Insights, tutorials, and stories from the world of game development. Learn how top indie studios ship better games with fewer bugs.
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Why Microsoft Defender SmartScreen blocks your downloaded game as an “unrecognized app”, what to tell players, and how to code-sign so the warning stops appearing on every release.
Error 0xc000007b means Windows loaded a DLL of the wrong architecture. How to find the mismatched library in your build, ship the right runtimes, and what players can do.
Why a game built on a 60 Hz monitor runs at double speed on 144 Hz displays, how to reproduce it on your own PC, and the delta time and fixed timestep fixes in Unity, Godot, Unreal and GameMaker.
Why the cursor slides onto a second monitor in borderless fullscreen and minimizes the game, and how to confine it in Unity, Godot, Unreal and GameMaker without trapping players.
What “The code execution cannot proceed because UnityPlayer.dll was not found” means, the player mistakes and antivirus quarantines behind it, and how to package a Unity build so it stops.
Why macOS tells players your Godot, Unity or GameMaker game “is damaged and can’t be opened”, the one-line workaround to give them, and how to sign and notarize the build so the dialog never appears.
Why UE5 games show “DX12 is not supported on your system” on some PCs, and how to ship a DirectX 11 fallback so those players can still launch your game.
Why Visual Studio or Rider refuses to build your Unreal project while the editor is open, when to use Live Coding, and when you must close the editor.
What Unreal’s “global shader cache file is missing” error means, why it appears in packaged builds and on DX11 or Vulkan, and how to fix the cook or the launch.
Fix Unreal’s “The game module ‘MyGame’ could not be loaded. There may be an operating system error” by finding the missing DLL, config or module name mismatch.
Unreal says Visual Studio must be installed even though it is. Add the right workloads and MSVC toolset, or pin a compiler in BuildConfiguration.xml.
What Unreal’s “plugin was designed for build” prompt means after an engine upgrade, when it is safe to click Yes, and how to rebuild or replace the plugin.
The .uproject right-click menu has no Generate Visual Studio project files option. Restore it, or generate the solution from the editor or command line instead.
Shipping builds compile out UE_LOG, Print String and on-screen messages. How to enable logging in Shipping, where the log file goes, and what to use instead.
Renamed a C++ class, struct or UPROPERTY and now Blueprints lose their parent or values reset? Add CoreRedirects in DefaultEngine.ini and re-save the assets.
Fix UE5’s “pending kill or garbage” Blueprint error: validate references, clear them when actors are destroyed and stop timers that outlive them.
Motion Matching stuck in idle, popping or picking the wrong clip? Check the database, schema, trajectory input and blend settings, then use Rewind Debugger.
Emissive meshes glow but do not light the room under Lumen, or the light vanishes off-screen. Fix intensity, Lumen Scene coverage and material type.
Lumen looks right in the editor but the packaged game is flat or dark. Check scalability, Post Process Volume streaming, the RHI and platform config.
Hardware ray tracing will not enable in Unreal Engine 5, or Lumen ignores it. Check DX12, SM6, the project setting, skin cache, GPU support and per-mesh flags.
Shadows look blurry, soft or low resolution with Unreal’s Virtual Shadow Maps. Adjust light source angle, resolution LOD bias, SMRT settings and the page pool.
MetaHuman or groom hair invisible, bald or floating? Enable the compute skin cache, check the Groom plugin and Binding, and test lower scalability.
Mixamo animations retargeted to UE5 Manny come out with twisted arms, sunken hips or no root motion. Fix the retarget pose, chain mapping and root.
Unreal character strafes without turning or always faces the camera? Fix Orient Rotation to Movement, controller yaw, rotation rate and AI paths.