How do I prevent freezes in my game?

Address the specific ways the game gets stuck. Keep heavy work off the main thread, do long computations, synchronous loads, and slow operations asynchronously or in the background, since the main thread is what keeps the game updating and rendering, and anything that blocks it stops the game from responding, appearing as a freeze. Guard against infinite loops and deadlocks, be careful with loop conditions and locking, since an infinite loop (execution that never completes) or a deadlock (two things waiting on each other forever) hangs the game indefinitely, a freeze that never resolves on its own. And capture freeze information from the field, what the game was doing when it stopped responding, since freezes can be hard to diagnose because the game doesn't crash but just hangs, and the context points you at the cause. Freezes come from the game getting stuck, blocking the main thread or trapped in a loop or deadlock, so keeping heavy work off the main thread, guarding against loops and deadlocks, and capturing freezes to find the cause are the key preventions.

What causes a game to freeze?

The game getting stuck, unable to continue updating and rendering, which has a few common causes. The most frequent is the main thread being blocked: the main thread runs the game's update and render loop, so if a long operation, a heavy computation, a synchronous file or network load, an expensive calculation, runs on it, the game can't update or render until that operation finishes, and it appears frozen for the duration. Worse are infinite loops and deadlocks: an infinite loop (a loop whose condition never becomes false) runs forever, and a deadlock (two or more things each waiting for the other to release something) waits forever, both of which hang the game permanently with no recovery. There can also be freezes from waiting on something external that never responds. What unites freezes is that the game is technically still running but stuck, unlike a crash where it terminates. This is why preventing freezes targets the stuck states specifically: keeping heavy work off the main thread (so it doesn't block), guarding against infinite loops and deadlocks (so execution doesn't get permanently trapped), and capturing freeze context (since the game doesn't crash, you need to capture what it was doing when it hung to diagnose the cause).

Is a freeze different from a crash?

Yes, though both make the game unplayable, they're technically different and need different prevention. A crash is when the game terminates, an error, an exception, a fatal condition causes the process to stop, often producing a stack trace you can capture. A freeze (or hang) is when the game doesn't terminate but becomes unresponsive, it's technically still running but stuck, unable to update or render, so it appears hung and the player can't interact with it. The causes differ: crashes come from errors and invalid operations (null references, exceptions, memory issues), while freezes come from the game getting stuck (the main thread blocked by heavy work, an infinite loop, a deadlock, waiting on something that never responds). They also surface differently in diagnosis: a crash typically gives you a stack trace pointing at where it failed, while a freeze doesn't crash, so you have to capture what the game was doing when it stopped responding to find the cause. From the player's perspective both are bad, an unresponsive frozen game is as frustrating as a crashed one, but preventing freezes specifically means addressing the stuck-state causes (keeping the main thread free, avoiding infinite loops and deadlocks) rather than the error-handling that prevents crashes. Capturing both crashes and freeze context from the field lets you see and fix each.

How to Prevent Freezes in Your Game

Quick answer: Keep heavy work off the main thread so it doesn't block, guard against infinite loops and deadlocks, and capture freezes to find their cause. A freeze hangs the game while it's technically still running.

A freeze, the game hanging and becoming unresponsive while technically still running, frustrates players as much as a crash. Freezes come from the game getting stuck, which has specific causes you can prevent. Here's how to prevent freezes in your game.

Keep Heavy Work Off the Main Thread

A common freeze cause is heavy work blocking the main thread, a long computation, a synchronous load, a slow operation, that stops the game from updating and rendering until it finishes, appearing as a freeze. So keep heavy work off the main thread: do long operations asynchronously or in the background so the game stays responsive.

Bugnet captures context, so you can understand what the game was doing during a freeze. Keeping heavy work off the main thread prevents the freezes that come from blocking it, since the main thread is what keeps the game responsive, and anything that stalls it freezes the game.

Guard Against Infinite Loops and Deadlocks

Freezes also come from the game getting stuck in an infinite loop or a deadlock, execution that never completes or two things waiting on each other forever. So guard against these: be careful with loop conditions and locking, since an infinite loop or deadlock hangs the game indefinitely, a freeze that never resolves on its own.

Bugnet captures context to help you diagnose where the game hangs. Guarding against infinite loops and deadlocks prevents the freezes that come from execution getting permanently stuck, which are among the hardest freezes since the game never recovers.

Capture Freezes So You Can Find Their Cause

Freezes can be hard to diagnose because the game doesn't crash, it just hangs, so capture freeze information from the field, what the game was doing when it stopped responding. Seeing the context around a freeze points you at the cause, the blocking operation, the loop, the deadlock, so you can prevent it.

Bugnet captures crashes and context from the field, helping you diagnose hangs and freezes. So prevent freezes in your game by keeping heavy work off the main thread, guarding against infinite loops and deadlocks, and capturing freezes to find their cause, addressing the specific causes of the game getting stuck.

Keep heavy work off the main thread so it doesn't block, guard against infinite loops and deadlocks, and capture freezes to find their cause. A freeze hangs the game while it's technically still running.