So for 5 days i was fixing single bug in my game - and when i finally found solution today i started to think - how often does it happen in indie dev?
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There are bugs and then there are bugs. So your question is subjective. What was your bug about and after discovering the cause it how long did it take you to fix?
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And did you learn anything on the journey? Next time with this kind of bug you’ll find it much faster.
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by question i just wanted to ask how often do you find bugs that take very long to fix, by very long i mean you need to dedicate a day or more or maybe week to fix it
More frequently than I would like. I have games with bugs that have lasted long enough that I have started new games out of frustration. I haven’t kept a ledger, though, so I can’t give a number.
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I’d like to add to this conversation couple of more things. There is a difference between finding a bug and fixing a bug.
Finding a bug can be quite daunting especially a non reproducible bug. Usually tough bugs you need divide and conquer mentality as well as organized logs.
Fixing a bug could be simple once discovered or it may need some major redesign to fix the flaw. In the latter be careful trying to fix something where you get deeper and deeper into spaghetti coding. If something is getting complicated step back and think if it makes sense at all. Don’t compound the problem.
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by fixing i meant of course moment from even realizing bug exist to fixing it completely, or eventually fixing it enough for game to work
I’ve found that sleep and dream debug are crucial tools, beats applying insecticide (debugging) for hours and then days on end.
Kickback, play some games, go to sleep, debug and wake up to the solution at the forefront of your mind.
Battle tested in the early 21st century game industry trenches.
Cheers !
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TFW you think it’s a bug but it’s actually a fundamental design flaw…
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How about a bug becoming a main game function or even a small thing You think its neat to stay in the game. How often has that happened to You?
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for me - ig once or twice, but bug just showed fun mechanic while i tried to fix it, tho ik games, e.g minecraft where bugs are neccesary for game to work, especilally duping items
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I once made kind of a math bug that caused the screen to slowly erase on an apple ][ text/graphic adventure game.
I wasn’t sure initially what caused it, and by the time I figured it out it became a whole mechanic.
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This is essential. Sadly, most beginners won’t even know what that means let alone how to apply it practice. If you find yourself sinking a lot of time into bug chases @NOTIdealDev, you should focus on improving your divide and conquer skills.
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i think sometimes not the attention management is problem, but rather lone size or complexity of a bug too, e.g if it’s hard to replicate fixing it would take way longer than if it was obvious, or if fixing it requires to learn some obscure math law then it will be hard too
The worst one I encountered with Godot took me about 6 months to resolve. It was a Godot engine bug that I started encountering last year, and just got fixed in 4.7. It took me about 6 months to find a workaround. I think it took about 9 months for it to be fixed in the engine.
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wow, i guess a week for collision solving wasn’t that bad xd
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Wow, that is some crazy dedication if I have ever seen one! Did you try reporting it to github issue page?
Yes. That’s how it got fixed.
I didn’t spend the whole six months on it. I did lots of other things.
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Bugs are small and not complex by definition. They are sneaky and evasive though. If you happen to have a “large and complex bug” - that’s called - bad architecture 
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“Large and Complex Bug” - ie, this was in the demo reel and it really just doesn’t work like that…
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