Check your story and game
Learning paths through this topic
Find quests that can never start because a flag is misspelled or never set
A quest waits for something that no other quest ever provides, or provides under a slightly different name, and so it silently never begins. This entry lists those quests and the likely typo, instead of waiting for a player to report it.
A random key lands in the room that only that key can open
Shuffling where the keys lie makes each run different, until one run hides a key behind its own lock and nobody can finish. This entry places keys so every run can be completed, and checks a layout you already have.
A romance route asks for more affection points than the story can give
The ending needs a high score, but the points are spread over choices that exclude each other. Adding up all the points you wrote down gives a number nobody can ever reach. This entry finds the real best and worst score of a story.
Reset-for-a-bonus: pay once for lifetime progress and refuse a reset that gives nothing
Many idle games let the player start over for a permanent boost, and the number of bonus points must come from everything earned so far, not only the current run, or each reset repeats the pay. This entry sets the formula, the guard against empty resets and what carries over.
The hints on the notes lead to two different codes for the safe
A code lock with hints such as "one number is right and in the right place" is only fair if one code fits them all. Counting hint matches by hand goes wrong when digits repeat. This entry tries every code and reports how many fit.
Hallucinations switch on and off again and again around one sanity value
The player hovers right at the line between calm and uneasy, and the screen flips back and forth every few seconds. A single cut-off value is the cause. This entry gives each stage a separate way in and way out so the world stops stuttering.
Spot impossible scores before they reach the leaderboard
A leaderboard with one absurd entry stops anyone caring about it, and checking each score by hand is out of the question. This entry shows how to work out the most a run could possibly earn from the rules of the game, and how to turn that into a quick accept or reject.
Fast-forward races through lines the player has never read
Skipping known text saves time, but it must stop at the right places: new lines, choices, and lines whose wording you changed since the last visit. This entry decides where to stop and gives every line a name that survives edits to the script.
In a sliding-block traffic jam, blocks must not jump over each other
When a block is dragged several squares at once, checking only where it lands lets it hop over a neighbour and ruins every puzzle built on it. This entry shows what to test along the way, how the block is limited to its own direction, and when the board counts as cleared.
A character speaks from a stage spot they already left, or two stand in one place
In a talking-heads story the picture and the words can drift apart: someone answers after walking out, or a newcomer appears on top of another figure. This entry replays the stage and lists each moment where the picture and the script disagree.
Taps on a picture shown with black bars land beside the real spot
A picture shown on screens of many shapes is usually scaled to fit, leaving empty bars, and a hit test that ignores that is off by exactly the width of the bar. This entry converts a tap into a place on the picture, sets the hit zone, and counts finds, repeats and misses.
A character shows no face because the picture name has a different spelling
Everything works on your computer, and online the speaker appears as an empty gap. The script asks for a mood the artist never drew, or the file name differs in a way only some systems care about. This entry finds both before release.