How to Fix a GameMaker Time Source That Keeps Running While the Game Is Paused

GameMaker time sources tick on their own schedule, so simply not running gameplay code does not stop them. A pause must actively suspend the timing systems too.

How to fix it

1. Pause time sources explicitly

Call time_source_pause on your gameplay time sources when entering pause and time_source_resume when leaving it, so they stop advancing during the pause.

2. Gate alarm logic on a paused flag

Wrap alarm-driven behavior in a check against a global paused flag, and reset the alarm so timed events do not fire while paused.

3. Keep UI timers separate

Run any pause-menu timing on a source you do not pause, so the menu stays responsive while gameplay timing is suspended.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every GameMaker error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.