Some people can't play my game

[Aason]

Hi,
I'm developing a Renpy game, and I have a small community.
After the most recent update, some people started complaining that they couldn't launch the game. They double click the .exe, and nothing happens.
Everything worked fine for them before. The game works totally fine on most computers, it works perfectly on mine.
I don't know how to fix it. Don't even understand what's the problem.

(don't know if it's related, but I accidentally deleted the "persistent data" of Renpy, before making this build)

Please, help me.
Thanks.

[rayminator]

are you sure they are double clicking the game.exe instead of the game-32.exe

if they are hitting the game-32.exe and they have a 64-bit window they should be hitting the game.exe not the game-32.exe cause hitting the game-32.exe with a 64-bit window it will not run

[Aason]

are you sure they are double clicking the game.exe instead of the game-32.exe

if they are hitting the game-32.exe and they have a 64-bit window they should be hitting the game.exe not the game-32.exe cause hitting the game-32.exe with a 64-bit window it will not run

Yeah, they were.

The problem was somewhere else.
In options.rpy,

## A short name for the game used for executables and directories in the built
## distribution. This must be ASCII-only, and must not contain spaces, colons,
## or semicolons.

I had used "alt+255" to create spaces anyway. It worked on some computer, but not all. I now removed it.
So, the problem was me lol.

Thanks for your concerns anyway, I'm sorry.

[Imperf3kt]

For what it is worth, deleting persistent data is something you should do before building a distribution. - ignore this advice

[zmook]

For what it is worth, deleting persistent data is something you should do before building a distribution.

I have just done a test build on Ren'py 8, and the entire game/saves directory was excluded by default. So I don't think you need to worry about that, unless I'm missing something. I believe persistent data is saved in the file 'persistent' in saves/.

I was surprised that the game/cache directory *is* included. My understanding is that you don't need to distribute that (and probably shouldn't?), so I'm going to take care of that in options.rpy:

Code: Select all

    build.classify("game/cache/**", None)     

[Imperf3kt]

For what it is worth, deleting persistent data is something you should do before building a distribution.

I have just done a test build on Ren'py 8, and the entire game/saves directory was excluded by default. So I don't think you need to worry about that, unless I'm missing something. I believe persistent data is saved in the file 'persistent' in saves/.

I was surprised that the game/cache directory *is* included. My understanding is that you don't need to distribute that (and probably shouldn't?), so I'm going to take care of that in options.rpy:

Code: Select all

    build.classify("game/cache/**", None)     

Persistent data and save data are two separate things.
However, I just checked the latest build documentation as well as the Ren'Py tutorial and neither mention needing to manually clear persistent data, so the information I gave is probably outdated (If I recall correctly, this was something you were recommended to do back in 2015 when I first started using Ren'Py)

[zmook]

Persistent data and save data are two separate things.

True, but there is a file 'persistent' in the game/saves directory, and I assume that's where persistent data is stored.

[PyTom]

For the record, deleting persistent data before distributing the game isn't required, and shouldn't be recommended.

[zmook]

For the record, deleting persistent data before distributing the game isn't required, and shouldn't be recommended.

Is there any benefit to including or excluding the 'cache' directory?

[PyTom]

The cache/ directory is distributed by default, and should be distributed by default. It contains information that is derived from the game, that Ren'Py uses to improve start time - for example, the Python in the game precompiled to bytecode, so Ren'Py doesn't have to recompile it every time the game starts. It also contains analysis for screens, and a list of shaders the game has used.

So yes, you want to include it.

Usually, trying to overthink this is going to cause problems. If removing the cache directory was a benefit, I would have added a rule to do so.