Starting with the 2023.8 release of GameMaker (and as of LTS 2022.03), we have a bug-reporting system on the Help menu inside GameMaker:
This allows you to tell us what was happening at the time of the bug and then automatically collects all your log files and will also attach a copy of your project if you allow it. More on how to use the tool can be further down this page.
Public reports (which are actually called "Issues" on the website) are shown to all users, reducing duplicate reports and allowing us to advise if there are workarounds for urgent issues. This better communication enables us to much more quickly fix the issue and also confirm that when we say something is fixed it is actually fixed on the affected users' machines.
Which should all mean better releases and fewer bugs for you, our much-appreciated users.
Thanks!
Do NOT use this tool to report any sign-in problems, "missing" licenses or purchasing enquiries, anything relating to our helpdesk documentation, or anything on our various websites. For all of these, please continue to contact our Customer Service team via the Contact Us button shown slightly higher up on that image.
Contents
Finding Existing Bug Reports
- Where can I see existing bugs and confirm my problem has not already been reported?
- What should I do if my problem has already been reported?
- Adding additional files onto an existing report
Troubleshooting Problems
- Update your GameMaker before sending any reports! (Including LTS users)
- Review your log files and external tools before sending any reports!
How To Report GameMaker Auto-Detected Crashes
- Why does GameMaker say it detected a crash?
- What information should I provide about what happened at the time of the crash?
How To Report Your Bugs
- How do I use the "Report A GameMaker Bug" tool?
- Enterprise Users Can Set Issue Visibility (Private vs Public Issues)
- Why Do You Ask Me To Send A Sample Project?
- Why should I link my GameMaker account to a GitHub account?
- What actually gets sent in a bug report?
- Who can access my files?
- Do I need to be online all the time because of this new bugs system?
More About Our Processes / Privacy
Finding Existing Bug Reports
Where can I see existing bugs and check my problem has not already been reported?
Public bugs live at https://github.com/YoYoGames/GameMaker-Bugs (which may be the page which sent you to this FAQ...). Not all bugs are public, but if they are, then they live on that site.
To see the actual bug reports, click the Issues tab near the top of that page:
This will take you to a page with up to 3 pinned "top-reported issues" at the top:
And then all the other public bug reports appear lower down the page:
The two headings in the green boxes in that image above are buttons and so you can click them to toggle between the list of Open and Closed issues.
- Open = yet to be fixed
- Closed = a developer thinks they have fixed this now, but note that YOU may not have access to this fix yet, so do see the details in the report!
Always search for existing reports by typing suitable keywords which relate to your problem into the search bar at the top of the issues list:
You can see that some default text is already typed in for you to say what type of report you're looking for and that it should be open (unfixed) - you usually want to leave this alone and just type your bit on the end.
For example, here we type in the word "Sprite" and press the Enter key, and then we get a filtered list of matches:
What should I do if my problem has already been reported?
If someone else has already reported your problem, do NOT report your own copy. Instead, just open their report and leave a thumbs up to say you have the same issue.
If you think their report is missing valuable information, then please leave a comment on the existing report with the info - this is always appreciated!
If you feel an existing issue is a duplicate of another issue (that may or may not have been resolved already), you can submit a comment under that duplicate issue starting with /duplicate and this will flag it for internal review by the GameMaker team. Thanks.
Adding additional files onto an existing report
Do not create a duplicate report just to send us files - there is no need.
As of 2024.8 Monthly, please use the "Upload a Bug/Ticket Sample" Help menu entry and send us your files that way, then simply add the download link this command gives you as a new comment on the original issue.
For all older releases please update to the current release and confirm you still have the problem, then use the tool mentioned in the paragraph above.
You are also able to just add a new comment on the existing report and then drag a .zip containing your additional files onto your comment box before you submit it, but we don't really recommend this route. Files sent via this method ARE downloadable by other users, so ensure you only send small sample projects this way and be careful sending us logs or other sensitive information!
Troubleshooting Problems
Update your GameMaker before sending any reports! (Including LTS users)
Always make sure that you are on the latest version of GameMaker, as whatever your issue is may have already been fixed - and we don't want any redundant reports. (This is the first thing our support teams will ask you to do if you do send us an issue referring to an old release.)
Make sure that your problem exists in at least the current monthly release before you send any report!
