Crux QA Bug Portal
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The more detail you give, the faster we can reproduce and fix it.

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Crux QA - Read Me First

Goal: file actionable bug reports that give devs enough to reproduce + fix without follow-up questions.

How this portal works

File a bug

Use the Report form: summary, category, game mode, and a screenshot. Build, platform, device, and OS are required, but they are remembered from your last report and pre-filled, so you set them once. The portal stamps the ID, the timestamp, and your name (from your access code) on submit. There is no spreadsheet row to fill.

File from inside the app (fastest)

While playing, a four-finger tap grabs a screenshot of whatever is on screen and opens this portal with that shot already attached and the form ready, so you can file the moment you see something wrong.

Track your bugs

My reports lists every bug you filed with its live status and the build it was fixed in. All reports shows everyone's bugs, search it before filing so the same thing is not logged twice.

Verify a fix

When a dev marks your bug Ready for QA it appears under Needs verification. Reinstall the named build, retest, and mark it Fixed or Not fixed. You have the final say, not the dev.

The hunt

Every confirmed bug earns points by severity and rarity, and every fix you verify earns a point too. Your Hunt tracks your rank, streak, and badges; the Leaderboard ranks the whole team.

1. What you're testing

Crux is a daily-puzzle iOS app (TestFlight only right now). One new puzzle per mode per day, reset at midnight UTC.

Currently 37 game modes + a few non-game surfaces (Daily Coin Toss, Daily Wager, Mystery Box, Daily Wheel, Season Pass, Crux Plus subscription).

Three currencies:

  • Coins (yellow) - earned for solving, used for shop items + IAP-adjacent purchases
  • Gems (red diamond) - premium currency, spent on hints + cosmetics + powerups
  • Bolts (lightning) - free-hint credits; usually 1 per day per mode

For testing convenience, all players currently have ~100k coins / 10k gems / 55 bolts.

2. Brand voice - when something reads wrong, that IS a bug

Crux has a deliberate, calm tone. Voice contract violations should be filed.

OK / expected:

  • Titles: Title Case With A Period.
  • Italics / emotional copy: lowercase italic, also with a period.
  • Section names: THE LOBBY, THE LOUNGE, THE GALLERY, THE CONCIERGE (these are room names, fine)

Always wrong - file it:

  • Em-dashes in any text a player sees
  • Exclamation marks (almost never, one tactical max)
  • Hype words: "amazing", "epic", "let's go", "great job", "awesome"
  • Chatbot phrases: "Oops", "Sorry about that", "Looks like", "Let me"
  • Hotel-staff metaphors (banned literal terms): "guests", "check in", "checked in", "check out", "front desk", "night porter", "linens", "the bellhop", "fresh keys"
  • Inline emoji in copy strings
  • Marketing-speak ("unlock now", "limited time")

If a string feels off, it usually is. File a Minor with the exact string + screen + voice rule it violates.

3. Bug classes that keep biting - pay extra attention here

Modal traps:

Open any popup, try X button, backdrop tap, system-back gesture, swipe-down, leave it open for ~15s. Every modal should be escapable from every state (loading / success / error).

Currency display drift:

Watch your gem/coin counter after every hint spend, claim, purchase. It should match server state immediately. File if the displayed number disagrees with what just happened (going negative is a CRITICAL).

Hint behavior:

T1 / T2 / T3 hints should each do something distinct + visible. If a tap closes the modal but nothing happens on the board, file. If buying the same hint twice charges twice but reveals the same letter, file.

Save & resume:

Mid-puzzle hit back, leave the app, force-quit. Come back. Your progress (typed letters, revealed letters, timer offset) should restore exactly.

State sync:

Claim a reward, does the lobby card update? Solve a puzzle, does the archive show "completed"? UI should reflect server state without needing a force-restart.

Multi-touch / rapid tap:

Double-tap buy buttons, mash hint pills, two-finger tap on counters. Should never double-charge or leak state.

Tutorial visuals:

Every mode has a 3-step tutorial. Check the illustration actually shows what the text describes (we've shipped wrong flags / missing drag indicators recently).

Layout on tiny + tablet:

Top bar / chrome / modals on iPhone SE (narrow) AND iPad (wide). Common: pills overlap, scrollbar overlaps grid, buttons clip to bottom edge.

4. Test devices + states to cover (rotate through these)

Don't just test on one device, bug coverage depends on the matrix:

  • iPhone 15 Pro Max (primary, but most things will look fine here)
  • iPhone SE / smaller (narrow viewport, most layout bugs surface here)
  • iPad (different padding rules, scrollbars, larger touch targets)

States worth deliberately triggering:

  • Keyboard open on text-input modes (Heat Cue, Flag Streak, Bracket City, Think 21, Passport, Tradle, Almanac)
  • Settings, Reduce Motion enabled, animations should snap, not crash
  • Settings, Colorblind Mode (Deuteranopia / Protanopia), green tiles should turn orange/blue
  • Settings, Sound off, should silence sfx without breaking anything
  • Airplane mode mid-action, should show plain-spoken error, never freeze
  • Background the app mid-puzzle for 5 min, return, state should be intact

5. Severity guide

SeverityWhat it covers
BlockerCrash, unplayable mode, can't dismiss modal, can't progress past a screen
CriticalWrong currency math (double-spend, negative balance), data loss, IAP fails silently, save not persisting
MajorMode mechanic broken (hint does nothing, button no-op, wrong scoring), tutorial misleading
MinorVoice violation, copy typo, color contrast, small layout overlap
TrivialPadding nit, font weight inconsistency

6. What a clean report needs

The form captures most fields for you. Spend your effort on the parts only you can write: the summary, the steps, and what you expected versus what you saw.

