Bug Tracking System

[Mark]

Some of you have been asking for a better method to track bugs - we've used Mantis in the past, and I'd be happy to install that. Are there any other suggestions? Ideally we'd want it running on an IV server so we can control access, and php / mysql is the easiest option for me.

Any ideas?

*** Update

Thanks for all the advice.

Mantis and Gauge Issue Support 0.1 installed.

Any further plugin or suggestions gratefully accepted.

[gsuberland]

I'm ok with Mantis.

Alternatives are Trac and Bugzilla, both of which have good track records.

I suggest you have a play around with the user and group management stuff on each, before deciding on one for definite.

I'm also not sure where we would stand on the bug reporting access thing. Maybe we should have a few people with prior bug reporting experienced elected to be able to report bugs, but leave the majority of the reporting in the forums. That way, we can coalesce the stuff from the forum into a single cohesive report, and the devs don't need to spend ages doing it themselves. Normal forum members would have read-only access. We keep out the cruft, but don't end up with slower progress on the game due to dev time being diverted away from development.

One thing that would be great is if any forum member could +1 a bug, through some sort of rating addon for the reporting system. That way the devs can see what the players find important, without having a tonne of "yeah" and "I +1 this" comments littering the place.

Update: GaugeSupport looks like a great plugin for voting. Gives you some really nice horizontal bar graphs of the voting stats.

[Anovadea]

I'm ok with whatever is easiest for devs, so long as there's a way to get rid of the "me too" comments (the vote plugin is probably ideal).

Also, +1 gsuberland's suggestion for playing with user and group management first, as I'm pretty sure there'll be tickets you want to keep developer-only at some point during development.

[delaneya]

Used mantis a few times. Am happy to use it.

[HowPeculiars]

Whatever is most concise.

[nefarioustim]

Mantis, Trac, Bugzilla, Jira etc.

[Luzal]

I'd say if Mantis is the easiest way for IV, Mantis is fine.

[liamdawe]

Trac is usually much nicer than Mantis, i would prefer that.

[superspeck]

Agreed that Trac is nicer. Another nice one that I've seen recently is https://www.chiliproject.org/

[Phydaux]

Some of you have been asking for a better method to track bugs - we've used Mantis in the past, and I'd be happy to install that. Are there any other suggestions? Ideally we'd want it running on an IV server so we can control access, and php / mysql is the easiest option for me.

Do what is best for you. Most of the non IV games that I've done alpha/beta testing for have just used forums like you currently are.
Although having a bug tracker is good fun. I like to follow the progress of the more interesting bugs.

I'm also not sure where we would stand on the bug reporting access thing. Maybe we should have a few people with prior bug reporting experienced elected to be able to report bugs, but leave the majority of the reporting in the forums.

Nah if you're going to have a bug tracker, do it DF style. Have a couple of reliable people to manage all the dupes/relations and let people post all the bugs they want. It's a good way to keep some of the forum busy-bodies busy, makes them feel important too.

[RMJ1984]

Not sure, never used any bugtracker before. It just seems like it would be easier to use something like that for a small company, instead of having to dig into piles of threads to find bugs.

Also being able to see how common or rare a bug is, would help you guys decide what really needs fixing first.

[Hessen]

I vote for notepad.

[pusheax]

Bugtracker is definitely needed. Mantis is fine.
Then what about issues on the forum? Some people will use forum because bug tracker can be too advanced for them.

[Molano]

Any method would be fine as long as it's dedicated to the task. Mantis would be fine. Trac is fine too. I'd vote for mantis if you've got experience with it.

[alexanderpas]

Bugtracker is definitely needed. Mantis is fine.
Then what about issues on the forum? Some people will use forum because bug tracker can be too advanced for them.

others will experience them too, and they will be reported too.