What are the common bugs in AI-generated games?

An AI assistant writes correct-looking code that runs in a forgiving preview. The bugs show up when the game leaves that preview for a real, sandboxed environment. Here are the five that come up again and again, and how to spot each one.

Why do AI-generated games break after they leave the chat?

Inside an AI tool, a preview pane runs the game with generous permissions. It can reach the network and tolerates loose references to files. A publishing host that serves the game safely to the public is stricter on purpose. So a game that looked finished suddenly errors — not because the logic is wrong, but because it was quietly depending on things the safe environment does not allow.

Bug 1 — External script tags for libraries

The assistant adds a script tag pointing at a CDN for Phaser, p5.js, or similar. Depending on the host, that tag may be stripped or blocked, and the game fails because the library never loads. The fix: do not hard-code library script tags. On ArcadeLab, list the library name in the ARCADELAB header comment and it is injected for you at render time.

Bug 2 — Network calls that are blocked

The game uses fetch, XMLHttpRequest, or a WebSocket — to load a high score, pull an image, or call an API. Sandboxed hosts block all network access, so these calls fail silently or throw. The fix: remove the network dependency. Generate content in code, draw art with shapes, and keep score in a plain variable instead of a server.

Bug 3 — Missing or wrong viewport setup

Without a viewport meta tag, the game renders tiny or zoomed-in on phones and tablets. The fix is one line in the head: a meta tag with name viewport and content width=device-width, initial-scale=1. Add it and the game scales correctly on every screen.

Bug 4 — The canvas does not resize

The assistant sets a fixed canvas size — 800 by 600 — and the game ends up cropped or letterboxed on other screens. The fix: set the canvas width and height from the window size and add a resize handler that updates them. A game that resizes with its window works everywhere.

Bug 5 — External image and audio files

The game references sprite.png or music.mp3 that lived in a folder during development. A single published file has no folder, so those loads fail. The fix: draw graphics with canvas shapes, generate sound with the Web Audio API or a library like Tone, or embed small assets as data URLs so everything travels inside the one file.

How do I check a game before publishing?

Save the file and open it directly in a browser, then open the developer console and play for a minute. Watch for blocked requests, failed file loads, and red errors. Resize the window and check it on a phone-sized viewport. A game that runs clean in that test publishes clean. For help getting a cleaner result the first time, see how to prompt for a publishable game.

Once it runs clean, publish it at arcadelab.ai/publish.