GDevelop BIG Game Jam #8

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Non UTF-8 Encoded characters (Warning for all users) Sticky

A topic by HelperWesley created 6 days ago Views: 331 Replies: 8

Viewing posts 1 to 5

HelperWesleyJam Host6 days ago(+3)

Browser games won't work on itch if they use "non UTF-8 Encoded characters".

So if your game files contain characters like "á" or "ã", your game won't run as an HTML5 game on itch when you export it.

This issue has tripped up a lot of developers in previous game jams, and we often fix it by allowing the person to upload a downloadable desktop version of their game on itch, and keeping their browser version on gd.games. (The desktop version, that would be locked in by itch during the jam, will be used to judge the game if it reaches the eyes of the judges.)

So this is a general warning for developers:
If you try to submit your game and it has "non UTF-8 Encoded characters", change the name of your game and its resource files to remove those characters, and then export and reupload your game to itch.

Biggest-fan-of-CR76 days ago

ok, so i have to change the name of the file? then i submit it?

HelperWesleyJam Host5 days ago (2 edits) (+2)

As well as resource files in your game. So if an image file has one of them, it'll cause the same issue.

So it's better to avoid using them in the name of anything in your game files. But if you run into the issue, go through your game folder and change those characters if you see them, as well as the game filename. Then you'll have to go into your game resources tab and fix the path of any broken resources to match the new names you gave the file. Then export the game again as an HTML5 game and reupload it to itch.

conicocos.DEV5 days ago

Don't understand 😭

Hung Thai5 days ago(+2)

Non-UTF-8 encoded characters are characters that are not encoded using the UTF-8 standard.

Yhac105 days ago

Basically, anything that isn't either English or symbols like '? @#&% glitch out

Hung Thai5 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Anything (resources , files, …) in game that contain special character (like Ä, Æ, Ö, Ø,…) or special symbol (§, #, …) would make the game crash or won’t work properly.

If i’m wrong then someone would help me clarify it because i’m bad at English.

MetalCubeBitSubmitted4 days ago(+2)

If you encounter this error when uploading your game to itch.io, it means that the .zip file contains files whose names are not in UTF-8 format, usually due to:

Accents or special characters (á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ)

Emojis

Unusual symbols

Extremely long names

Words with non-standard encoding (some downloaded from the internet)

🔍 How to identify problematic files

Extract your exported project (HTML) to a folder.

Open PowerShell within that folder.

Run this command:

Get-ChildItem -Path ".\" -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Name -cmatch "[^\u0000-\u007F]" }

✅ This will display all files containing invalid characters.

✅ How to fix it

Rename those files using only:

Regular letters (a–z)

Numbers

Hyphen - or underscore _

Examples:

Horror Music.mp3 → terror_music.mp3

Orcas attack a swimmer.mp4 → orcas.mp4

If you don't use those files in your game, simply delete them.

✅ Then:

Make sure to update the names within GDevelop as well, if they are used.

Re-export the HTML project.

Create a new ZIP file.

Upload it to itch.io again.

✅ Why it happens

Itch.io requires that all filenames within the ZIP file be encoded in UTF-8.

If it finds names with accents, emojis, or symbols, it displays this error and rejects the upload.

✅ Tip

Avoid using names with accents, emojis, or special characters in files or folders within your project.

✅ Done!

If you follow these steps, the error will disappear, and you'll be able to upload your game without any problems.

Roguel .DEV.4 days ago

THANKS