Troubleshoot

• Game can't save / Gamepad freezes the game on title screen until unplugged.

  Can happen when antivirus software prevents the game from creating save files. Make sure the game has full permissions and isn't sandboxed or anything.

  
  
• Game immediately freezes for an extended time but may eventually work without music.

  You're likely on Windows 10/11 and trying to run Mega Man Endless, SD Powered Up, SuperDanny 2, Green Biker Dude, or the Tuttle demo. These games use music plugins that Microsoft broke.
  GBD has since been updated, and I hope to eventually update the others!

  In the meantime, they apparently work on Linux, and Windows has occasional success with right click, Properties, Compatibility, "Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 7 (or 8)," Apply, and run.

  
  
• "Failed to load game data. File seems corrupted." or "Error: Cannot read the game file."

  See this topic. It seems Game Maker has trouble with certain printer drivers (?!) and disabling them might fix these messages.
  I've also solved "Error: Cannot read the game file" on Windows 11 with right click, "Run as administrator."

  
  
• Music disappears from all or certain stages while playing, but the game runs fine otherwise.

  Closing and opening the game should fix it. Usually means the music DLLs crashed, which shouldn't typically happen. Might be more likely when audio sources change, e.g. connecting or disconnecting a laptop with a TV while the game is running.

  
  
• Game crashes almost immediately with audio trouble on Windows 8 or later.

  I experienced this with some of my older games, and found a solution by way of this topic.

  
  
• Game starts but doesn't play any/some music or sounds--may eventually crash.

  Only seen this on Windows 8.1 for certain, and it seems to be a case of PC derp; a computer restart should fix it.

  
  
• Something not covered here.

  -Make sure none of the game's external files have been moved/try a fresh unzipping of the game.
  -Computer restart can work wonders.
  -Searching "game maker [issue]" can turn up great results.
  
  If none of the above solve your problem, please feel free to contact me.