Game wont start

[GotyZ uwu]

So I installed the game and when I start it it shows the crown picture for around 0.1 seconds before it disappears and my windows mouse icon shows loading. After around 5-10 seconds the loading stops but nothing happens and my task manager says that LongLiveTheQueen.exe is running in the processes but my applications don't show it, this happened in another Ren'py game, also holding shift while starting does nothing no matter how long I press it. I recently upgraded my processor and my windows is complaining about upgrading to newer windows but I don't think that should be the problem.
Edit: The game also won't give any error messages or anything and steam claims that I am in the game and won't run it again since it's already running.

[Hanako Games]

What operating system are you using?

If you try going to the game's installed directory and using the shortcuts (Start in Safe Mode, Start in Software Mode) do either of them work?

[GotyZ uwu]

My OS is windows 7 home premium and Safe mode worked, thank you. Though having to go there every time to start the game would be annoying since the original problem is still there.

Originally posted by Hanako Games:

What operating system are you using?

If you try going to the game's installed directory and using the shortcuts (Start in Safe Mode, Start in Software Mode) do either of them work?

[76561198256121679]

If the 'Play in Software Mode' shortcut in the install directory also works, you should be able to force the game to always start in software mode by:

Clicking 'Preferences' on the title screen
Clicking 'Video Settings'
Setting 'Preferred renderer' to 'Software'

Then it should start in software mode.

[GotyZ uwu]

Originally posted by spikycaterpillar:

If the 'Play in Software Mode' shortcut in the install directory also works, you should be able to force the game to always start in software mode by:

Clicking 'Preferences' on the title screen
Clicking 'Video Settings'
Setting 'Preferred renderer' to 'Software'

Then it should start in software mode.

Only thing that happens is that a windows command window pops up and then I can't do anything else in it

[76561198256121679]

Hm.

If safe mode says that the game is set to run in fullscreen, switch it to windowed mode and see if it then can start from the 'Play in Software Mode' script?

If that doesn't work, the problem is likely to be related to sound rather than video, since sound is also disabled in safe mode. If it's a sound conflict
- Quitting other programs that use sound might help
- Turning off (or quitting) any special extra sound drivers might help
- Removing any extra sound devices (e.g. USB headphones) might help
- Updating your sound drivers might help

Starting the game can likely be made slightly less annoying by making a shortcut to the 'Play in Safe Mode' script and dropping it on the desktop or somewhere else convenient.

If you have any of our other games, or any other Ren'Py games, knowing which ones show the same problem(s) may also help in tracking the underlying problem down or finding a workaround.

[Kelibath]

This is happening to me, too, after playing the game for weeks of normal function prior to recent updates. I am also getting an error message:

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "game/steam.rpy", line 1, in script
File "game/steam.rpy", line 12, in <module>
WindowsError: [Error 126] The specified module could not be found

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\bootstrap.py", line 309, in bootstrap
renpy.main.main()
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\main.py", line 419, in main
game.context().run(node)
File "game/steam.rpy", line 1, in script
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\ast.py", line 814, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\python.py", line 1695, in py_exec_bytecode
exec bytecode in globals, locals
File "game/steam.rpy", line 12, in <module>
File "/home/tom/ab/x64lucid-deps/install/lib/python2.7/ctypes/__init__.py", line 365, in __init__
WindowsError: [Error 126] The specified module could not be found

Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1
Ren'Py 6.99.12.2.2029+SPIKY
LongLiveTheQueenRetail 1.3.94

[Hanako Games]

Originally posted by Kelibath:

This is happening to me, too, after playing the game for weeks of normal function prior to recent updates. I am also getting an error message:

Your error looks different than the OP's.

Your error seems to be saying that it can't find something on your computer. The game has not been updated in many months, so any recent change would suggest that something has changed on your end. Have you changed or updated your OS? Installed new anti-virus software or drivers? Or, for that matter, uninstalled some? It seems like Windows thinks you've lost a .dll somewhere.

Or did this resolve on its own? I see some achievements on your account dated today. So perhaps uninstall/reinstall fixed it?

