Hi everyone!
Since the game’s release, we’ve received an enormous amount of feedback and reviews. We’ve read through it all carefully, watched countless streams, and talked to dozens of players. Receiving this kind of feedback from you is incredibly valuable. It’s the only way we can keep improving. Along with your feedback, we also noticed that many of you had questions. We’ve collected the most frequently asked ones and would like to answer them in two separate posts.
In this article, we’ll address questions related to the technical aspects of the game. You’ll find the answers below.
In the next article, we’ll answer questions about the game’s development, its content and gameplay, as well as general questions about Schisma Games studio. Stay tuned!
1️⃣ Why didn’t the game support Linux and Steam Deck at launch? What is the situation now?
We didn’t plan to add support for additional operating systems by the time of release: the game was developed and tested exclusively on Windows. Therefore, at launch, we could only guarantee that the game would work on Windows—this was reflected in the minimum and recommended system requirements listed on the game’s Steam page.
Based on their experience with the test and demo versions, some players installed the game on Linux and Steam Deck. However, after release, the game could behave incorrectly on these platforms. The engine and other technical components of the project continued to change right up until launch, so something that worked in earlier versions did not necessarily work in the release build.
We understand that everyone wants to play on the device that is most convenient for them, so we made this issue a priority and included support for additional platforms in our ongoing work to improve the game.
The game now runs stably on Linux and Steam Deck, and with the latest update, we’ve also added macOS support.
2️⃣ Why isn’t Steam Deck fully supported (the yellow “Playable” badge instead of the green “Verified” one)?
We’ve addressed all major technical issues on Steam Deck, including crashes, black screens, and freezes. As far as we know, these issues should no longer occur in the game.
However, there are still two things that currently prevent us from passing the full Steam Deck verification process and receiving the green “Verified” badge.
First, some of the game’s text prompts may display keyboard key labels—such as Shift, Space, and others. We’ll do our best to address this issue, but adapting all control prompts for each individual platform is technically quite challenging. We hope that these minor inconsistencies won’t significantly affect the experience on Steam Deck.
Second, the font size in the game is currently not large enough to pass the full Steam Deck verification. On a small screen and at a low resolution, some text may appear too small. We understand that this is an important issue, especially since many players have asked us to add an option to increase the font size. We’ll talk more about this in a separate question below.
Other than that, the game should run well on Steam Deck and provide a comfortable experience from start to finish.
3️⃣ Is it possible to increase the font size for a more comfortable reading experience?
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to fully customize the font size in the game, and there probably won’t be one in the future. We spent a lot of time exploring different ways to implement this feature, but it would require a major overhaul of almost every interface in the game, as well as a significant amount of technically complex work. It would also affect the layout of the text and other elements and could negatively impact the overall gameplay experience.
That said, we’ve already made a small improvement in one of our updates: we slightly increased the font size across various interfaces in the game. If you found the previous font size too small, we hope the text is now a little more comfortable to read.
We understand that even this change may not be enough for some players, but for now, it’s the only solution we can implement without extensively reworking the game’s interfaces.
4️⃣ How was the game translated, and why are there sometimes errors in the text and translations?
Initially, all of the game’s text was written in Russian by the writers at Schisma Games. Each text then went through several rounds of editing and proofreading: the studio’s editors checked it for inaccuracies, typos, and other errors and made the necessary corrections.
Thanks to our publisher, 101XP, and the localization company Levsha, the game was translated into English by professional translators and a native English-speaking editor. We’re very grateful to the Levsha team for their excellent work. We had already worked with them on The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, so we were confident that the meanings we intended, the specifics of the game world, its style, and the characters’ unique ways of speaking would be preserved.
Translations into other languages were then created based on the English version—partly by the same teams that had worked with us on Sir Brante, and partly by other translators and editors. At the same time, the original texts sometimes changed during development: writers might rewrite a scene, change a line, or adjust the progression of events. In such cases, the corresponding changes had to be passed down through the entire translation pipeline: Russian → English → other languages.
The game contains a huge amount of text—more than 530,000 words in English. Localizing that much content requires either many months of work or a large translation team. In addition, for the highest-quality localization possible, it’s highly desirable for translators to be familiar with the game itself, play through it, and see exactly where the lines they translated are used. This is especially important for a game with numerous branching storylines, context-dependent dialogue, and unique terminology.
