Damn, that's not good >.< The weird thing is, I know for sure that it works for other people because I've had some comments come in where folks have played it, plus my brother said his best friend downloaded it and finished it over the weekend. I also managed to test both the regular and non-video Windows versions on the potato laptop from start to finish, and in theory, if the potato can play it, anyone should be able to because the potato is baaaad, haha.
So I guess it's troubleshooting time! x3
Please don't feel like you have to answer btw!
I've had one or two reports like this on different games (a couple on Darling Duality, and 1 on Yandere Heaven), and I've never been able to get to the bottom of why stuff randomly won't play for a small number of people!
I used to think it was solely because some computers have issues playing video files in Unity games, as when I released a version of DD with no video on the title screen, the couple of people it didn't work for initially said it worked after that change :3
BUT
With the 1 person where it didn't load Yandere Heaven and they said they had to close it with task manager it's a total mystery because that never featured video files at any point >.< And it's my most played game for whatever reason, so I know it works for the majority of people. I never had a chance to troubleshoot why it didn't work for that 1 random person because instead of posting it in a comment, they just went and gave a 1* rating with an angry review, so I couldn't even interact with them and try to get it working for them >.<
Anyways, the first thing to ask would be which version did you download?
If it was the regular Windows one, it's entirely possible that just trying the non-video version for Windows might solve the problem :3
For some unknown reason, some people's computers just really don't like video files in Unity projects, so display a blank screen instead of the video that's supposed to play >.<
Secondly, did you see any splash screens? (made with Unity, the game logo, the o2a2 jam logo, and my dev logo)
If you didn't see any splash screens, the game probably didn't load at all, as these display before the title sequence.
Did you see a black screen with a white egg timer in the bottom right corner of the screen?
This is the indication that Naninovel is loading all the game scripts. Again, if this didn't happen, it means it probably didn't load the game at all.
Was there any music playing?
This one is important because if the BGM did play, it means that the game did load, but didn't display the background as it should.
If no music played AND there was nothing displayed, it probably means the game didn't even initialise.
Were there any buttons on the screen? (start/options/quit)
I'm asking this for the same reason as the music question pretty much.
If it wasn't one of the Windows versions that you downloaded, there's less I can do to help because I don't own a Mac or Linux system >.< I just rely on Unity exporting the builds so they function, haha. It seems from what other players have said that most of my Mac and Linux builds work, though apparently, the Linux ones can be a bit odd with buttons and stuff.
So far for The Shuddering though, I think I've only had feedback from people who have played/finished the Windows version.