Mewgenics Black Screen & Crash Fixes (PC Guide)
There is nothing more insulting than pressing "Play" on Steam, watching the button turn green, and then watching it sadly turn back to blue without a window ever opening.
I spent my morning trying to boot up Mewgenics only to be met with absolute silence from my PC. No error code, no splash screen, just the desktop staring back at me. It seems like there is a nasty bug going around that causes the game to hang on the loading screen or crash immediately for a huge chunk of the player base.
If you are frustrated, you are in good company. But unlike the cats in the game, your installation isn't permanently dead. I dug through the forums and tested these fixes myself. Here is how to actually get the game running.
The "Golden" Fix (Start Here)
If your game is closing immediately or getting stuck on the initial load, this combination of settings has the highest success rate. It seems to be an issue with how Windows 10/11 handles the game's fullscreen permissions.
The Compatibility Combo Do not just right-click and hit "Run as Administrator." That often doesn't stick when launching through Steam. You need to change the file properties permanently.
Go to your Steam Library.
Right-click Mewgenics -> Manage -> Browse Local Files.
Find the
Mewgenics.exefile.Right-click it and select Properties.
Go to the Compatibility tab.
Check the box that says "Disable fullscreen optimizations."
Check the box that says "Run this program as an administrator."
Hit Apply.
Launch the game through Steam again. For most people (myself included), this brute-forces the game past the initial hang.
The "I swear I updated my drivers" Checklist
If the compatibility fix didn't work, your PC is probably missing the basic architecture the game runs on. Mewgenics is a native C++ application. If you don't have the libraries, the game literally does not know how to speak to your processor.
Verify Integrity Files get corrupted. It happens.
Right-click Mewgenics in Steam.
Properties -> Installed Files.
Click Verify integrity of game files.
If it finds a broken file, it will redownload it.
The Visual C++ Issue If you are getting errors about MSVCP140.dll or VCRUNTIME140.dll, you need the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2015-2022. Download both the x86 and x64 versions from Microsoft's site.
Specific Fixes for Specific Headaches
Sometimes the game launches, but it acts weird. Here are the targeted fixes.
The Black Screen (Audio Only)
If you can hear cats meowing but see a black void, the game is trying to output a resolution your monitor hates.
Right-click Mewgenics in Steam -> Properties.
In Launch Options, type:
-windowedLaunch the game. It should force it into a window you can actually see. You can fix the resolution in the settings menu afterwards.
The Alt-Tab Freeze (NVIDIA Users)
There is a specific issue where Alt-Tabbing freezes the video while the game keeps running in the background. If you have an NVIDIA card, you can fix this in the control panel.
Open the NVIDIA App or Control Panel.
Go to Manage 3D Settings (or Graphics -> Program Settings).
Add
Mewgenics.exemanually if it isn't there.Find the setting Vulkan/OpenGL Present Method.
Change it to Prefer layered on DXGI Swapchain.
Apply and restart.
Final Step
If absolutely none of this works, you might have a corrupted save file preventing the engine from initializing. Go to Documents\My Games\Mewgenics\ and rename your save file to .old. It forces the game to generate a fresh one. It hurts to lose progress, but it beats staring at a desktop wallpaper.
Now go fix your game. Those cats aren't going to breed themselves.
