Fix, polish and publish
Fix a match-three board that miscounts runs of five and L-shaped matches
Lines of five clear only three tiles, an L-shape clears one arm, or a tile counted twice pays double points. Nearly always the cause is checking too early or clearing while still looking. This entry shows how to make the AI find every matched tile exactly once.
Find pictures and sounds your game asks for that are missing or misnamed
On your computer everything shows up, then after publishing some pictures are blank because one letter is capitalised differently. This entry shows how to make the AI compare what the game asks for with what is really in the folder and list the problems in plain words.
Fix prices and coins that add up to odd values like 0.30000000000000004
Add ten small amounts and the total is a hair off, so a price will not match, a purchase button stays grey, or the shop shows a long tail of digits. This entry shows how to make the AI keep money exact and round the way players expect.
The monster chases faster or slower depending on the player's computer
On a fast machine the chase is brutal, on a weak one the monster crawls, and on a phone that stalls for a moment it jumps across the room. Here is the loop that makes every machine play the same chase, and the limit that stops a stall from becoming a leap.
In the browser my music and sounds stay silent until the player clicks
Browsers refuse to play sound before the person has touched the page, so the opening music is lost or a stack of old sounds blasts out all at once at the first tap. Here is how to hold back early sound requests and what to play, and what to drop, when the page is unlocked.
Saves from an older version crash my story game after an update
You add a feature, publish, and the players who were halfway through your story get a blank screen. Here is how your AI should treat old save files so every earlier version still loads, and what it must do with a save that comes from a newer game than the one installed.
One tap moves the dialogue on twice and a line is skipped
Phones send a touch and then a mouse click for the same tap, and a player who taps to finish a line often taps again as the text ends. Both skip a line unseen. Here is the rule that tells apart "finish this line", "go on" and "that was an echo".
A strange player name breaks my text or shows up as nothing
Let players type their own name and someone will type nothing, a very long string, an emoji, or something that looks like your own formatting. Here is a small clean-up that keeps the name readable, short and harmless in every line it is inserted into.
Fix an idle game's reset bonus that pays the same points again after each restart
The restart reward grows with how far you got, but if the sum is counted from the wrong place, every restart hands out the old points again, or none at all, or a wrong whole number at the exact limit. This entry shows how to make the AI count the reward so it is paid once.
Fix "restore purchases" that gives coins again or forgets what was bought
After a reinstall, the store sends a list of old purchases. Treat it carelessly and a bag of coins is paid again, or something the player really owns is lost, or a refunded item stays unlocked. This entry shows how to make the AI treat each kind of purchase by its own rule.
The "go back one line" button leaves old effects behind
Players love stepping back through a story, but after a step back the game still remembers a trust point or a found item from the line they just left. Here is how to record each step so that going back really undoes it, and how much history is worth keeping.
The same scare or whisper keeps coming twice in a row
Picking one of several scares at random sounds fine until the same one appears three times in a row and the player stops believing in the others. Here is the drawing method that keeps things unpredictable but never repeats at the seams, plus why it needs a random number from outside.