What is the most effective way to collaborate with the development team when reporting a bug?

Bug tracking software is vital, but as the old computer saying goes “garbage in, garbage out”. So make sure a ticket is well documented and detailed to allow QA to replicate and evaluate. All team members should be encouraged to submit bugs, from the testers, to the individual of other departments and even the game directors. You should never assume a bug is so obvious that “someone must have reported it”. Assumption is a bad enemy of game production and even department management.

Big tracking softwares can be a huge time saver! We personally developed our own bug tracking system, where clients too have an input and this has to be the best tool we are using so far. If you use softwares like Trello or Milanote, you can even assign tickets or bugs to be fixed by certain people(s) and add deadlines too which makes the whole process way less tiring. My advice would be to try out different software solutions until you find what works best for you and your team!

Using tracking software, and making sure they are setup correctly. The game itself should have some way to capture recent errors and events. This should be integrated with bug tracking software so it gets all the relevant information and opens up a ticket in the right spot If submitting manually, the ticket system should use a template that guides the user in collecting specific details and try to reduce any back and forth communication by developers needing to get more details It's very rare to provide too much details. First check any communications about current known bugs or a FAQ. If it's a known bug and the development team gets flooded by requests it can actually slow down resolving it. The bug tracker should group them

The tools available for bug tracking are the best method to communicate bugs to the developers. Efficiently writing a bug while making sure all the required and important information is added will help the developers understand and fix the issues quickly.

Tracking software is the staple of collaboration in the industry. Allows to publicly share and discuss possible problems and relay relevant information. However, constant contact with developers on private channels can be very helpful as well due to response time and ease of information flow.

Keep in mind that developers don't have time to read through an essay about 1 bug. Keep it short and simple! Often times there are bug reporting guidelines and sometimes, to ease this process, companies often have a Google form to fill in. Don't forget what developers need is a single sentence describing exactly what the bug is about. For instance: Description: Bug when 10 players kill Enemy A, one after the other.... Problem: All players dies in the game This is an example of how to create a good bug report.

This is probably the most important aspect. The developers have limited time, so they need to quickly get a read on the highest need game breaking bugs. The bug may also have already be reported but your hardware specs or method of re-creating the bug could be very valuable to the developers.

A suitable format would be as follows: Title Short Description How to reproduce Expected result (what should happen normally) Result recorded For instance: Title: Player Death Bug Desc: All players in the game dies when 10 players kill Enemy A one after the other Expected: Only the 10 enemies die Results: Everyone in the game dies

In my opinion, crafting a well-structured bug report is a fundamental aspect of efficient collaboration between users and the development team. A concise and descriptive title, coupled with detailed and ordered steps to reproduce, ensures clarity. Including expected and actual results, environment details, and relevant attachments enhances the report's completeness. Additional information on bug frequency, impact, and workarounds offers valuable context. However, it's crucial to strike a balance and avoid unnecessary details that might complicate the understanding of the issue. A clear and comprehensive bug report facilitates smoother communication and quicker resolution. ??????

This is really crucial. Developers can't catch every single bug while working on a game, no matter how much they polish and put in effort. Predicting everything players might do is impossible. So, it's essential to realize that finding bugs doesn't mean the developers don't care.

When talking about bugs, it's important to create a supportive environment. Instead of blaming anyone, let's work together to understand the problem and figure out how to fix it. This way, we build a team culture where everyone can help find solutions without feeling stressed.

From my years of experience in the video games industry, this is by far one of the best skills to have. The people who learn from what others experienced and that try to understand what other people went trough, are the ones most likely to succed. This is also why working as a team with experiences is all around the board one of the best things.

In my opinion, embracing a learning mindset when reporting bugs is crucial for continual improvement. Actively reviewing feedback from the development team provides valuable insights into refining bug reporting skills and processes. Additionally, reflecting on personal experiences helps identify patterns, trends, and best practices to apply or avoid in the future. This ongoing learning cycle not only enhances the quality and efficiency of bug reporting but also contributes to the overall success of game development. It's a proactive approach that fosters continuous improvement and collaborative problem-solving.

When logging bugs, testers often don't consider how thier bugs are fixed or which discipline might fix them. They log them, *magic happens*, then they are returned. Excellent bugs with insightful details and attachments come when the testers can reliably predict how and who might fix the bug. A client coder? an engine coder? UI engineer? animator? level designer? Etc. Understanding how features and games are built allows testers to predict questions in bug triage and include only that information which will be required to diagnose and fix the bug, reducing bug ping-pong. Lastly, bug fixes come in many forms: one liners, basic logic fixes, asset changes, server fixes, doc updates, etc.Understanding fixes also improves retesting capability

1. Detailed Environment Specs: Specify OS, browser, or relevant details for efficient bug replication and resolution. 2. Prioritize for Workflow Efficiency: Organize bug tracking by severity, focusing on critical issues first for an organized workflow. 3. Collaborative Testing Sessions: Foster shared understanding through real-time discussions in collaborative testing sessions with your development team. 4. Enhance Traceability in Regression Testing: Improve bug traceability by sharing recent codebase changes if a bug is found during regression testing. 5. Proactive Solutions and Workarounds: Demonstrate proactive problem-solving by suggesting solutions or workarounds, expediting bug resolution.

As a developer, it is also helpful to track down the people responsible for the systems to get more insight. This is useful to bring multiple perspectives to the problem and figure out ways to easily solve it without stepping on anyone’s feet.

Pop open a screen recording software and catch the bug in the act. Narrate as needed. If you're able to look through the code / dependencies, definitely give them a browse and propose possible reasons if you have time.