What went wrong: a taxonomy of video game bugs

  • Authors:
  • Chris Lewis;Jim Whitehead;Noah Wardrip-Fruin

  • Affiliations:
  • University of California, Santa Cruz, California;University of California, Santa Cruz, California;University of California, Santa Cruz, California

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Video games are complex, emergent systems that are difficult to design and test. This difficulty invariably leads to failures being present in the game, negatively impacting the play experience of some. We present a taxonomy of possible failures, divided into temporal and non-temporal failures. The taxonomy can guide the thinking of designers and testers alike, helping them expose bugs in the game. This will lead to games being better tested and designed, with fewer failures when released.