Note that as of 2024.8/LTS22.3 GameMaker will block you from being able to report bugs (and tell you why) if it detects you're using a mix of really old and new IDE/Runtime versions, as in almost all cases this mismatch is the cause of your problem and easily fixed immediately by you, so there is no need to report it to us.
Review your log files and external tools before sending any reports!
Always check your ui.log for GameMaker in case it tells you roughly what the error is. If it's to do with internet access or with files not being allowed to be read/found, see our guide on how to fix permissions issues.
Antivirus clients/firewalls/proxy servers/OS account permissions can all deliberately block GameMaker from starting up, downloading your runtimes, and make projects fail to build because files cannot be accessed - you do not need to report any issues like this to us, as it's just your protection software doing its job and we cannot affect that.
External tools must also match what your version of GameMaker actually requires otherwise your builds will often fail. Check the whole of your Output window inside GameMaker (not just the final few lines!) for what/where the error is and then see our Required SDKs guide.
If your issue was fixed by changing your console SDKs, Android Studio, Xcode, Spine, etc., install to match what our guide says, then you do not need to send us a report that you had a machine-setup problem.
How To Report GameMaker Auto-Detected Crashes
Why does GameMaker say it detected a crash?
There must have been some problem during your previous run of GameMaker (not the one that's asking you to send the report now), and so GameMaker wrote out an error and saved all of its memory at that time into a "dump file". GameMaker now wants you to send that memory file to us for analysis, so that we can prevent this crash from happening again in future GameMaker releases.
What information should I provide about what happened at the time of the crash?
Please, please do try to recall what you were doing at the time of the crash and supply a sensible, informative title for your report, rather than "Crashed" or "IDK?!" (actual examples...).
It also should go without saying, but unfortunately we have to do so: although we recognise that a crash likely was frustrating, yes, please do keep your language professional and civil in all crash reports. Remember that the bug service is public and there are a wide variety of user types/ages who may be reading your report.
Beyond that, follow the information given in the section below as to how to report your issue and try to give as much information about what you were doing at the time GameMaker crashed during the last session - actual steps are ideal, but obviously we understand if there was a time delay and so you no longer recall the details. Please don't guess whenever you don't actually remember, as you might send us looking in the wrong places.
We would also strongly recommend you attach the asset file(s) you were importing/editing at the time of the crash, the project that was open, etc., as we may need your source content in order to recreate the issue.
How To Report Your Bugs
How do I use the "Report A GameMaker Bug" tool?
Clicking the Help menu command will open a new dialog:
Note that prior to 2024.8 this dialog looked slightly different to what's shown above
Fill in each field with all pertinent information you can provide. Many of the fields are mandatory and must be filled-in before the Submit button will be activated, but we recommend you always send all requested information straight away, otherwise there will often be a delay fixing the issue while we request what's missing.
Strongly consider sending a small sample project if your bug is in-game or when building specific assets in your projects - if a sample is essential and you have not sent one, then it's likely the report will just be immediately closed with a message requesting a project (see a little further down this page for an explanation why we do this).
If you report your bugs via the form inside GameMaker, then all of your files are always private and can only be accessed by GameMaker staff (you can't even download them yourself).
The "How to submit a Bug Report" link brings you to this page, so if you have questions in future you can easily return here later.
If you click Submit...
The bug-reporter will gather the info we require, zip it up, and then send it to us. This process typically takes less than a minute or two (depending on your internet connection speed and the size of the sample project you chose to send).
After a short delay, you should then see a little confirmation dialog saying that we received your bug report successfully.
The QA and Customer Service teams will not respond to emails, tickets, social messages, etc., asking for personalised progress reports on issues - if you need to see the progress of an issue, please see the issue in your browser, as that's why we made this public GitHub system.
If you click Cancel...
The dialog is closed. That's all.
Enterprise Users Can Set Issue Visibility (Private vs Public Issues)
Be aware that if you're not an Enterprise subscriber then you will not see the "Issue Visibility" dropdown shown on the screenshot slightly higher up this page, as it was found to be causing confusion over whether file attachments were private or not (despite everything said on the bug-reporter dialog, plus what we had already documented here and also in several places on GitHub itself).
