Local Saves Fixed for HTML5! (Build 0.6.9)

Important Note ⚠️

If you are experiencing issues with not being able to enter stages correctly, try clearing your itch.io cache for the game. It should appear as html-classic.itch.zone among the caches/cookies for itch.io) 

It should remove any corrupt saves so the game can start the initialization fresh.

Hey everyone! 👋

This update squashes a particularly sneaky bug that affected players testing the browser (HTML5) version of BitJump — specifically, an issue that made the starting stage unplayable on first load.

Let’s break down what happened and what’s new! Below outlines exactly what the issue was.

💾 The Case of the Missing Save File

A tester noticed that when launching the game online, pressing the “Accept” key on the first level node did nothing — just a little “wrong” sound and no entry into the stage.

After some digging, I found out why:
The game was trying to load its save file directly from the server, which HTML5 isn’t allowed to do.
In the browser, BitJump needs to use local storage (sandboxed in your browser) instead.

Since that request failed, the game never properly initialized your progress — meaning your first level looked locked even though it wasn’t supposed to be!

Older saves also did not include the new tutorial stage (which is a new level before level 1, which was older saves first level). Since we technically have a new level 1 now, it caused a mismatch between the cached save and init global, which caused everything to mess up.

✅ The Fix

The new build (v0.6.9) now detects when it’s running in HTML5 and safely uses browser-based local storage for all save data.
No more 403 errors, no more “wrong” sound, and no more confusion when trying to jump into level 1!

I also fixed a smaller issue where the “save toast” notification could appear too early before the game’s layers were ready — that’s now fully stable across all platforms.

🧠 TL;DR

• Fixed HTML5 saves — they now use browser local storage

• Fixed “can’t enter first level” bug

• Fixed early “save toast” crash on web builds

• Desktop builds are unaffected but now safer overall

🪄 Closing Thoughts

This one was a bit of a mystery, and huge thanks to the tester Deerstalker Games who helped uncover it during testing! 🙏
If you’re playing the web version on itch.io, you should now be able to start right away with everything working as intended.

Now that the save system’s ironed out, we can get back to adding new levels and mechanics for upcoming worlds.
Stay tuned — Bit’s adventure continues! 💫