Write these well:

  • Summary (<=80 chars): one-line headline a dev can read in 2 seconds
  • Description: 1-3 sentences, what you saw vs what you expected
  • Steps to reproduce: numbered, terse. A dev should be able to follow them blindly
  • Severity: pick the chip per the guide above
  • Game mode: pick the exact mode; use Lobby / Modal / Settings / Shop / Onboarding for non-game surfaces

The form already handles:

  • Build, device, OS: pre-filled from your last report, just confirm they still match
  • ID, timestamp, reporter: stamped automatically on submit

Strongly preferred:

  • Screenshot or recording: attach one. Visual bugs without an attachment are very hard to triage (the four-finger-tap capture does this for you).
  • Error code: if a toast or banner shows an error code or message, copy the EXACT text into the description

7. Before you file

  • Force-quit + relaunch the app, does it still happen?
  • Update to the latest TestFlight build, the bug might already be fixed
  • Search All reports in this portal, has someone already logged it?
  • Note your build number, fixes ship several times a day; "build 264 crashed" beats "today the app crashed"
  • Repro from a fresh device state if you can (uninstall + reinstall is a valid last resort)

8. Quick mode taxonomy (helps you describe what failed)

  • Word find / swipe: Word Hunt, Hex Hunt, Squaredle, Rooftop, Word Flow, Word Fall
  • Word guess: Chordle, Quordle, Connections (Quartet), Bracket City (Peel), Tradle, Waffle, Room 5x6 + Room 6x7 (Letter Swap)
  • Crossword: Broadsheet, Quick Crossword
  • Geography / knowledge: Almanac, Passport, Capitals (Match), Flags (Streak), Landmarks (Postcards)
  • Numbers / logic: Number Match (Take Ten), Mathle (Equation), Think 21, Wordoku (Grid), Letter Merge, One Line (Zip), The Parcels (Shikaku, draw rectangles so each number gets its acreage), Pipes (rotate each segment until the whole grid links into one leak-free network from the source), Kings (Star Battle, place one crown per row, column, and colored region so no two crowns touch, even diagonally)
  • Color / sensory: HueSort, Heat Cue (Thermostat)
  • Sorting: Word Sort
  • Trivia / music / verse: The Attribution (who really said it), The Refrain (complete the lyric), Meter (tap the stressed beats so the line scans)
  • Meta / economic: Daily Wager, Daily Coin Toss

9. Reach out

  • Critical / Blocker bugs that block your testing: ping the dev channel right away, don't only file
  • Same root cause across several modes? Mention it in the description, devs may consolidate
  • Not sure it's a bug? Ask before filing, sometimes the behavior is intended

Updates

Notable changes we have shipped. Check here when you start a session.

    Tips for filing great bugs

    A few habits make your reports faster to file, easier to fix, and worth more points. None of this is hard. It just adds up.

    File fast

    Keep a laptop open beside you

    Type the description on a laptop, not the phone. You can write a clear, detailed report much faster with a real keyboard, and detail is the part that matters most. Play on the phone, file from the laptop.

    Four-finger tap opens the portal instantly

    Found something while playing? Tap with four fingers anywhere inside the game. That grabs a screenshot of what is on screen and opens this portal with the shot already attached and the form ready. File the moment you see the bug, before the details fade.

    What matters most, in order

    1. A detailed text description (most valuable)

    Write what happened in plain words and fill in the other fields. A clear written report is the single most useful thing you can give a dev. This is what gets a bug reproduced and fixed without a back-and-forth.

    2. Screenshots, second

    A screenshot confirms what you saw and pins down the screen and state. Attach one whenever it helps. It backs up your words, it does not replace them.

    3. Video, last

    Only attach a video when text and screenshots truly cannot convey it, for example a timing or animation bug where the motion is the problem. Do not lead with video. It is slow to record, slow to review, and usually unnecessary.

    Earn maximum points

    Fill in every field

    Completely filling out all the fields earns a bonus. A complete report is easier to triage and score, so it is worth more to you and to the team.

    These fields are remembered for you

    Four fields are required and autofill from your last submission so you are not retyping them every time: Build / version, Platform, Device, and OS version. They carry over, so just glance at them and confirm they are still correct rather than typing them again. The summary, category, mode, steps, expected, and actual always start fresh.

    What graders look for

    A precise, specific title. Clear numbered steps to reproduce. A sensible severity guess. Expected versus actual stated plainly. The closer your report is to "a dev could fix this without asking you anything," the higher it scores.

    Verify on the right build

    Always enter the build you actually reproduced on

    The build number is the most common source of wasted time. A wrong build causes false "still broken" and "cannot reproduce" loops, because the dev checks a different build than the one you saw the bug on. Enter the build you actually had in front of you.

    Where to find the build number

    It is in TestFlight next to the app, and in the app's own Settings or About screen. It looks like 1.4.2 (231): the version, then the build number in parentheses. Copy it exactly.

    FAQ

    Should I file a duplicate if I am not sure it is already reported?

    Check All reports first and search the summary. If you do not find it, file it. A near-duplicate is better than a missed bug, and devs can merge duplicates.

    What if I cannot reproduce it again?

    File it anyway with everything you saw, and note that it was intermittent and you could not reproduce it on demand. An intermittent bug is still a real bug, and your notes may be the only clue.

    Do screenshots need annotation?

    A quick circle or arrow on the problem area helps, but it is not required. A plain screenshot plus a clear description is fine.

    It might be intended behavior. Do I still file?

    If something feels wrong or confusing, file it or ask in the dev channel. Sometimes it is intended, but a confusing design is worth knowing about too.

    My reports

      All reports

      Check here before filing so we don't log a bug twice.

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