Enterprise users have the Issue Visibility dropdown so they can choose whether the issue should go into a public repo (including a restricted console one), or into a private repo that is accessible only by the user and our staff.
If an Enterprise user is selecting Private on the Issue Visibility dropdown for the first time, when they submit their issue the private repo mentioned above will be created within our GitHub.
The visibility dropdown has no effect on whether files are public or private on any issues - it only affects which repo the bug report ends up in on GitHub. Again, all files are uploaded privately when sent via the IDE.
If you try to set an issue as private and get an error about needing to authenticate your account, this is not a bug. Simply open your account panel website and re-authenticate GitHub for both buttons.
Why Do You Ask Me To Send A Sample Project?
We do get a lot of bug reports and stopping to create a project for the non-obvious ones reduces our time to actually fix other bugs also.
If you always send us a project that you know causes the problem you're reporting, then we can test it in our source builds right away and see if the issue has already been fixed (and so that's why we're not getting the problem ourselves right now) or to immediately repeat your issue. We ask for a small sample, rather than your full game, as we only need the bits required to recreate the problem; like you, we very rarely want you to have to send us your game.
While we could follow the steps to attempt to always recreate these reports from scratch, yes, we would then need to install the exact IDE/runtime versions used, create a project and see if we can make it trigger the issue that was reported (which might of course involve guesswork and therefore may not actually be the problem reported), confirm the problem still exists in the current versions of GameMaker... and only then can we start work on fixing it. (And in many cases the issue is fixed already for another bug report, so this is very often an unproductive task)
It should be noted that our QA team do actually frequently do all of the above in a large number of cases where the repro steps are straightforward - however, guesswork and complex issues in bug reports do not mix.
And, no offense, but if your problem is a coding mistake or some other problem with the project content itself, rather than a bug for us to fix, then we're probably unlikely to accidentally recreate your problem anyway, so we might get into a situation where you keep telling us your bug still exists each GameMaker release, when it was never a bug in the first place ;)
As you can see, it's much faster, safer, and far more reliable for everyone if you send us the project that already shows the problem.
All of the above still applies even if you're chatting directly to a staff member via any form of social media/GMC/Discord. Please still send a proper bug report which contains all the information in the report (don't link to an external discussion) and include a proper sample project!
Why should I link my GameMaker account to a GitHub account?
This allows the bug-reporter tool inside GameMaker to be able to link your report to your account, meaning you can very easily get notifications and monitor the progress of your public bugs and feature requests later on. (There is no ability to link anonymous reports to your account after they are sent.)
By default, your reports from the IDE will be anonymous and sent by the bot:
If you want your account to be used instead, you link your account on your GameMaker accounts panel by clicking the button shown below and then signing-into your GitHub account:
Note that if for some reason you change the visibility of your GitHub account at any time, you may need to repeat this linking in order to ensure future bug reports still get associated to your account.
Once your accounts are linked, future reports you send will have your GitHub name and avatar on them, but also you will be able to find them easily on your GitHub menubar:
This will then show you all of the reports you created, plus any where someone replied and mentioned you, and you can toggle between the Open and Closed lists:
(Be aware you're unlikely to ever have any in the Assigned list)
What actually gets sent in a bug report?
A zip file, containing the following files:
| ui.log | GameMaker's own log file |
| licence.plist | Your current licensing file |
| um.json | Your current user manager file |
| local_settings.json (potentially) |
Your current user Preferences file so we can (e.g.) determine if the problem is caused by custom values for DPI, invalid SDK settings, theme values, or problems with the audio hardware you're using for sound output. Note that if you have not edited your Preferences, this file will not exist. |
| bugreport.json | The text you typed and checkbox values you selected on the bug-reporter form |
| Any additional files you attached to the bug-reporting form | e.g., screenshots, sprites, sound files that you chose to send us |
| meta.json |
|
| output.txt (potentially) | If you had an Output Window log at the time you filed the bug, then the whole of this will be added also so we can (e.g.) determine the reason why a build failed or see what logging a game did before it gave an error |
| Project .yyz file (optionally) | If you said yes to including your current project as a sample, then it will be added as a compressed GameMaker .yyz archive file |
| .dmp crash log file (potentially) | If this is a "Crash/Unstable" report which GameMaker asked you to send us because it said your IDE crashed during the previous run, then there will be a file containing GameMaker's memory at the time of the crash so we can analyse this. |
If you would like to open this .zip file and confirm exactly what is going to be be sent on your machine for a given report, simply create your report as normal, but disconnect your internet momentarily before you click the Submit button. You will then see the dialog saying we will try to send the report when you're back online. Look in your Output Window and it will tell you the path where the .zip file was created. Find that path in Explorer/Finder/etc. and you can then view the contents of the archive using your chosen zip manager tool.
