Identifying Video Game Debugging Bottlenecks: An Industry Perspective

2025-10-09

AI Summary

This study addresses the critical bottleneck of low debugging efficiency in video game development. Through observational analysis of 20 experienced developers debugging crashes, object behavior anomalies, and persistence issues—using screen recordings, live debugging session observation, and qualitative thematic analysis—we systematically characterize temporal distributions and collaborative patterns in debugging activities. Innovatively integrating game-specific debugging techniques—including on-screen consoles, debug rendering, debug cameras, and data scrubbing—we find developers spend ~36.6% of their time inspecting runtime artifacts and ~35.1% reproducing bugs locally. We further identify core debugging responsibilities of technical roles and pinpoint cross-role collaboration bottlenecks. These empirically grounded findings provide actionable insights and design guidelines for optimizing game debugging toolchains, workflow processes, and team coordination mechanisms.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Diagnosis and Abductive Reasoning
• Computer Vision: Video Understanding & Activity Analysis

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data provenance, reliability, and authenticity
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization

Abstract

Conventional debugging techniques used in traditional software are similarly used when debugging video games. However, the reality of video games require its own set of unique debugging techniques such as On-Screen Console, Debug Draws, Debug Camera, Cheats and In-Game Menus, and Data Scrubbing. In this article, we provide insights from a video game studio on how 20 seasoned industry game developers debug during the production of a game. Our experiments rely on the recordings of debugging sessions for the most critical bugs categorized as Crashes, Object Behaviors, and Object Persistence. In this paper, we focus on identifying the debugging activities that bottleneck bug resolution. We also identify the debugging tools used to perform debugging techniques. Lastly, we present how different disciplines collaborate during debugging and how technical roles are at the core of debugging. Our thematic analysis has identified game developers spend 36.6% of their time inspecting game artifacts and 35.1% of their time reproducing the bug locally.

Problem

• Identifying debugging bottlenecks in video game development
• Analyzing industry practices for resolving critical game bugs
• Investigating time allocation and tool usage in debugging

Innovation

• Game-specific debugging tools like On-Screen Console
• Analyzing debugging bottlenecks via session recordings
• Focusing inspection time on game artifacts reproduction