Check your story and game
Learning paths through this topic
Which of my choices change nothing, so the player only thinks they matter?
Players notice when two options lead to the same place with the same result. Some of those are fine as colour, others are wasted chances. This entry lists the choices where all options end up identical, counting only what the story really remembers.
The one clue that solves the mystery can be missed completely
You hid the key clue in a scene, but a player who took the other door never sees it and cannot finish. Having two places for a clue sounds like enough, and often is not. This entry tests whether a clue can really be avoided.
A puzzle where you join matching dots with paths declares a win too early or never
Filling the whole board looks like winning, but a board can be full of colour and still be wrong, because a path may bulge into a block or leave a stray loop behind. This entry shows what a finished board really has to look like.
The game says "1 clues" or "5 Schlüssel" with the wrong form in another language
Counted words such as keys or days change shape depending on the number, and the rules differ by language: some have only two forms, some have more, and zero is not always like the others. This entry picks the right form and finds the missing ones.
Make the daily puzzle the same for every player, whatever their time zone
A daily challenge only works if everyone gets the same one, yet phones disagree about what day it is, and a random pick differs per player. This entry shows how to derive the day, the puzzle number and the seed from one clock reading and when the next puzzle arrives.
A weekly scene is planned in a date window that never contains that weekday
A character is only free at weekends, but the event is open on days that happen to be weekdays only. It silently never happens, and nobody notices until a player asks. This entry lists the days an event can really fall on and shows clashes between events.
Check that a conversation never shows the player zero choices
Dialogue options that depend on earlier answers, items or skills can all turn off at once, leaving the player with an empty menu and a frozen game. This entry explains how to find every such moment ahead of time.
A dice check in my story can never be failed, or can never be passed
With a stat bonus and two dice, some difficulty numbers quietly become certain or impossible, and the tension of the roll is gone. This entry works out the exact chance for every check and tells you which ones are not real checks at all.
Tell the player how many moves a disk-tower puzzle still needs from any position
A star rating or a hint button needs the best possible number of moves, but players do not stay on the neat starting position. This entry shows how to get the exact count from a half-solved tower, and how to reject positions that could never occur.
A fast double tap on Buy must not charge twice, but two real purchases must
Phones send taps faster than screens update, so a button can fire twice before it greys out, and the player loses coins for one item. Blocking all repeat taps hurts honest buyers of stackable goods. This entry separates the two cases and keeps the balance exact.
Find the trade loop that makes unlimited gold before players do
Buy cheap here, sell dear there, repeat: one wrong price and your economy is broken within a day of release. Instead of reading the price list by eye, your AI can try every sequence of moves and show the shortest one that goes too far.
The ending gallery shows 100 percent too early or never reaches it
Players replay a story several times, endings get renamed, one is cut, and the completion number drifts: over a hundred, stuck at ninety-nine, or full while one ending is still missing. This entry counts the way players expect.