How do I handle network errors in my game?

Add retries with backoff, set timeouts, degrade gracefully, and protect state against failures, so a network error is a handled inconvenience rather than a crash. Network errors (failed requests, timeouts, dropped connections, server errors) are inevitable, players have flaky connections, so you handle them gracefully. Add retries with backoff (for transient failures, since many succeed on retry), set timeouts (so a hung request does not make the game wait forever), degrade gracefully (when a request ultimately fails, catch the error, show an appropriate message, preserve state, and recover or let the player retry, rather than crashing), and protect state (so a failure during a save or transaction does not corrupt or lose progress). Bugnet captures the network errors players hit and whether they crash the game, so you can see which failures need robust handling, add it, and verify per version that network errors stop crashing the game in the field where real flaky connections occur.

Why does my game crash on network errors?

Because the game is not handling network failures gracefully, an unhandled failed request, timeout, or unexpected response causes an error the code does not catch, crashing instead of degrading. Network operations fail in many ways (the request fails, times out, returns an error or malformed response, the connection drops), and if your code assumes success or does not handle a failure, that failure produces an unhandled error that crashes. Common patterns: not catching network exceptions, assuming a response is valid (crashing on unexpected data), no timeout (hanging or crashing), and not handling specific failure cases. The root issue is treating network failures as exceptional when they are inevitable. Bugnet captures the network-error crashes from the field with context (which request and failure crashed, under what conditions), so you can see exactly which network failures are crashing your game and where the handling is missing, add robust handling, and verify per version that the network-error crashes stopped.

How do I make my game work on bad connections?

Build resilience to poor network conditions: retries with backoff, timeouts, offline/degraded handling, efficient network use, and protecting state against failures, so the game stays usable on flaky connections. Many players (especially mobile) have poor or intermittent connections, so design for them: retries with backoff (recovering from transient failures), timeouts (so slow/hung requests fail gracefully), graceful degradation and offline handling (let the game continue degraded or offline where possible, queue actions to sync later), minimal and efficient network use (reduce dependence and data transfer so bad connections strain it less), and state protection (so a network failure does not corrupt or lose progress). Test under simulated bad conditions and capture the real failures from the field. Bugnet captures the errors and crashes players hit under real network conditions, so you can see how your game fails on bad connections, make those paths robust, and verify per version that the failures stopped breaking the game on real flaky connections.

Ways to Handle Network Errors

Quick answer: Add retries with backoff for transient failures, set timeouts so requests do not hang, degrade gracefully so a failed request does not crash the game, and protect state against failures, network errors are inevitable.

Network errors are inevitable in an online game, players have flaky connections. Here are the best ways to handle network errors.

Add Retries With Backoff

Handle network errors by adding retries with exponential backoff for transient failures, since many network errors are temporary (a brief drop, a server hiccup) and a retry succeeds. Backoff avoids hammering a struggling server.

Bugnet captures the network errors players hit, so you can see which failures are transient (worth retrying) and confirm that adding retries reduced the errors reaching players.

Set Timeouts So Requests Don't Hang

Handle network errors by setting timeouts on requests, so a hung connection does not make the game wait forever (which can look like a freeze), failing gracefully after a reasonable time instead. Timeouts prevent indefinite hangs.

Bugnet captures the freezes and errors from requests with no timeout (hanging the game), so you can see when missing timeouts cause problems and add them, then verify the hangs stopped.

Degrade Gracefully on Failure

Handle network errors by degrading gracefully when a request ultimately fails, catch the error, show the player an appropriate message, preserve their state, and recover or let them retry, rather than crashing or breaking. A network error should be an inconvenience, not a crash.

Bugnet captures the crashes from unhandled network errors (showing which failures crash the game), so you can see where to add graceful handling and verify per version the network-error crashes stopped.

Handle network errors by adding retries with backoff, setting timeouts, degrading gracefully, and protecting state against failures. Network errors are inevitable, so handle them gracefully.