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.

cleanupGameState(opts) {
  // Fixed order: sub-objects → buffs+timers → UI → projectiles → (optional) enemies/controls/events
}
// Every exit: resetBall(), levelComplete(), gameOver(), onShutdown() → calls this

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.

// ❌ speed = Math.max(speed, BASE_SPEED);  // ignores slow buff
// ✅ speed = Math.max(speed, this._currentBaseSpeed);  // buff-aware baseline

3. Cache Before Destroy 📦

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

const { x, y } = obj; const color = obj.getData('color');
obj.destroy();
spawnParticles(x, y, color);

4. Timers Follow Lifecycle ⏰

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

this.activeTimers.push(this.time.delayedCall(10000, cb));
// In cleanup: this.activeTimers.forEach(t => t.remove(false));

5. Frame-Rate Independent Logic 🖥️

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

// ✅ player.x += speed * (delta / 1000);

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
visibilitychange → 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

Engine-Specific Rules

For Phaser-specific rules (pointer ID tracking, physics group cleanup, OVERLAP_BIAS, time vs physics pause): → Read references/phaser.md

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

Pre-Deploy Checklist

Run this checklist before every deployment:

🔴 Universal (all games)

🟡 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.