I see what you mean about it not loading on itch. The issue here, I think, is that it is attempting to bypass a cross-origin request (CORS) policy and failing because it doesn’t have the proper permissions, mainly due to a missing server.
I get these errors in my console:
Access to fetch at ‘project.json’ from origin ‘null’ has been blocked by CORS policy: Cross origin requests are only supported for protocol schemes: chrome, chrome-extension, chrome-untrusted, data, http, https, isolated-app.
Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FAILED
Access to XMLHttpRequest at ‘project.json’ from origin ‘null’ has been blocked by CORS policy: Cross origin requests are only supported for protocol schemes: chrome, chrome-extension, chrome-untrusted, data, http, https, isolated-app.
Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FAILED
The problem with JavaScript is that it requires some sort of server to connect to, which is why your game doesn’t work as a local file, but does work on Cocrea. You can bypass this restriction in your web browser, but this is not recommended. I would either redirect to an available HTTPS server, or even supply your own.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48362093/cors-request-blocked-in-locally-opened-html-file
You could kind of work around the issue. There are ways to get JS to function locally without going to much trouble to set up a local server or make it connect online each time you launch the app.
All this said, it’s an interesting little game, but a broken download might not bode well for your overall score. Don’t let that stop you - even if you don’t win, I look forward to see what you make next! 😊