I deployed my game... now I can't playtest it?

So, I have the Olivia Octopath Battle Sample Project that I am using for my game. Everything was going great! I finished up my first dungeon, and I deployed my game so a friend of mine can test it.

I selected "Exclude Unused Files" and encrypted the files.

After I had deployed it, I went back into the project and started tweaking things and then play tested. However, this time, it now says I have a bug - "Failed to load: img/system/Weapons4.png"

with a bunch of Plugin stuff listed under it.

Now, I created "Weapons4.png" as I wanted to add other weapons into the game. I didn't have an issue before. I check img/system/ and Weapons4 is sitting there. So what gives?


I am completely stumped and really miffed right now...


Update: Below is the error window I am getting.

[embedded media]

You didn't deploy into the project folder, did you?

I don't think there IS a Weapons4.png, is there? If this happened to you, your friend is probably going to get the same errors. Exclude Unused Files doesn't know about files that are used only by plugins.

Can you tell us the Maker you're using so I can move this to the right place and assist you better?

Ticking the "Exclude unused files" can delete files you're personally using yourself, it will only remove RTP files you're not using. It may delete files you want to stay. It's best to not use this option and simply remove any unused files in the final version yourself.

Octopath battle only exist in MV ;)

It might not be your problem but just in case check if any plugin you are using is compatible with 1.6.1 update. I had exactly the same problem with depoyment yesterday and it got fixed when I went back to 1.5.2. version.

There are a number of possibilities what could have happened.
1) you deployed into your project folder exactly as Shaz guessed - this will overwrite some files with wrong data, but can be repaired without loss of data if you know how.

2) you deployed into a directory whose filepath contains letters or symbols that are forbidden under networking rules.
This will cause a browser to fail to load those files (and almost every file) because they can't handle those symbols.
You'll get this on the full error message in the console - press F8 when the error above appears.
If there is any %-symbol followed by a number there, that shows a letter in the filepath that needs to be removed.
For example spaces are not allowed and are replaced by %20 in console messages

3) The files that are missing were removed by the "exclude unused files" because they're needed by a plugin but nowhere else, and the plugin didn't tell the engine to not remove those files.
There is a command for this if the plugin is programmed properly, but if it isn't you just have to go to your project, make an unused map and place the files with commands there, for example using show picture or whatever else.
After that the engine will know not to remove those files and since the map is not connected to the game it's just a minor bit of unused data carried along.
then redeploy again.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Yes, I am using RPG Maker MV, sorry for not clarifying before.

My friend has no issue playing the game after I deployed it, actually.

@Shaz Sigh, I did... I made a folder within the project folder then put it in there. The first time it appeared to do nothing. I'm assuming I did the wrong thing there....

@megumi014 - Was there an update just recently? I don't want to revert if I don't have to, hope you understand.

@Andar Well, I am unsure how to do 1! But I am willing to learn. I checked out number 2 following your instruction. I don't see any text with a % and numbers, so I suppose that's a good sign!


How would I call for a system file in another area? I have a debug room that can serve this purpose, but I am unsure how to call for the picture in question. The file is "Weapons4.png" which is a file I inserted myself to add more weapons to the game. It would be found under images in the category of system. The game is working fine after I deployed it, this issue only appeared after I deployed. The deployed game works fine, but now I can't play test the game as I am getting this error.

Update:
Okay, so I deployed my game again and I didn't select anything this time. The deployed game works fine! However, I still can't playtest as I am still getting the error. The issue is isolated in the RPG Maker MV program.


Update 2:

Okay, so I found something. There is this new folder labeled "www" - I don't remember it being there before, so I removed it. Now it gives me an error - "Your file was not found." - Okay. So obviously now my game is calling on this folder in order to initiate, and it lacks the Weapons4.png file.


Update 3:

Here is a picture of the error I am getting....




Update 4:

Okay, I tried something. I took all the main files for RPG Maker MV, and copied them over to another project. When I did this, I received the following error message:




Turning off the related plugin fixes the issue.


Okay so, because I got the package deal with the Octopath Battler pack, I didn't really get to familiarize myself with the plugins as they were put in the game. So what is this sucker supposed to be doing?

I'm play testing now to see if it will cause an error.


Update 5:

No idea why I didn't just google it. I have no intention of using DragonBone animated sprites, so this is an easy decision to leave off.


Well, it looks like I solved it... for now... I am still playtesting. Thank you everyone for your help!!

The www folder is all your data files, they may be in raw form or encrypted. (Done during the compression stage if you click off on encryption.) Either way, that folder is vital to not delete. It contains all the data, images, music, javascripts, etc.

To your original problem, I had this at one point myself. Somehow without knowing what I did I was able to fix it. The only thing I could guess was, that I needed to save the project after putting in the javascripts for the Octopath Traveler, close RPG Maker out, then reopen and pack the game. The only other thing I think it could be, is make sure you place all the javascripts for the Octopath traveler battle system together and below any other battle scripts you may have running. There may be a conflict if you put them before the YEP_BattleEngineCore javascript if your using that.

Hope any of this helps.

Thank you!

I solved the issue, everyone. I copied my files over into another project and I had to turn off a plugin that I wasn't using.

So glad that's over with! I appreciate everyone who put time into posting here, that was really awesome.

Yeah always try turning off plugins first if you ever run into any errors so you can isolate which plugin is giving you the error.

Also, remember to deploy your project in a different folder next time! Always keep two separate folders: one for your project file, and one for the deployed game! The WWW folder is the entire content of your deployed game, hence why deleting it gave you a bunch of errors ;)

@punchybot you should have waited for instructions how to repair a project damaged by deployment into itself - it is easier to repair than copying everything over.

Deployment into the project folder does two things:
1) it creates a www folder containing the entire current game
2) it overwrites the packages.json file to redirect everything to the new www folder.

so the solution would be to delete the www folder (which you have done) and then replace the packages.json file with one from a regular working project (either another project or a newly created project).

copying your files into a new project does the same unless you copy packages.json as well, but is much more work.

Yes! It honestly was my mistake. I have a folder for everything that has to do with the project, and I made a folder called "Deploy" for the sake of being organized and I must have not understood how it works because it just went into the main folder. I was sort of expecting when you use WINRAR type of deal. I'll just keep it 10 miles away from the project folder from now on.


I backed my files before I did such a thing! I'm like my father, I just have to fix it!! So I kept experimenting. I knew it was pulling it's data from that folder, and I wanted it to redirect it to a normal path, and I figured doing that was the easiest. And honestly it was a simple copy paste, it didn't take much effort.

I didn't actually delete the www folder, I just removed it. But that is very helpful! Thank you so much for your detailed and well explained reply to my issue, I really appreciate it. I'm going to go ahead and try to fix the old project for the sake of experience. Thanks a lot!

Even though you figured out it was Dragonbones that was causing it, I would like to emphasise a bit more on that.
I had the same problem, where I was attempting to use Dragonbones Integrated, but it gave me that error.
That error appears when you try to call on Dragonbones, but it is not loaded properly in your main.js file, or when your main.js file calls on Dragonbones but can't seem to locate it.
What I did to solve this problem, was basically use the Dragonbones example main.js file, and slowly but surely combined the example project and my own project into one.
Now it's working seamlessly!