Working with AI
Learning paths through this topic
My AI-made number-grid puzzles have two correct answers or none
A good number-grid puzzle has exactly one answer, but a generator that removes cells at random cannot promise it. Players then find a different valid answer and think the game is wrong. This entry counts answers cleverly and stops as soon as it knows enough.
Coming back after a long time away pays too much, or ignores a boost that ended
A player returns after a long trip and finds either an absurd pile of coins or a bonus that quietly counted for the whole time. Both come from treating the time away as one block. This entry splits it, so the cap and the bonus each apply only where they should.
After an update, saves from the old version crash the game or load as empty
You rename one thing in the save and every existing player is in trouble. This entry upgrades old saves one version at a time, treats very old saves that have no version at all, and refuses a save from a newer game instead of damaging it.
One tap on the phone counts as two presses in my casual game
A single tap buys the item twice, flips a card back at once or skips a dialog. Phones and browsers each report the touch in their own way, and sometimes both reports arrive. This entry shows how to drop the echo without ever swallowing a real double tap.
Pop-ups pile up on top of each other and appear in the middle of a level
A rating request, a sale offer, a daily gift and a tutorial hint all arrive at the same second, or one that the player closed returns at once. This entry decides which one goes first, which must wait, and how often any of them may come back.
A reset for bonus points sometimes gives fewer points than before, or pays twice
A player resets their progress to earn permanent bonus points, but the second reset offers less than the first, or the same earnings get paid again. The cause is what the game measures. This entry gives a formula that only goes up and tells the player what the next point costs.
My AI's release checklist reports twenty failures but only one is real
When the first step fails, every step that depends on it fails too, and the report drowns the one thing that matters. This entry runs a checklist in a sensible order, skips what cannot run, and names the blockers that must be fixed first.
When the connection drops, my game retries so fast that it makes things worse
A leaderboard or save request fails, the game tries again at once, again and again, and drains the battery while thousands of phones do the same to your server. This entry spaces the retries sensibly, spreads them out, and stops retrying what can never work.
Players get the reward for watching an ad two or three times
The ad ends, the reward callback fires, and coins arrive twice because the screen reopened or the phone retried. Worse, an old reward can be claimed again after a restart. This entry makes a reward payable once, and keeps its memory small.
My crash log from players has thousands of lines and I cannot see the pattern
Players send reports and every line looks different, because each has its own numbers and codes, but many are the same fault. This entry makes your AI sort the lines into families and rank them by how often they happen, so the fix with the most effect comes first.
Some players lose their whole save when the phone kills the app while saving
A phone can end a game at any moment, including the instant it is writing the save. The file is then half written and the next start finds nothing usable. This entry keeps two copies and picks the good one, so at worst a player loses the last few moves.
After I add or remove a level, players' saved progress points at the wrong levels
You add a level in the middle of your puzzle pack, and suddenly players who finished the early ones are told they finished others, or lose stages they earned. This entry shows how to store progress so a changed level list cannot scramble it.