Because of these circumstances, some language versions may contain inaccuracies, unnatural phrasing, or other errors. Thank you to everyone who notices these issues and reports them to us. Since we aren’t native speakers of most of these languages ourselves, we sometimes need additional time to look into such corrections and implement them in the game.
We’re continuing to work on improving the localizations. If you notice an error or inaccuracy in the translation for your language, please let us know—we’ll make sure to review your report and, if the issue is confirmed, make the necessary corrections.
5️⃣ Why do my save files become corrupted, and what can I do about it?
There were several different causes behind this issue.
The first was related to relatively uncommon ways of manipulating save files—for example, when a player partially deleted files from the game’s folder. We’ve already managed to fix this issue, but we don’t recommend deleting or modifying game files manually.
The second cause was manually editing save files or using specialized third-party software. Such interference can unpredictably alter the structure of a save file. Unfortunately, in these cases, we can’t guarantee that the save will continue to work correctly or that it can be restored. We therefore recommend not using third-party software to modify saves and not editing the relevant files manually.
The third cause was related to insufficient system resources. To address this issue, we spent several patches in a row optimizing the game and improving the way it handles system resources.
At this point, as far as we know, the save corruption issue has been resolved—except in cases where the save files have been manually modified by the player.
If you haven’t modified your save files and your computer meets the requirements listed on the game’s Steam page, but you’re still experiencing this problem, please let us know. This will help us investigate the cause and fix it.
6️⃣ Why do some character statuses behave incorrectly, or why does a character who died during the game sometimes appear alive in the epilogue?
These errors could occur for two different reasons.
First, they could be caused by the player editing the files themselves, which could compromise the structure and integrity of the save. Unfortunately, in such cases, we can’t guarantee that the game will work correctly, nor can we restore a corrupted save. So we strongly recommend against interfering with Prince Jerian’s life in ways that aren’t supported by the game itself.
Second, such errors could arise from the enormous variability of the story and the large number of possible endings. Sometimes, the appearance of a single block of text depends on as many as fourteen different conditions that all need to be taken into account simultaneously. With so many interconnected elements, certain rare combinations could lead to inconsistencies.
Thanks to your reports, we’ve identified and fixed most of these issues. If there are still some that we haven’t noticed, please report them to us—this will help us find and fix them.
7️⃣ Why won’t the game launch at all?
There haven’t been many cases like this, and they’ve become even rarer following the optimizations we’ve made. We found that, in most of the cases we’re aware of, the issue was related to the use of various video memory boosters and optimizers, FPS counters, and other similar software. In particular, some cases were related to RivaTuner and MSI Afterburner: updating these programs to their latest versions or disabling them completely resolves the issue.
If the game won’t launch and you aren’t using any of these programs, please make sure to let us know. This will help us investigate the cause and find a solution.
8️⃣ I’m getting Error 51 and the game won’t launch. What should I do?
We investigated this issue and found that Error 51 is related to the game’s interaction with the Steam client and the specifics of the user’s system configuration. In the latest patch, we significantly reduced the likelihood of this error occurring. However, it may still appear for certain reasons.
If you encounter Error 51 and simply reinstalling the game doesn’t help, we recommend the following steps:
Open your antivirus log (in Windows: Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history) and check whether it has blocked a game file. If a file has been blocked, restore it from quarantine, add the game’s folder to the antivirus exclusions, and run “Verify integrity of game files” in Steam. Then try launching the game through Steam again.
Install Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable x64 and restart your computer. Then try launching the game through Steam again.
If none of this helps and the problem persists, please contact us and attach the Player.log file from the following folder:…\\\\AppData\\LocalLow\\Schisma\\The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian
This will help us investigate the cause and find a solution.
If you’re still experiencing any issues, including those mentioned in this FAQ, or have noticed errors, typos, or other localization problems, please get in touch with us and let us know. We’ll be very grateful for any information that can help us make the game better.
The best way to contact us is through Discord, where our most active community is. You can post in the relevant discussion, create a separate thread, or contact our administrators directly via DMs. You’ll also find plenty of like-minded people there to discuss the story, characters, different ways to play through the game, and share your theories and impressions.