It will look a lot like this:
Assuming you're happy, turn your internet back on and wait a few minutes so GameMaker detects you're back online, then click the Submit button on the bug-reporting form again and the zip should be sent to us as per normal.
Who can access my files?
- If you uploaded via the IDE reporter your files are always private. The links which get added into your bug report are clickable only by select members of development staff who actively work on GameMaker - no other GameMaker users are ever able to access your files!
- If you used the web form, then files are up to you how publicly you shared them.
- Simply dragging a file onto the website will make it entirely public, so please only do this with screenshots and small sample projects you made to show the bug.
- If you are hosting the file elsewhere and have just put a link on the report, then the permissions are however you set them on the external site (so make sure these permissions allow us to download the file!).
Do I need to be online all the time because of this new bugs system?
No.
Obviously, GameMaker will need to be online in order to successfully send us your bug report (or to upload a sample project) and your machine as a whole will need to be online in order to open a bug issue link in your browser, but that's it.
If you try submitting a bug report when you are offline, GameMaker will realise the upload failed, tell you it couldn't send the report because you are offline, and will keep your bug report information handy so you can try again once you have restored your connection.
Note that only the most-recent failed submission is remembered (so you can't write a second bug while offline).
More About Our Processes / Privacy
Why do you collect this info?
Well, rather than requiring you to create a Helpdesk ticket and us have a back-and-forth asking you to attach files, etc., as we did in the past, this GitHub-based system makes things far quicker and easier for everyone, as now it's simplified to only one quick dialog for you and yet we know all the info we require should get reliably sent that first time.
We also now publicly show the majority of issues and add comments about the progress of these issues onto the reports - which saves us a tremendous amount of time each day responding to lots of tickets about the same problems with identical responses.
This also allows users to help identify the causes for obscure issues or to join in discussions on how a problem might be fixed - resulting in a better outcome for everyone.
What will you actually do with my report?
We triage all the new reports each morning to determine if each one is an issue we need to investigate further or if we already know the answer and so can close the report sooner. If you have not provided all the info the form requested, we will leave a comment saying so - note that in most cases nothing further will be done with the report until you have supplied the requested information.
Assuming the information is all added properly, the triage team will typically assign the issue to one of the core tech team who is responsible for the GameMaker functionality area mentioned in your report.
At the same time, the issue may be allocated to an upcoming Milestone (a GameMaker release), otherwise it will be sent to the Backlog for further investigation at an unspecified date later on.
When it comes time for them to work on your issue, the core tech team will then investigate the problem by using your sample project to try recreating the issue for themselves. If you supplied logs with a crash/error message, then they may also use this to give them an advantage in knowing where to look in the code. Please note issues may not get detailed updates before/while being worked on.
Once they have confirmed the issue, they will make an attempted fix and likely use your sample again in order to confirm all now works well for them. At this point, their fix goes into GameMaker and they close the report and leave a comment saying what was changed.
This does not mean your GameMaker install suddenly gets the fix - you will need to wait until the next release and then update your install!
Next up, someone in the docs team will review the change which the developer made and will determine if they need to update the manual to match the new/changed behaviour. They may potentially use your sample also in order to confirm they are wording things correctly and that they have understood the change properly.
And finally someone in our QA team will verify the changes made to GameMaker and to the manual which came from your bug are actually correct. They will run your sample to confirm the fix works (and probably check it on more platforms also) and extend your project as they see fit in order to confirm the change didn't accidentally break something unexpected.
Each person mentioned above would typically download a copy of your .zip package for the time period in which they actively work on the problem, but then delete it immediately afterwards.
On the odd occasion in which we claim something is fixed and you find that it is not fixed in the Monthly release it is supposed to have gone into, you are also able to reopen the issue and give us updated info.
(Please do not reopen issues before you know you have a GameMaker release in which we have actually said it's fixed!)