Steam user's game is crashing because of missing files that never existed

[Ericfrancisrock]

Hello, I'm having a very bizarre issue with one of the players who has purchased my game on Steam. They are having an issue where when they go to Save their game, the game crashes and gives them a "failed to load graphic" message. They've gotten the following:

Error
Failed to load:img/characters/kushwalk.png

Error
Failed to load:img/characters/emma.png

The thing is, neither of these image files have ever been associated with my game. I have never had files of those names and there is nothing in the game that calls for files of those names. And none of the other people who have purchased and played my game are having any issue with saving and loading.

Has anyone ever encountered something like this before? What could possibly be causing this issue?

 

[Danatoth]

Are you using a plugin that may have referenced those in a demo file that you incorporated into your project and then selected on deployment to not use any unused assets?

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

Thanks for the reply! The only plugin I'm using is Orange Greenworks, and I didn't select to exclude unused assets when I deployed.

 

[Andar]

A "failed to load XY" error can only happen if XY is referenced somewhere, no matter if you remember that or not.

That said, if you are absolutely sure you never had such a file (not even temporarily), then there are still several ways how that reference could have gone into your game.

The most common one is the one mentioned above: you used a plugin and configured it wrong.

A second option is you copied data from a demo project and again forgot to change its configuration to your game.

Another option is if the player experimented with copying savefiles or something like that and got a savefile for a wrong game. That is especially a chance since the crash happens on saving.


That said, for any real bughunting we would need a screenshot of the error trace. Depending on what deployment they have you get their either by pressing F8, pressing F12 or selecting the developer tools on a browser menu line.
Then in all cases switch to the console tab (it often goes to the element tabs first, that is the wrong one) and make a screenshot of the entire console output on the error.

 

[caethyril]

On top of what's already been mentioned: it may be a problem with a different game, and the user simply posted in the wrong place by mistake.

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

Thank you for the replies!

That said, if you are absolutely sure you never had such a file (not even temporarily), then there are still several ways how that reference could have gone into your game.

The most common one is the one mentioned above: you used a plugin and configured it wrong.

A second option is you copied data from a demo project and again forgot to change its configuration to your game.

The only plugin I have is Orange Greenworks, so that could be the only potential culprit for plugins. I never copied data from a demo project.

If it were the plugin being the cause of the issue, the bug would happen to everyone, not just one person though, wouldn't it?

Another option is if the player experimented with copying savefiles or something like that and got a savefile for a wrong game. That is especially a chance since the crash happens on saving.

This seems more plausible based on the fact that this one person is the only one encountering the bug.

On top of what's already been mentioned: it may be a problem with a different game, and the user simply posted in the wrong place by mistake.

This thought occurred to me as well, but I asked them where in the game they had the issue and they described a part of my game. So unless they're really mixing things up I think it's happening in my game. Of course without seeing it firsthand I can't know for sure.

 

[gstv87]

ask the player for a screenshot of their party.
since they're saving, the only instance of loading "missing characters" is when showing the minis on the menu, which inherit from the party.
if you can't trust the process, trust the object: the save menu displays the party members.
that's what *it does*... that's why it's there.

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

That's a good idea. I'll do that.

 

[kyonides]

Is there any plugin using an actor's name as part of its actor's spritesheet?
Just double check that no "default" plugin does include such a thing at all. There's a still chance that either you or the player have made any changes to any of those plugins.
Is the player allowed to save the game at any other location?
Is there any event (NPC) or common event that could be loaded immediately after saving the game at that specific location?
No game will ever ask you to have any graphical resource that you have never included via the resource manager or by plugin, including a plugin's parameter configuration.

 

[Andar]

That's a good idea. I'll do that.

Just to add to the point above:

If I remember correctly the save/load screen checks the sprites for all savefiles.
Which means that even if the party itself is correct, the error may happen if a savefile from a different game is copied there without it being ever loaded.

If that is the case the error should vanish if all savefiles are removed - you can ask the player to move all savefiles out of there, and then copy them back one after another until the error happens again.
and then have that savefile send to you and trick it into loading by renaming other character files until you know if it is a file from your game or not.

 

[JohnDoeNews]

Small chance, but the player could have tried to load a saved game from another game into your game. If in that other game, there have been files with those name, then those names are part of the save file.

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

Based on the conversation I've been having with this player and the responses in this thread, I'm beginning to think that the most likely scenario is a save file from the wrong game existing in their save folder, somehow. I have suggested that they create "dummy" files of the missing files to see if they can bypass these errors and get into the game.

Since the issue is happening uniquely to this one user and has never happened to anyone else, I'm 99% certain the issue is on their end, regardless. Nevertheless, I hope to somehow solve it so they can play the game, since they actually seem very interested in playing it.

Thanks for the help so far everyone!

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

I have discovered something. On my wife’s computer, the save files of this game are being saved to C:/save. Just a folder called save in the C drive not associated with the game at all. It is possible that this player’s computer is doing something similar, and another game’s save files exist in the same location.

But why would the save files be sent to such a nondescript location? I thought they were supposed to be placed in a sub folder in the game’s folder?

Is there any way for me to configure the game to save in a different/specific location so I can prevent this from happening?

 

[kyonides]

I'd worry more about saving the files with unique names like MyGamesTitle###.extension than the actual storage location, but you're free to change that path as well.

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

That’s definitely another option I’d consider. Is that easy to do?

 

[ATT_Turan]

I would focus on figuring out why the files are getting written in an unexpected location.

Is the game folder placed in Program Files? In Windows 11, that defaults to read-only, so the game might be unable to put the save folder in its own directory.

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

In the case of my wife's computer, the game was originally on the desktop because she tested the game before it was released on Steam. When it was released on Steam she deleted that version but the Steam files are saving in the same place. She can actually load the files from the test version still.

 

[ATT_Turan]

I might be missing something, but I don't see anything in the default code that would allow the save games to write to a different directory.

Are you sure you're not using a plugin to affect that? If you search your js and plugins folder for "StorageManager.fileDirectoryPath", do you get anything aside from the original instance in rmmz_managers.js?

 

[Ericfrancisrock]

I'm sure I'm not using a plugin to affect it. The only plugin I'm using in the game is Orange Greenworks, and that I added long after she tested the game. I haven't touched plugins at all besides that.

 

[ATT_Turan]

And I'm assuming your actual game is not placed in the base C:\ directory.