Distribution [SOLVED]MacOS Export "Unable to find game!!" When openned from downloaded directory

witches

Member
I'm actually going insane.
I exported my code via YYC and is interpreted in xcode flawlessly. Game runs perfectly on my Mac through Xcode and I have an Apple Developer membership.
I have a certificate for the Developer ID Application
I have a unique registered identifier for my game
I have an associated profile for my game
I know how to notarize and have notarized successfully for all of my builds
But every time I isolate the exported, notarized, signed and cosigned app; all i get is a window that says:

Code:
 Unable to find game!!:
please, can anyone help me. I'm considering abandoning macOS distribution.
 

witches

Member
Hmm...it is odd if you can't run it on your own machine. Normally this only happens if you have shared it with someone else or uploaded and then downloaded again from the internet.

Have you tried moving the app to a different folder?

Also check the advice in these threads if you haven't already.

https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/216753558

https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/unable-to-find-game-error-message.58573/
i appreciate the articles. the app runs fine on my own machine, but its after i email it to myself where i get the error. so its effectively useless to anyone else but me. the name of the game has zero spaces and i'm not eligible for a dmg certificate apparently so i cant make it mountable. im not sure what other apple hoops i need to jump through since exporting throught the VM method doesnt yield a pkg file for me to send through xcode
 

witches

Member
after experimenting for a bit and reviewing the articles more, i found that after zipping the exported app, downloading the zip, unzipping the app and moving to a different directory from where i unzipped it. the game works with no errors. I wonder what would cause something like this
 
It's Apples Gatekeeper quarantining apps that aren't downloaded from the app store.

The app will work if you simply build it on your machinem. However, as soon as you download it/email it etc...it's flagged as being from an internet source and given a file attribute marking it as quarantined.

You used to be able to get around this by right clicking on the app and selecting open, or by moving it to a different folder.
 

witches

Member
I feel like thats what the whole certificate and notarization process is for though. im not sure anymore just seems like a huge user inconvenience to have a special note on all macOS exports to move the app to a different directory after unzipping it or else the game just flat out wont work. do other well known gms2 projects exported to macOS need this work around to work?
 
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witches

Member
figured out a work around that isn't dumb. made it into a dmg now it works like any other normal application.
 
W

wazawoo

Guest
Hello all. I can't believe this is actually an issue (GameMaker 2, 2020). It is incredibly stupid that it hasn't been fixed. I'm replying to all the duplicate posts with two actual solutions (rather than just saying "the dmg method" as all the posts do).

Option 1. Once you unzip the file on the mac you downloaded it on, if you then move the app to a different folder, it will open (you can also then move it back to the original folder and it will work too).
Option 2. If you take the app, and create a .dmg instead of a .zip from it, it will work. You do this by doing the following:
a. Generate the executable in GameMaker, which makes a .zip
b. Extract the .zip to get the app
c. Place the app in a folder by itself (unless you want to include other files/documentation)
d. Open Disk Utility, and do File -> New Image -> New Image From Folder (or cmd+shift+N), and choose that folder
e. Distribute the generated .dmg instead of the .zip generated by GameMaker

And I have a solution for YoYo: If this has literally been an issue for YEARS and YEARS, why not just make the generate executable option generate a dmg instead of a zip?

Ridiculous...
 
A

AndHeDrew

Guest
Hello all. I can't believe this is actually an issue (GameMaker 2, 2020). It is incredibly stupid that it hasn't been fixed. I'm replying to all the duplicate posts with two actual solutions (rather than just saying "the dmg method" as all the posts do).

Option 1. Once you unzip the file on the mac you downloaded it on, if you then move the app to a different folder, it will open (you can also then move it back to the original folder and it will work too).
Option 2. If you take the app, and create a .dmg instead of a .zip from it, it will work. You do this by doing the following:
a. Generate the executable in GameMaker, which makes a .zip
b. Extract the .zip to get the app
c. Place the app in a folder by itself (unless you want to include other files/documentation)
d. Open Disk Utility, and do File -> New Image -> New Image From Folder (or cmd+shift+N), and choose that folder
e. Distribute the generated .dmg instead of the .zip generated by GameMaker

And I have a solution for YoYo: If this has literally been an issue for YEARS and YEARS, why not just make the generate executable option generate a dmg instead of a zip?

Ridiculous...
THANK YOU. This has been a real frustration.
 

Ricardo

Member
Hello all. I can't believe this is actually an issue (GameMaker 2, 2020). It is incredibly stupid that it hasn't been fixed. I'm replying to all the duplicate posts with two actual solutions (rather than just saying "the dmg method" as all the posts do).

Option 1. Once you unzip the file on the mac you downloaded it on, if you then move the app to a different folder, it will open (you can also then move it back to the original folder and it will work too).
Option 2. If you take the app, and create a .dmg instead of a .zip from it, it will work. You do this by doing the following:
a. Generate the executable in GameMaker, which makes a .zip
b. Extract the .zip to get the app
c. Place the app in a folder by itself (unless you want to include other files/documentation)
d. Open Disk Utility, and do File -> New Image -> New Image From Folder (or cmd+shift+N), and choose that folder
e. Distribute the generated .dmg instead of the .zip generated by GameMaker

And I have a solution for YoYo: If this has literally been an issue for YEARS and YEARS, why not just make the generate executable option generate a dmg instead of a zip?

Ridiculous...
I think I'm getting crazy, but I cannot get this to work no matter what in runtime 2.3.2.426.
My app (compiled through YYC) is correctly code signed and notarized (following YoYo's instructions). According to Xcode everything is alright ("accepted", "Ready for distribution").
If I run spctl -v -a MyApp.app, I get:
MyApp.app: accepted
source=Notarized Developer ID


There aren't any extensions (as far as I can tell) messing around with the notarization. Xcode is notarizing the app itself and libYoYoGamepad.dylib.

However, if I pack my app using ZIP or DMG, upload it to my web server and download it on my second Mac (test machine, no dev certificates etc). I get the "Unable to find game!!" error no matter what.
The only way of getting rid of the error if by moving the app to a different directory.

Does anyone know any other trick or something I should check? I've tried literally all the tips found in the forum (including the DMG pack) and nothing seems to work... Ask players to move the executable to a different directory isn't really a professional nor proper solution (as Mac users expect things just to work, they won't check out the readme.txt first).
 
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