The game isn't starting

[Alihandrowski]

I've just bought this game and I'm trying to start this game for 1 hours but the game isn't starting. When I click the play button, there any new screen doesn't appear, steam just say "starting" for 5-6 seconds then nothing happen. The game doesn't start and I don't know why. My system is better than the system requirements. Also I tried to change compatibility setting to win 8 but it didn't work too.

Extra: I've spent such a long time in Stonehearth Discourse website which is Stonehearth's forum to solve my problem. I've searched and searched although I couldn't solve my problem, and finally I didn't solve again. However I received an e-mail from Stonehearth's bot Brad. It says that they are rewarded me with "New User of the Month" award for March 2021. Now, I am New User of the Month who can't launch the game. What an irony :D

[Guillaume]

If the music starts playing, while the screen is dark, press F5 to refresh the window.
That helps sometimes

[Minoris]

Do you have mods installed? I had trouble launching the game with some mods some time back. Try uninstalling them if you do, it might help.

[Alihandrowski]

Originally posted by Guillaume:

If the music starts playing, while the screen is dark, press F5 to refresh the window.
That helps sometimes

there is no dark screen or no new window appear. Just steam says "The game is preparing to start" and after 5-6 sec the sentence disappear.

[Alihandrowski]

Originally posted by Minoris:

Do you have mods installed? I had trouble launching the game with some mods some time back. Try uninstalling them if you do, it might help.

no I haven't installed new mod. I've bought and downloaded the game yesterday and I can't play the game even the first time

[MisusedPower]

try this I had to do it as well.. go into your local game files and delete the user_settings.json apparently there is a bug with it that forces it to not launch even it shows it did.

[Alihandrowski]

Originally posted by Necrosis:

try this I had to do it as well.. go into your local game files and delete the user_settings.json apparently there is a bug with it that forces it to not launch even it shows it did.

I tried it but it didn't work. I deleted it and clicked the play button but a new user_setting.json file is created. Maybe this is why it didn't work. btw thanks for your help

[MisusedPower]

uninstall first then delete and reinstall thats what I mean not just delete and hit play

[MisusedPower]

ok so I do got a fix for it.. you need to open your user_settings.json with wordpad and edit the line "enable_fullscreen" : true, to "enable_fullscreen" : false, the fullscreen is totally bugged

[Togedemaru223]

Originally posted by Necrosis:

ok so I do got a fix for it.. you need to open your user_settings.json with wordpad and edit the line "enable_fullscreen" : true, to "enable_fullscreen" : false, the fullscreen is totally bugged

how do i open it in wordpad? I have the same issue...

[Alihandrowski]

Originally posted by Necrosis:

ok so I do got a fix for it.. you need to open your user_settings.json with wordpad and edit the line "enable_fullscreen" : true, to "enable_fullscreen" : false, the fullscreen is totally bugged

Disappoinment again :( in the user_setttings.json file, only written this:

{
"user_id" : "88b05480-810c-451b-a28c-4ea0efe1681f"
}

In addition, I have stonehearth.json file I can open by using wordpad. It's written in the file "enable_fullscreen" but it's already false.

[Alihandrowski]

Originally posted by otisdemuijnck:

Originally posted by Necrosis:

ok so I do got a fix for it.. you need to open your user_settings.json with wordpad and edit the line "enable_fullscreen" : true, to "enable_fullscreen" : false, the fullscreen is totally bugged

how do i open it in wordpad? I have the same issue...

right click on the file and click "Open with" then choose the wordpad.

[Togedemaru223]

Yes i did it...
It didn't work

[Togedemaru223]

Enable fullscreen was already on false, changing it to true also didn't work...

[MisusedPower]

Originally posted by otisdemuijnck:

Enable fullscreen was already on false, changing it to true also didn't work...

try to delete the file and reload the game it should make a new file once it does it should load in windowed mode by default.. if that dont work.. who knows...

[666reddog]

Actually there is also an annoying bug for Steam in general, I had it last week with Stonehearth, I thought it was the game itself and using the fixes for the bug in steam got it working again, it's a small off chance but could help but there are so many different things to do to find which one to is needed to be fixed.

Two of the basic ones people overlook often are:
Check if all your drives/graphics cards etc are updated

the game could stop being launched properly because antivirus is getting in the way (this was my issue, Bulldog didn't inform me it was stopping the game from launch until I checked it)

There are some hard and effort possible solutions;
Moving your installed games to a different location on your computer, this you right click on a game, pull up 'local files tab' and click the broswer local files, first verify the game files, if the game folder can be opened (which sometimes is the issue with the game in the first place) it will redownload the game, if it redownloads use the 'Move Install Folder' option afterwards to a different locations. Most people move games to whole different drive because that is the best way to see if location and the folder of coding itself is the issue

Find the GameOverlayRenderer64.dll file within the games folder, delete or move it out of the folder, it's more of a workaround but known to work for games that start/load in fullscreen

If you have a program called 'Rivatuner Statistics Server' it can stop certain games from launching due to needing updating or being in the way altogether, to update this you need to update the MSI Afterburner since it's part of that software.

check for problematic applications, a main issue that causes these types of bugs for games like Stonehearth, third-party applications can really cause bugs and such with Steam Games, programs like Razer Synapse had caused this exact issue, even Logitech Joystick Utility causes this exact problem. Uninstalling, turning off from running in the background is how to then get rid of said problematic applications

Installing and fixing the C++ files, these files are needed to run any game and steam can have games not install them properly. Known issues for TF2 and games that can be demanding but can also happen to small games, its the easiest in this effort solutions (imo), you just go into the games installation directory (the files/folders etc) and find the _CommonRedistvcredist (most games should have this) once you are inside said folder, there are two setup files, you run BOTH and it installs the missing components. This fix is 100% one people recommend when the game launching glitch happens at least once or twice

Of course checking file integrity is also one of them, but rarely this picks up things like the missing components like C++ files

Running the game in 'compatibility mode' is also a common and well talked about fix for bugs like this, you locate the games exe file, right click it file, choose properties, find the compatibility tab and tick/check mark the box for 'run this program in compatibility mode for:', remember to secelet the windows verison you are using under the check mark/box, apply and okay the save changes

If the problem lies within the steam library itself as a whole restarting your steam from scratch is something people claim to work. It's more of a drastic measure, it's uninstall ALL games from the steam library instead of things like control panel, but then use control panel to uninstall steam, and well redownload everything, I've never had to do this exact method, since I believe you should only really do it if more than 5 games at the same time have this issue

^These are just ones that I know from my own games getting the bug. It's shockingly common in games that are launched on steam as a whole, though this game itself does have a bug at times where this happens as well but if the normal fixes you've tried not work maybe it could be the steam bug, it happens to games at random for so many different reasons, closing the program forcefully, installed the files wrong, and small things like so