Why Send Sample Projects

We do get a lot of bug reports, so 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 already 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 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 and a small sample is much quicker to learn than "all of your code". Just like you, we very rarely want you to have to send us your full, real game projects, as it's usually more than we need or want.

Now, while we could follow the steps to attempt to always recreate these reports from scratch (assuming you did provide detailed, quality steps), we would need to:

• install the exact IDE/runtime versions you used (plus any extensions or marketplace assets, etc.)
• 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 in many cases the issue is fixed already for another bug report, so this is very often an unproductive task
• go back-and-forth with you on the issue if we have any questions to do with how you originally did the above steps

...and only then can we start work on fixing anything.

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, and so we try to get away without asking you for a sample whenever we can - 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, and 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.

So you can hopefully now see it's much faster, safer, and far more reliable for everyone if you just send us the project that you already know shows the problem.

Who can access my files?

If you reported your bug via the IDE all files are always private. The download links which get added into your bug report are usable only by select members of development staff who actively work on GameMaker - no-one else is ever able to access your files.

If you used the web form to report your bug, then it's up to you how publicly you shared them:

• If you used our Upload a Bug/Ticket Sample tool and you just pasted the URL GameMaker gave you into your issue. then all of your files are private and safe - this is the correct route!
• If you are hosting the file on some other service elsewhere (E.g., Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive) and have just put a link on the report, then the permissions are however you set them on the external site - make sure these permissions allow us to download the file!
• Simply dragging a file onto the GitHub website will make it entirely public, so please only do this with screenshots and dedicated small sample projects you made to show the bug.