Hey! Thanks for taking the time to visit the bug forum. It's critical stuff for us, and it's time out of your day, so we appreciate it. Before you start, I want to help streamline things for you (and us). We want your input and we want to know when something goes wrong, so we want this process to be as easy for you as possible. So please take just a minute or two to read this post and use it as a loose guide for reporting bugs.
(1) Check to see if there are other bugs related to your own. If there are, add your bug report to that one. You don't need to start a new thread, but please don't neglect to post, either! Also, help other people find your bug by giving it a good, concise and descriptive title. Think of what words other people would look for if they had a similar bug.
(2) These are the most important things for us to know with any bug you file:
- What happened? Be as objective as possible in your description. Avoid saying that things suck or are bad/fail/etc.; not because it hurts our feelings, but because it doesn't tell us WHY that thing sucks or is bad.
- Can you reproduce the issue? If so, how? If not, what were you doing before, during, and after the bug's occurrence?
- Is there a workaround to the issue? If so, what is it?
- What was wrong with what happened? It may seem obvious, and that's fine, but it's a good thing to state anyway.
(3) If you have screen-shots, cool! Our 'no screen-shots' policy has an exception for bug reports. We still ask that you don't publish your screen-shot anywhere, and we ask that you upload your screen-shots to someplace like imgur.com, which doesn't publish it's image archives (you can read their site for their full policy).
- How to take screen-shots in OSX: www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Scre...
- How to take screen-shots in Windows: www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Scre...
(4) I have a format I like to use for posting bugs internally. You don't have to use it, but I find it helps me organize my thoughts a bit, so I'd like to share it. First, list steps to reproduce the bug or what you were doing before it happened. Then, explain what you expected to happen. Finally, describe what actually happened, instead. If you have one, you can describe your workaround here, or in its own section below. Your call. For example, let's say there was a problem with the background in Burnabee that only showed up when you climbed around at the top of one of the trees:
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Repro Steps
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Go to the entrance of Burnabee
Climb the Tree on the left side of the street
Jump across, to the right, to the next tree over.
Expected Behavior
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The scenery should appear seamless, with the typical uninterrupted background of cute trees and forest imagery.
Actual Behavior
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The background has a frightening picture of Beefcake with a half-eaten donut in his mouth.
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Update: 05/04/2010
A quick explanation of what some of the tags on posts mean:
[fixed] - This bug has been fixed and should no longer show up in-game. If you can reproduce it, post a new thread and link back to this one if you think you're seeing the same issue.
[confirmed] - We've been able to confirm that this is a bug and it has been filed internally. Sometimes I don't get around to updating this when the bug is fixed, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been. Feel free to ask in the bug thread if you're unsure.
[duplicate] - Someone else has filed this already.
[not a bug] - What this thread describes isn't actually a bug. There should usually be an explanation of why not in the thread. It could be that that's the way the game's designed, or it could be a bug in something other than Glitch, such as right-clicking when using Flash in Firefox 3.6* (http://staging.glitch.com/forum/bugs/249/)
[awaiting player response] - We need more detail from the person who filed the bug to help us figure out exactly what the problem is, or what's causing it.
[investigating] - I am researching the possible cause(s) of this issue and will update the thread when I've finished.
[won't fix] - We're aware of this but probably won't be fixing it, at least not directly. Generally this means we've got something else in store that will make the bug a non-factor. It does not mean we don't care :)