Do game debuggers exist? [CLOSED]

[AsHLeX]

Excuse me if I seem rude, because I'm really new in this area and I may say the wrong things sometimes. I'm not even sure if this is the right segment to post in.
I'm actually curious if it's possible to hire someone for the sole purpose of debugging a completed visual novel.
It's not the case at which the programmer went MIA or something like that... rather it's more like I completed an entire dating sim by myself + creative commons resources and when I beta tested it myself I ran into a thousand and one bugs (not quite literally, but you get the point). So since I nearly tore my hair out with all the bugs that I found, I just had the randomest thought.
Has anyone ever tried/any programmer would be willing to debug an entire game for you - we're talking about a game with around 90k words and a complete debugging - meaning it would probably involve going through every aspect of the code... I mean of course it would be paid, but I'm wondering if a job like that even exists. :O
Anyone??? I'm really curious here and if they do exist then i might actually look into hiring one because 1. Yes, I could personally go through the entire game myself and debug it but 2. My knowledge of python is extremely limited and is only done by trial and error and 3. I'm running short of time and if such a thing exists, it would free my time up to work on other aspects of the game.
So I'm actually extremely curious about this... I can't exactly recruit just yet since I haven't written up a summary and etc. required for posting in the recruitment forums but I'm seriously curious if such a thing even exists before I even try.
Sorry for the long rant, I just had to get that off my mind :O

[Sleepy]

It depends what you want of a debugger - do you want someone to test and bug fix for you? Or do you want someone to focus specifically one testing and trying to break your game for you?

As for can you hire people to do this, yes. Definitely. Even Triple A studios do this, since it's what QA testers are for. Usually in that case the fixes and testing are done by separate members of the team but the main point of a QA tester then is to not just find your bugs but try and play the game anyway possible to see if anything breaks anywhere, as well as to generally make sure players will be able to complete things.

Also, as a plug, I have done work QA testing within the game industry before. My job there was to play through each new build to test stability, file and test bugs, summarize reports, and even note thoughts on changes between builds. I didn't go in and do the fixes myself but I'd note a bug, take a screenshot or video, summarize where it appeared and how to reproduce the bug, send it to the appropriate person (such as the programmer or the art person or writer) and then test the fix once implemented in the game. However, I have a general familiarity with programming within Ren'Py with my own project, if a more hands on look at the coding is required, though I'd potentially look at that as a different job depending on how much work you wanted done in that area.

If any of that sounds like it might be useful, feel free to email me at gee@ualberta.ca to discuss things further. Otherwise, good luck!

[Selidor]

I'm not sure it would be very useful to have someone manually read through all the code in the game looking for mistakes. They may well be able to spot some problems, but other things aren't obvious until you actually encounter them in game, and asking your programmer to play through looking for bugs isn't a good use of their time or your money (QA testing pays less than programming, and your programmer probably doesn't want to be QA testing even if they're being paid the same as they would be for programming).

It's much more efficient to have testers play through it and record all the bugs they find (explain exactly what happened, how you got there, and whether you have any steps to reproduce the bug, as well as how often you're able to reproduce it: 10%/50%/100% etc). Then you give each bug report to the programmer you've hired, and they can investigate it. This is how the QA process typically works in the industry.

[Tyrantauranox]

I'd rather have the people that wrote the game fix the bugs (with the help of QA testers), but that might not be a good option if those people are no longer available.

[trooper6]

I don't think the OP really wants QA people...because it sounds like the game won't even run. It sounds to me like the OP wants a programmer to basically reprogram the game so it works. Certainly, there are programmers who will code doctor for you. I've done it a bit myself.

I'd recommend putting an advertisement in the Recruitment section

[AsHLeX]

First off, I would like to thank everyone who took their time to reply to this thread. You have my gratitude.
Currently, I'm not actually looking for a QA tester, rather I was thinking of someone who could code doctor for me, as trooper6 said.
I'm actually having a problem with the coding aspect of it and I've identified it to be the result of some problem (on my error) on implementing xela's code. However, i'm really not sure what it is (and I've posted in the QnA forums about that, so that's for another story).
(By the way, I don't have a programmer for my project because I was the one doing the programming - although, I hesitate to call myself that, since all i'm doing is really copy pasting complicated code and trying to integrate it into my game. I suppose since I messed up the implementation somewhere along the line, it's now time to seek help in the QnA section or if that doesn't work then to hire a programmer)
Reading all of your answers gave me a good insight on how the whole industry works - I never heard of QA testers before this, so I'm glad that I learned something new (sorry if I sound ignorant, I'm not very experienced in this area).
Thank you again for all your replies I am very grateful.