[Kelibath]

Definitely nothing has changed on my end regarding the computer setup. It's a stable build that I regularly check and maintain, it has the same OS and software now that it did this time last year with only minor Windows and software updates adjusting any of the system files. I have done a recent update flood but the game was already refusing to start prior to that point and continues since. LLTQ and *only* LLTQ has this particular exception issue. And yes, the issue is still occuring with the newest release.

What I did manage to do was to revert my settings temporarily via Steam's beta system to the "old(stable) build" and thus scratch that Hanako itch for the meanwhile. Your old build plays fine on my system which again leads me to believe that the beta itself has a missing source file? I'd rather play the new updates if I have the choice of course. But, thence the achievements.

[Hanako Games]

There is no new update in development. If there's a separate beta build at the moment, it would have been something Spiky put up as an attempt to diagnose a particular user's problem, afaik, with nothing else new about it and no reason to use it.

Is the normal, non-beta version working for you? (since 'oldstable' is a much older build iirc)

[76561198256121679]

Ideally, you probably want to be using the default branch - the beta is me testing an engine upgrade for OS X compatibility, because the newest OS X broke compatibility with the engine the game was actually tested on. The changes in the beta are almost all fixes for things that upgrading the engine broke; there are some some trivial UI changes as well but nothing plot-related.

[Captain Harley]

Originally posted by Kelibath:

This is happening to me, too, after playing the game for weeks of normal function prior to recent updates. I am also getting an error message:

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "game/steam.rpy", line 1, in script
File "game/steam.rpy", line 12, in <module>
WindowsError: [Error 126] The specified module could not be found

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\bootstrap.py", line 309, in bootstrap
renpy.main.main()
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\main.py", line 419, in main
game.context().run(node)
File "game/steam.rpy", line 1, in script
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\ast.py", line 814, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LongLiveTheQueen\renpy\python.py", line 1695, in py_exec_bytecode
exec bytecode in globals, locals
File "game/steam.rpy", line 12, in <module>
File "/home/tom/ab/x64lucid-deps/install/lib/python2.7/ctypes/__init__.py", line 365, in __init__
WindowsError: [Error 126] The specified module could not be found

Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1
Ren'Py 6.99.12.2.2029+SPIKY
LongLiveTheQueenRetail 1.3.94

I am getting the same problem today! Game worked fine before.

[Hanako Games]

Which version of the game are you playing? Are you in the normal branch or the beta one? Are you getting the EXACT same error message, or is the game just not loading?

Did Steam do a new thing that is encouraging people to use the beta branch? (If so we probably need to remove or rename that test version.)

[Kelibath]

Personally I was using the default update branch Steam routed me onto - hence why I was so surprised when the game suddenly stopped working. I tried an older build to see if it would be a quick fix. oldstable is the build that I tried first, and it worked, but as said above it is quite old.

The game starts to load, the heart appears, the main game window starts to open - but it flashes out of existence immediately and the error message above is displayed in a new window.

There are five build options available to me on Steam. These show up (in order) as alpha - , beta - , oldstable - , and two with long numerical id codes. The one which wouldn't load was beta - .

[Hanako Games]

Okay, so Steam pushed you into "beta" without you having specifically chosen to do so? Then we probably need to rename it.

Here's how to get back to the actual default branch on the version of the Steam client I have:
Go to the game in the Steam library and right-click on the game name to bring up the Properties dialog.
Click over to the 'Betas' tab
Set the dropdown to "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs"

That should set the game back to the current default build (which is not alpha or beta or oldstable or any of those!)

If you're using a different-looking steam client, though, I may not know exactly how it works. If it's trapping people inside the beta system and not letting them get to the default version, I suppose we might have to create a fake beta linking to the non-beta or something.

[Kelibath]

Thanks! Done that, and it's working again now without 'oldstable' being required.
For some reason I didn't consider turning beta participation off entirely as a potential solution!
(Many Steam users automatically opt-in to betas, though, and clearly Steam is automatically downloading the most recently uploaded build for those or else builds named 'beta' ... so a specific Mac-OS build could likely do with a different name and not to be the most recent upload globally)