Mouse cursor hidden?

[Lord Bidón]

I was playing on my Steam Deck, and suddenly the mouse cursor disappeared while i was on the lab of Itward ship.
If i restart the game, the cursor reappears, but at the moment i load the save, it disappears again.
I have other manual saves, and if I load any of them, the mouse it's there like it should be.

So... is there any button/key/prompt that hides the cursor in the game (that i didn't managed to find), or did that save got bugged or something?

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by Mr. Jadlp:

I was playing on my Steam Deck, and suddenly the mouse cursor disappeared while i was on the lab of Itward ship.
If i restart the game, the cursor reappears, but at the moment i load the save, it disappears again.
I have other manual saves, and if I load any of them, the mouse it's there like it should be.

So... is there any button/key/prompt that hides the cursor in the game (that i didn't managed to find), or did that save got bugged or something?

Hello Mr. Jadip,

Unfortunately, I don't have a Steam Deck to test with, but I'll be happy to share with you what I know about the game itself and it's controls.

I am unaware of any built-in game button/key/prompt that hides the cursor in game. Also, no one has reported any in-game bug that makes the cursor disappear that I am aware of.

I assume that you're playing the default (new) version of the game, right?

I just tested with the Windows version and the Linux version of the default (new) version of the game. When Fran is either in the room with the spinning top, and the chemistry puzzle bench, and the fuel (water) tank puzzle, or at the close-up view of the chemistry bench in that room, the cursor stays either in the shape of an arrow, or in the shape of a hand (when the cursor is over an object Fran can interact with). The cursor never disappears, even when Fran is interacting with the bottles of chemicals while solving the chemistry puzzle.

A quick internet search found these items which may be of some interest: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3727323721765650448/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/5764050278022223667/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e-4TSoqDn4.

It's hard for me to know if any of these will actually help you or not since I can't replicate your issue, nor test without a Steam Deck.

I can test your save game to see if the mouse cursor is not there on my Windows computer and Linux virtual machine if you make the glitched save available to me.

The name of the save games is:

FranBow_X.save (where X is either 0, 1, 2, or 3). 0 is the autosave, and 1, 2, and 3 are the manual saves you've made (if any). The FranBow_X.jpg is not needed for this test.

If you identify which save file you have is glitched, upload it to the cloud and reply back with the URL of that upload in a reply post in this thread, I'll take a look at it to see if the cursor is visible to me outside of the Steam Deck, if you wish me to do that.

On a desktop Linux distribution, the Fran Bow save game files (default-new version) is found here:

~./.config/unity3d/Killmonday Games AB/Fran Bow

I'm unsure if this is the correct location on a Steam Deck.

Perhaps someone with a Steam Deck will reply to your thread and give more useful information.

I'm sorry I cannot be more helpful.

If you do find a cause or fix, if you care to post again in this thread, this may help other gamers who encounter the same issue you have.

Thanks

[Lord Bidón]

Thanks for the reply.
Yes i'm using the new version.

I have uploaded the files to Google Drive. Here they are.[drive.google.com]

Just to test, I have also downloaded them in a Windows laptop, run the game there, and unfortunately, the problem persist... so is not a Steam Deck/WIndows/Linux specific issue... i guess?

In any case, If you load the autosave, or the save 3, the mouse is non-existant, but in save 1 and 2 the mouse cursor works without any issues.

Hope you find something... and if not, i can always replay the game from one of the old saves hoping that this doesn't happen again...

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by Mr. Jadlp:

Thanks for the reply.
Yes i'm using the new version.

I have uploaded the files to Google Drive. Here they are.[drive.google.com]

Just to test, I have also downloaded them in a Windows laptop, run the game there, and unfortunately, the problem persist... so is not a Steam Deck/WIndows/Linux specific issue... i guess?

In any case, If you load the autosave, or the save 3, the mouse is non-existant, but in save 1 and 2 the mouse cursor works without any issues.

Hope you find something... and if not, i can always replay the game from one of the old saves hoping that this doesn't happen again...

Hello again Mr. Jadip,

Yes, I did find the issue causing the loss of the cursor in the game. Thanks for sending me your save game files which made that possible.

There IS a solution to return the cursor to your save game 3--enter the Kamala Hunt game again, and then exit from it.

I used the Windows Snipping Tool to make the cursor visible so that I could easily return to the Kamala Hunt game, enter it, and then exit from it, and the cursor returned.

Here's a video which demonstrates: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ai15hRI-DaZpIjxc6CaoWxZWPHsJVCUm/view?usp=share_link.

So, you can either choose to follow the steps in the video yourself with your copy of save 3, or just use these files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_ex-ufZVWLi1eYnUSYQ8oItIQytUbD_e?usp=share_link and copy them back to your Steam Deck. I did verify that they worked on my Linux VM, so they should work on your Steam Deck as well.

Note that the files will replace the files in your save 1, so you'll want to rename the files already there or copy them somewhere else if you want to keep them.

We will try to determine what caused the cursor to disappear in the first place and fix, but it is pretty certain that the Kamala Hunt is where the problem lies based on your last autosave having been taken in Itward's control room (where the Kamala Hunt game is located).

Thanks so much for pointing out the bug you encountered. I hope you can now resume gameplay where you left off, and that you enjoy the rest of the Fran Bow game.

[Lord Bidón]

Welp, downloaded the save and now the mouse works as inteded.

This is the first time that i see a developer making a step by step video to solve a weird bug that almost nobody else seems to have. This is some high quality support right here.

It feels... bad for me to confess that... i was impatient and before reading your new post i just replayed the game from a previous save to "fix" whatever the issue was. But hey! You did all this work to help, so the least i could do was to check it out.
I'm out of the ship now, with no mouse issues, and this time, i didn't did the Kamala Hunt mini-game (as i already got the achievement), so.... maybe is indeed related to that.

On the other hand, i did the windows snipping tool trick (just to test) on my laptop, and found out that this bug can also be fixed by using the touchscreen and tapping the same places you pressed in the video, without the need to use the tool.
So... Deck users can also fix this directly without using Windows... which is nice, i guess.

Thanks a lot for the help anyways.
Hopefully you find the cause of the bug and no workarounds are needed anymore.

[Brian Monday]

Hello again Mr. Jadip,

Thanks for testing and confirming that you were able to use the save file on your Steam Deck to proceed in the game. I am glad too that you figured at least two ways to continue without having to wait for that file as well.

I will see if I can find the way to lose the cursor through the Kamala Hunt game, or maybe a logic error can be found there by looking at the source.

Thanks again for making the first report, for testing the workaround, and for your encouraging and kind words too. I appreciate it.

[xananax]

Also on Steam deck, also had my cursor disappear, also on my 3rd save. Entering the invaders game and exiting restored the cursor, all is good. I just wanted to confirm!

what a weird bug.

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by xananax:

Also on Steam deck, also had my cursor disappear, also on my 3rd save. Entering the invaders game and exiting restored the cursor, all is good. I just wanted to confirm!

what a weird bug.

Hello xananax,

Thanks for posting here. I'm glad too that you were also able to work-around the issue.
Here's hoping the rest of the game plays correctly for you on your Steam Deck.