Game Quality Gates

Mandatory quality standards for all game projects. Based on 70+ real bugs and industry best practices.

Core Principle

Bugs come from cross-state interactions, not individual features.
Each feature works alone; they break in combination.

12 Universal Rules (all games)

1. Single Cleanup Entry Point 🔄

All exit paths (death/level-complete/quit/pause/scene-switch) call ONE cleanup method with options.

CODEBLOCK0

New feature = add one line here. Never scatter cleanup across exits.

2. Respect Active Buffs ⚡

Any code modifying attributes (speed/attack/size/defense) must check for active temporary effects first.

CODEBLOCK1

3. Cache Before Destroy 📦

Extract all needed data before destroy()/dispose()/remove().

CODEBLOCK2

4. Timers Follow Lifecycle ⏰

Track all setTimeout/setInterval/delayedCall/rAF. Cancel in cleanup.

CODEBLOCK3

5. Frame-Rate Independent Logic 🖥️

Multiply all time-dependent logic by delta. Never assume 60fps.

CODEBLOCK4

• - Phaser update(time, delta): delta in ms, divide by 1000
• Three.js clock.getDelta(): returns seconds
• Physics: prefer fixed timestep (accumulate delta, step every 16.67ms)

6. Scene Transition = Full Cleanup 🚪

On scene/level switch, clean: event listeners, timers, rAF, audio nodes, object pools, WebGL resources (geometry/material/texture dispose), global state, pending fetch/XHR.

Verify: Chrome DevTools → Memory → heap snapshots before/after transition.

7. Audio Lifecycle 🔊

• - iOS: AudioContext must resume() inside a user interaction event
• INLINECODE10 → pause all audio when hidden, resume when visible
• WeChat WebView: WeixinJSBridge.invoke('getNetworkType') before autoplay
• Pool short sound effects; manage background music separately

8. Input Safety 👆

• - Purchase/consume actions: mutex lock + visual disable
• Attack/fire: cooldown timer
• State toggles (pause/resume): state machine guard
• See Phaser reference for multi-touch pointer ID tracking

9. Save State Persistence 💾

• - Include version field for migration when game updates
• Only persist meaningful state (not particles/temp animations)
• Auto-save on: level end, manual save, visibilitychange (hidden)
• localStorage limit 5MB; use IndexedDB for larger saves
• WeChat: use wx.setStorage (not localStorage)

10. Network Fault Tolerance 🌐

All network calls (leaderboard/share/ads/sync): 5s timeout + local cache fallback + no blocking game flow on failure.

11. Asset Loading Strategy 📦

Three tiers: critical (startup, <2s) → level assets (loading screen) → deferred (background lazy load). Fatal error only for critical failures; degrade gracefully for non-critical.

Compression: GLB+Draco, WebP images, MP3+OGG dual audio, sprite atlases.

12. Anti-Cheat Baseline 🛡️

Client is untrusted. Server validates:

• - One-time raid tokens (bind user+timestamp, single use)
• Play duration sanity check (can't finish 30 levels in 3 seconds)
• Score range validation
• See references/anti-cheat.md for implementation patterns

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Engine-Specific Rules

For Phaser-specific rules (pointer ID tracking, physics group cleanup, OVERLAP_BIAS, time vs physics pause):
→ Read INLINECODE16

For Three.js-specific rules (dispose trio, GLB compression pipeline, animation state machine, prune pitfalls):
→ Read references/threejs.md

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Pre-Deploy Checklist

Run this checklist before every deployment:

🔴 Universal (all games)

• - [ ] New objects cleaned in cleanupGameState()?
• [ ] New timers cancelled in cleanup?
• [ ] Attribute changes respect active buffs?
• [ ] Data cached before destroy?
• [ ] Movement/animation uses delta time?
• [ ] No memory leaks across scene transitions? (DevTools verify)
• [ ] Audio pauses on background/lock?
• [ ] Purchase/consume has duplicate-click prevention?
• [ ] Save has version number + migration?
• [ ] Network calls have timeout + fallback?
• [ ] Asset load failure has graceful degradation?
• [ ] Critical operations (spend/settle) server-validated?

🟡 Mobile Extra

• - [ ] Multi-touch: each finger tracked independently?
• [ ] iOS AudioContext resumed after first interaction?
• [ ] WeChat WebView compatible (no advanced CSS like backdrop-filter)?
• [ ] Virtual joystick/buttons don't overlap game area?
• [ ] Orientation change handled?

🔵 Engine-specific

→ See references/phaser.md or references/threejs.md for engine checklists.