What

Went Wrong

A Taxonomy of Video Game Bugs

expressiveintelligencestudio

UC Santa Cruz
Chris Lewis, Jim Whitehead, Noah Wardrip-Fruin
h8p://eis.ucsc.edu | h8p://www.cewis.com

FDG 2010
 The Jesus Shot

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 Swa7ng Bugs

How can you validate a bug xing

tool, if you dont know what types of
bugs there are?

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 Preview

Related Work
The process of building taxonomies

Taxonomy of video game failures

Our taxonomy

U=lity
What else can we use this for?

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz

 Related Work

Beizer created a taxonomy of

so@ware engineering bugs
There is no universally correct way to
categorize bugs

Many other so@ware engineering

taxonomies exist
Too specic or general, assumes code
knowledge, doesnt help games

Bainbridge & Bainbridge

A8empts to classify by cause

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 Whats In It

Game glitches are Game design is a

uninten=onal crea=ve endeavor
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 Taxonomy - Overview

Implementation
failures

Non-temporal Temporal

Position invalid Invalid graphical Invalid value Invalid position Invalid context Invalid event Implementation
Artificial stupidity Information Action Interrupted event
(clipping) representation change over time state over time occurance response issues

Object out of Object out of Invalid

Lack of required Action when not Action not
bounds at all bounds for information
information allowed possible
times specific state access

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 Taxonomy - PosiCon Invalid

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 Taxonomy - Invalid Graphical RepresentaCon

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 Taxonomy - Lack of InformaCon

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 Taxonomy - Invalid PosiCon Over Time

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 Taxonomy - Invalid Context State Over Time

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 Taxonomy - ?

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 Discussion
Object out of
bounds at all
times
Position invalid
(clipping)
Object out of
bounds for

Not complete
specific state
Invalid graphical
representation

Can it ever be complete? Invalid value

change

Unintelligent Invalid

Not mutually exclusive

Non-temporal artificial information
intelligence access

Bugs overlap depending on perspecYve Information

Lack of required
information

Implementation Action when not

Action
failures allowed

Invalid position Action not

over time possible

Invalid context
state over time

Temporal

Invalid event
occurance

Interrupted event

Implementation
response issues

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 UClity

Tes=ng Aid
Taxonomies improve number of relevant test
cases produced by testers

Valida=on of bug detec=on so@ware

TheoreYcal understanding

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz

 Review

Related Work
The process of building taxonomies

Taxonomy of video game failures

Our taxonomy

U=lity
What else can we use this for?

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz

 Conclusion

This is just the beginning.

How you understand, adapt and use

the taxonomy is up to you.

Chris Lewis, Jim Whitehead, Noah Wardrip-Fruin This material is based upon work supported by the

h8p://eis.ucsc.edu | h8p://www.cewis.com NaYonal Science FoundaYon under Grant No. 0811865.

Any opinions, ndings and conclusions or

Contribute to the taxonomy: h8p://www.zenetproject.com/ recommendaYons expressed in this material are those of
taxonomy the author(s) and do not necessarily reect the views of
the NaYonal Science FoundaYon (NSF)

expressiveintelligencestudio UC Santa Cruz