AGS: Whispers of a Machine starts with "ERROR! Failed to create user.cfg!"

[Thunderforge]

When starting up Whispers of a Machine (whispersofamachine), the first thing the user sees is a black screen with the white words "ERROR! Failed to create user.cfg!"

Info

Game Version: macOS ​Steam
ScummVM Version: 5 May macOS x64 daily build (ab8c4cc5)

[criezy]

Strange, it works for me (I don't see this error) and it creates a whispersofamachine-user.cfg file in the save game folder.

I also have the macOS Steam version of the game, and I am testing with a recent macOS build (bf07a75524, which is a bit more recent that yours, but there is no changes between the two that would explain why it works for me and not for you).

[Thunderforge]

I did some further investigation and found that this is another manifestation of #11427, which I was still set up for.

Because the default location for ScummVM saves is ~/Documents (instead of ~/Library/Application Support as recommended by Apple), recent versions of macOS such as macOS 11 ask the user for permission to give ScummVM access to the Documents folder. I had denied access, and this resulted because WOAM tries to write a file when it starts up.

If I give ScummVM access to ~/Documents (System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Files and Folders → ScummVM → Documents Folder), then this issue goes away.