Hey! I debated for a while if my issue should be in Bugs Report or not, so sorry if I perpetrate any offense by posting here.

So long story short, I completed a game with GameGuru (build 2017.05.12) and submitted it to Steam to be published on the platform.
Game works fine on my computer but it keeps crashing on the Steam tester's machine after clicking on 'Start' in the game menu, stating "Game Guru MapEditor has stopped working".

Of course, just telling them to "wait it out and the game will load, it's just long" won't fly here. I've already lightened my game as much as possible, and now it loads much faster on my machine. I resubmitted this new lighter build of my game, and the same issue resurfaced, it crashed on their end.

The only reason I could potentially identify for the crash is that my game consists of one 'large' level, but has been lightened to the point where it's mostly just empty corridors now (and the memory bar in the GameGuru editor is practically empty, indicating my level should be easy to load in theory).

I asked them for the specs of the machine on which they are testing and here they are :
OS: Windows 10-64
Processor: Intel Core i7
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX970
DirectX: Version 12

As for my own machine :
OS : Windows 7-64 sp1
Processor : Intel Xeon E5606 2.13Ghz
Memory : 60.0 GB RAM (yeah, I know, it's a used workstation, don't ask)
Graphics : NVIDIA GeForce GTX970
DirectX : Version 11

Is there anything I can do on my end to make my build crash-proof?

So is it crashing for everyone or just this tester ?
You say " on the Steam tester's machine " and give his specs ...
Is that it ... No one else ?

Perhaps hand out a few beta test keys for a more detailed response..
Really annoying if it just turns out to be just this guys windows setup

I was going to say the same,you need to let more people test on different machines,hope you get it sorted.post some screens please.

Dave

Like everyone else mentioned, your going to need more than a single person testing your game. As synchromesh mentioned this could just be the single person's issue. I also would recommend getting someone who is running 8 GB to test your game to see how the preference is. For proper QA (quality assurance) if your bringing a game to market you have to have testers with the lowest possible required specs and a mid range computer to get a sense of the performance.




Lee has said to wait for the next official GG releases; if you intent to release anything anytime soon. I'm taking his advice he has given me in this regard.

Sure, I can think of a few friends to send the build to. Seems I was too eager to send it as soon as I did to Steam

But let's say I can reproduce the issue on a friend's computer. What should I look for, then? Any crash logs or specific files I should investigate?

One step at a time ... Try around 5 users / friends at least with different specs and get some feedback .
Worry about what happens after once you have got over this hurdle..

Doesn't this have to do with missing dx9 drivers on a computer?

"Game Guru MapEditor has stopped working" is a pretty normal crash error, I've seen it plenty times in the past. I would highly doubt it was only linked to missing DX9 drivers. If only things were so simple Also if someone testing for Steam does NOT have dx9 drivers when testing a dx9 game then something is very wrong indeed. Of course I have no idea how it works or who they employ, it's not an impossibility ;p

This is why GG is not yet cut out for Steam, just too unstable The days of telling people to install this and that for games are pretty much gone. If they don't just install and work that's game over generally. If it is a driver issue the new DX11 version would probably help (when it's ready and if your game will run with it). Until this sort of thing becomes a rare occurrence with GG best to avoid Steam altogether, I would anyway.

Better it happen to a tester than to several paying customers!

First things first, get more than one person testing, it may be an issue with their machine only.

Secondly, get them to go into the games folder and find the _CommonRedist folder, in there are DX9 runtimes and VCRedist files, get them to istall those and try the game.

It's possible to ask customers to install drivers what game needs and it won't prevent you publishing it in Steam. For example there is some programs which have had that issue for a long time and dev has announced introductions in his store page how to install drivers.

I've seen some crash reports about Game Guru games on Steam reviews:

* If you happen to alt tab out of a standalone game the game has the possibility to crash.
* If you get a steam notification while the standalone game is running there is the possibility of a crash.
* If you have entered the Task Manager while the standalone game process is running, it can crash.
* Steam overlay enabled seems to sometimes cause crashes.

Game Guru games on Steam tend to crash on me 1/10 times for no aparent reason that i can pin point. But the 4 points above have been known causes for other players. As DVader mentioned GG isn't 100% ready for Steam yet.

It would be interesting to know if your friend can run the game perfectly fine with the game zipped and sent to him and not through the Steam testers app.

This can be helpful, if problem is with drivers.

Steam can automatically install many common redistributables which your app may use. If additional dependencies are required for your app please see the install script documentation (https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/installscripts)

Go to your partner sites, log in, then click you app name, then Click Steamworks Admim -> installation -> Common Redistributables, and then you just click what drivers do you need.

Thanks everybody, for offering me so many suggestions and possible leads to investigate!

I have sent copies to a few friends and expectingly, none of them encountered an issue running the game so far. I still have at least two of them that still didn't try it yet, so this is still ongoing.

I didn't mention it but the Steam tester stated that they tried running it through Steam and through the game folder itself and both times it crashed. Sounds like you guys might not be too far off with the DX9 driver theory.

Also, is there a release date for the new GameGuru build? Is it worth it to wait it out and just make a new build of the game with that newer version?

And there ya go ... Your original Beta tester has an issue with his windows or something missing I'm guessing

Have you selected (in the steam setup) the common redistributables your game need to launch?
Normally it should be DirectX june 2010 (on top) and Visual C++ Redist 2015 (maybe ++ 2012) you find it at the tab "installation"

Or if that not help... maybe your level is reaching the 32bit mem limit...
Or try it with the new public preview version.

The steam tester is using DX12, that could be the problem. Your game is based on DX9.
I think, I heard that DX12 does not contain all DX9 drivers, so some games will not run on DX12.
Make sure that the checkbox for the directX redistributables are selected.

If it's still not running then, move your game to the latest Preview build. Then it should run on the steam tester machine.

... normally they tell you, if the redistributables are not selected...

Best suggestion I can give you is to enable logging in their setup.ini and then read the log file. That will give you a clear, no (or at least very few) questions asked answer as to what is breaking.

Aren't there 2 .dll files that need to be included in the main folder in order for it to work?
msvcp71.dll
msvcr71.dll
It's easy to forget them.

[quote=Aren't there 2 .dll files that need to be included in the main folder in order for it to work?
msvcp71.dll
msvcr71.dll]

Can you tell me more about those? They are not in my game folder, nor in GameGuru original folder. Should they be generated when I generate a build for the game?

http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4019990
That is where to get them.
You may want to include these in your distribution and an instruction file as to where to put them.

I have never included the 2 files in any of my Steam games and they are all running fine.
So, they can not be the problem...
If he use DX12, add the redistributables DirectX june 2010 (DX9) + Visual C++ Redist 2015.

Never used:
msvcp71.dll
msvcr71.dll

These files are supplied with windows 10. If you dont have windows 10, then they will need to be installed.

I don’t use win10, never had complains that the games not running.
I guess they are incl. in the redistributables which you have to select in the steam setup.