (and they're intentional!):

High Severity + Low Priority:
  Game crashes if you run 7 hours straight with no save
  → Real issue, but very low impact on most players

Low Severity + High Priority:
  Publisher's name is misspelled on title screen
  → Minor bug but must fix before any public showing

Bug Tracking Tools

Comparison

Jira Game Setup Tips

Custom fields to add:
  Platform         (checkbox: PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch, iOS, Android)
  Build Version    (text)
  Reproducibility  (select: Always / Intermittent / Rare)
  Game Area        (select: Combat / UI / Audio / AI / Online / etc.)
  Cert Blocker     (checkbox: Yes / No)

Custom workflow states:
  New → Triaged → In Dev → Fixed → In QA Retest → Closed
  (add: Deferred, Rejected, Won't Fix)

Useful boards:
  S1 blockers board   — Only S1 bugs. Always visible.
  Cert bugs board     — All certification requirement bugs
  Per-area boards     — Separate boards for Audio, AI, etc.

Hacknplan Setup (Indie)

Hacknplan is designed for game dev:
  - Tasks organized by game discipline (Art, Code, Audio, QA)
  - Milestone tracking built in
  - Bug reporting with screenshots
  - Simple enough for solo dev, scalable for small teams

Free tier is sufficient for indie teams up to ~5 people.

Regression Testing

What is Regression?

After each fix, verify:
  1. The bug is actually fixed
  2. The fix didn't break anything else (regression)

Every bug fix is a potential regression risk.

"Fixing a crash in EnemySpawner.cs might break a
 different enemy behaviour that relied on that code path."

Regression Checklist Per Fix

□ Reproduce the original bug → Confirm it's gone
□ Test the areas adjacent to the fix (nearby code, systems)
□ Run related automated tests (if they exist)
□ Test on all target platforms (if platform-specific)
□ Check memory/performance didn't regress
□ If UI change: test on multiple resolutions/aspect ratios

Useful Links & Resources

• Jira — Industry standard bug tracker
• Hansoft — AAA-grade project management
• Hacknplan — Game-specific bug/task tracker (indie)
• Trello — Simple Kanban for small teams
• IGDA QA SIG — Game QA community
• PlayStation TRC Checklist overview — Cert requirements (partner login)
• Xbox TCR overview — Xbox cert requirements