Plan and test game mechanics

A mechanic needs an observable rule: an action, a change in state and feedback to the player. Before adding more systems, test whether the first action, win condition and restart work together. The existing guides below provide the starting workflow and debugging checks.

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Prepare a game for publishing

Publishing starts with a game that can be tested, understood and maintained. Check the available creator controls, audience settings and safety requirements before a release. Use the publishing guide for the sequence, and the troubleshooting guide for an actual blocked step.

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BC-0219 · TROUBLESHOOTING

Editorial review 2026-09-26

Prompt Broke the Timer

After adding a menu, intro or outcome sequence, a previously working timer may count the wrong part of the round. Compare which phases the timer is intended to measure before changing its duration. A correct-looking reset value does not establish that the new sequence starts, pauses or ends measurement at the right boundary.

Symptom

A revised sequence changes which phase is counted or when a timer's terminal effect occurs.

Immediate action

Compare the intended measured interval with the new phase boundaries.

Diagnostic branches

An added pre-play sequence now consumes time meant for active control.: Restore the intended start boundary rather than inflating the allowance.
A panel's timing policy was never defined.: Choose whether that phase counts before diagnosing its behavior as incorrect.
The display stops but a later outcome still fires unexpectedly.: Include the terminal effect in the same phase-boundary correction.

Least-destructive change

Correct the changed interval boundary while preserving intentional duration and useful new presentation.

Retest

The measured interval matches the stated phase rule.
The terminal behavior agrees with that rule rather than only the visible number.
Retry begins with the chosen timing state where safely tested.

Escalation

Keep the phase comparison and uncertainty if the revision still fails. It does not prove a particular timer mechanism or a measured clock accuracy.

Working notes

Recover the timer's intended meaning from the earlier design: remaining active-play time, elapsed run time or another explicitly chosen measure. Do not assume every timer should pause during a panel. The issue is whether the revision changed that meaning without a deliberate decision.

Place the new sequence on the round timeline. An intro before control becomes available, a help view during active play and an outcome animation after completion have different relationships to the measured interval. Record what the display and terminal behavior actually do at those boundaries without diagnosing a hidden clock implementation.

Specify the phase rule and preserve the intended duration. Extending the displayed allowance to compensate for an unintended intro countdown hides the boundary error and may give extra active time later. If the intended design does count that phase, keep it and make the rule understandable instead of assuming that any countdown outside movement is wrong.

Inspect a normal round and the relevant transition, then a legitimate retry if safely available. Keep unavailable timing conditions untested; a manual observation is not a precise performance measurement, and this guide supplies no universal timer accuracy threshold.

Examples

Boundary regression: the timer was intended to measure active play, but a newly added opening message consumes that time before the player can act. Restore the chosen active-play start boundary while keeping the message and the original active interval.
Deliberate alternative: if the rules expressly keep the challenge clock running during optional help, preserve that design and its clear warning. Do not automatically add an exploitable pause merely because another game's timer pauses.