How do I fix a crash on startup in my game?

Fix a startup crash by capturing it with full context, identifying the affected devices, finding the failing initialization step, fixing it, and verifying. Step one, capture: get the crash's stack trace (which startup step failed), device, OS, and version, because the crash happens at startup, your crash reporting needs to initialize early enough to capture it, so you see the failure rather than just a game that will not start. Step two, identify the affected devices: startup crashes are often device-specific (a failure during initialization on certain hardware or OS) or version-specific (a regression in a release), so see where the crash clusters. Step three, fix and verify: find the initialization or loading step that fails (a missing resource, an unsupported capability, a bad environment assumption, a regression), fix it, and confirm the crash stops on the affected devices, critical because affected players cannot play at all. Startup crashes are high-priority since they fully block affected players. Bugnet supports the whole process: it captures startup crashes with stack trace, device, OS, and version, groups them by signature (showing the affected-device pattern), and verifies the fix per version, so you can diagnose and fix a startup crash even on devices you do not have, which is how you fix a crash on startup in your game.

Why does my game crash on launch for some players?

Your game crashes on launch for some players but not others usually because of a device-specific or environment-specific failure during startup: an initialization or loading step that fails on certain hardware, OS versions, or configurations that you did not encounter in testing. Common causes: an unsupported device capability the game assumes during initialization, a graphics or driver incompatibility hit during rendering setup, a missing or inaccessible resource on certain configurations, a permission or environment difference, an OS-version-specific behavior, or a regression in a recent update that breaks startup under certain conditions. The defining feature is that it is conditional, the same launch code works for most players but fails for a subset, pointing to something specific about their device or environment. To fix it, you need to know which devices and conditions are affected and what fails during their startup, which is hard without data from those players (you cannot ask everyone, and you may not own the affected hardware). Bugnet provides it: it captures startup crashes tagged with device, OS, and version, and groups them by signature, so you see which devices and configurations crash on launch and what step fails, pointing to the cause, which is why your game crashes on launch for some players and how to diagnose it.

How do I capture a crash that happens before my game loads?

Capture a crash that happens before or during loading by using crash reporting that initializes as early as possible in your startup sequence, so it is active and able to capture the crash even when the failure occurs during initialization. The challenge with startup crashes is timing: if your crash reporting initializes late, a crash that happens before that point goes uncaptured, leaving you blind to exactly the crashes that prevent the game from starting. The solution is to initialize crash reporting very early in your startup, before the parts that might fail, so it can capture failures throughout initialization and loading. With early initialization, even a crash during startup is captured with its stack trace and device context. Beyond that, the device and OS context is especially valuable for startup crashes, since they are often device-specific. Bugnet is designed to initialize early and capture startup crashes with full context (stack trace, device, OS, version), so you see the crashes that happen before your game fully loads, on the devices where they happen, rather than only knowing that some players report the game will not start, which is how you capture a crash that happens before your game loads and makes startup crashes diagnosable.

Steps to Fix a Startup Crash

Quick answer: To fix a startup crash: capture it with stack trace and device context, identify the affected devices, find the failing initialization step, fix it, and verify.

A startup crash means affected players cannot play at all, so it is high-priority. These are the steps to fix one.

Step 1: Capture the Startup Crash

Start by capturing the startup crash with its full context: the stack trace (which initialization or loading step failed), the device and OS (the conditions), and the version. Because the crash happens at startup, capturing it requires crash reporting that initializes early, so you see the failure rather than just a game that will not start.

Bugnet captures startup crashes with the stack trace, device, OS, and version, so you see exactly which step in startup failed and on what hardware, turning a 'the game will not start for some players' mystery into a diagnosable crash with a clear failure point.

Step 2: Identify the Affected Devices

Next, identify which devices, OS versions, and game versions are affected: startup crashes are often device-specific (a failure during initialization on certain hardware or OS) or version-specific (a regression in a release). Seeing where the crash clusters tells you whether it is a device issue or something you changed.

Bugnet shows the clustering: it groups startup crashes by signature and tags them with device, OS, and version, so you see whether the crash hits specific hardware (a device-specific initialization issue) or started in a particular release (a regression), narrowing the cause quickly.

Step 3: Fix the Failing Step and Verify

Finally, find and fix the initialization or loading step that fails (a missing resource, an unsupported capability, a bad assumption about the environment, a regression), then verify the startup crash stops on the affected devices. Since affected players cannot play at all, verifying the fix actually restores startup is critical.

Bugnet verifies per version: after you ship the fix, it shows whether the startup crash stops occurring on the affected devices in the new version, so you confirm affected players can now start the game, the whole point of the fix, rather than assuming based on your own device launching fine.

To fix a startup crash: capture it with stack trace and device context (via early-initializing crash reporting), identify the affected devices, find the failing initialization step, fix it, and verify, it is high-priority since affected players cannot play.