Deployed game not running after download

[caelangm]

Hi guys! I've been trying to figure this out all night to no avail.
Basically I finished my game earlier today and wanted to send it to some friends to test. I was able to get through the whole thing in playtest mode. I zipped the file and uploaded it to google drive. When my friends downloaded it, it was a little broken. The save feature was broken (Just got the buzzer noise when trying to save to a file) and sometimes the lights would flash- occasionally their computer would even freeze trying to save! I am using a yanfly autosave plugin and khas lighting plugin, but I know that all of those are working fine because when I unzip the file on my computer it all works perfectly! We tried dropbox because I found a thread that said to use dropbox instead of drive, but the same issues persisted.
Get this though- when I downloaded the zip file from google drive, unzipped it, and then ran it, I ran into the same issues as my friends! Even though unzipping the zip file from my computer earlier worked fine. This leads me to believe it has something to do with the upload/download process of the zip file, but I'm not sure how I can get people to play my game if it can't be downloaded? I have to have my classmates play it tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks so much in advance and sorry if this is a bit of a mess

Edit: I also put a zip folder of the game onto an old windows computer that I have via flash drive and that also ran perfectly fine. All other attempts have been on mac

I initially deployed with encryption on images and sounds, and excluding unused files. However the file we tested using dropbox I did none of that, and it still didn't work.

 

[Shaz]

Excluding unused files can cause problems if you have plugins that use extra resources that aren't used elsewhere in your game.

If you can run and play and save on your computer but your friends can't, I'd initially look at where they had unzipped/installed the game. If it's a folder that's "owned" by Windows (which includes Program Files and Documents) or a folder that's linked to an online repository (like Drive or Dropbox or OneDrive), there could be permission or syncing issues. Have them just create a new folder right in the root directory of the C drive and see if that works.

I have seen other saving issues caused by sprites being attached to events (some plugins have done this), or by showing a balloon over an event in a repeated loop.

 

[SeaPhoenix]

Based on your edit, it looks like everyone who's been having problems 1) downloaded the file, 2) and tried to play it on a Mac? The last time I deployed for a Mac (which was a couple years ago), I used the following plugin:

Save files saved to local data folders

This teeny little plugin is designed to change where save files for a game are stored. This only works when using the PC/Mac deployment and should not affect any other platform. When using this plugin, save files will be directed to: Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\User Data\Default\ OSX...

forums.rpgmakerweb.com

Long story short: the game doesn't have permission to overwrite/save files unless you manually tell it to do so, so the following plugin solves the problem by saving the files in a place that it's allowed to access. I haven't tried deploying for a Mac in a while, though, so not sure if things have changed with the latest OS updates.

 

[Shaz]

All other attempts have been on mac

Oh! You cannot deploy a game from Windows and run it on a Mac. You have to deploy it from MV on a Mac.

 

[caelangm]

Based on your edit, it looks like everyone who's been having problems 1) downloaded the file, 2) and tried to play it on a Mac? The last time I deployed for a Mac (which was a couple years ago), I used the following plugin:

Save files saved to local data folders

This teeny little plugin is designed to change where save files for a game are stored. This only works when using the PC/Mac deployment and should not affect any other platform. When using this plugin, save files will be directed to: Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\User Data\Default\ OSX...

forums.rpgmakerweb.com

Long story short: the game doesn't have permission to overwrite/save files unless you manually tell it to do so, so the following plugin solves the problem by saving the files in a place that it's allowed to access. I haven't tried deploying for a Mac in a while, though, so not sure if things have changed with the latest OS updates.

This plugin worked! Thank you SO much I had no idea saving/file directories were a big problem on macOS! The plugin even works seamlessly with the autosave plugin I also have