A character walks through a wall. A item duplicates itself. The screen flickers. That is a glitch. It is a temporary malfunction or error in a game. Glitches are not designed. They are mistakes in the code. Some are harmless. Some break the game. Some are useful. Speedrunners love them.

Glitches happen for many reasons. A physics engine miscalculates. A texture fails to load. A collision detection misses. Developers patch them. Players find new ones. The cycle never ends. A game with many glitches is called buggy. A game with none is rare.

Types of glitches

• Visual glitch: textures missing, characters stretched.
• Physics glitch: objects flying, characters clipping.
• Audio glitch: sounds repeating, music cutting out.
• Exploit glitch: a bug that gives an advantage.

Glitches can be funny. A character's head spinning around is a meme. A car flying into the sky is a clip. They can also be frustrating. A crash loses progress. A soft lock traps the player. The word is neutral. The experience is not. It depends on the glitch.