Install

The game ships as a portable build: no installer, no registry entries, no admin rights. You download an archive, extract it, and run it from the extracted folder.

The folder is the game

The app or exe sits next to resources/, saves/ and tools/, and it needs those neighbours to work. Whatever you do, move the whole folder, never just the program. Dragging only the .app or .exe somewhere else is the single most common way to get a black screen.

1. Install and first launch

Download the build for your system from the downloads page, then follow your system’s tab. The quirks below are the real reasons first launches fail; none of them are bugs in your download.

Windows

1. Extract the zip into its own folder anywhere you like. Extract it fully. Running the exe from inside the zip preview window will not work.

2. Run WhoreMasterRenewal.exe.

3. If SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”, click More info, then Run anyway. The build is not signed, so this appears once and then never again.

macOS

1. Extract the zip and move the whole extracted folder somewhere outside Downloads, Desktop, Documents and iCloud Drive. Your home folder or a Games folder are fine. macOS restricts what apps can read in those protected places, and the game needs to read its own files.

2. Clear the download-quarantine flag once:

   • From 1.18.1: double-click Fix macOS quarantine.command in the game folder. If macOS complains about it, right-click it and choose Open. It repairs the whole folder and starts the game.
   • On 1.18.0 and older: open Terminal, type xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine with a trailing space, drag the game folder onto the window, press Return.

3. From then on, double-click WhoreMasterRenewal.app like any app.

Why the quarantine step matters

While the download flag is set, macOS secretly runs a copy of the app from a read-only system folder. The copy can’t see resources/, so you get a black screen or an app that closes instantly, and no gamelog.txt appears in your folder. The two steps above prevent exactly that.

Linux

1. Extract the tarball:

   tar -xzf wmcrossgate-*-linux-*.tar.gz

2. Start the game with the launcher script from the extracted folder:

   ./run.sh

   Not the bare binary: the launcher points the game at its bundled libraries; the binary alone will pick up whatever your distro has and may not start.

Distro requirements

64-bit, from the Ubuntu 24.04 era or newer (glibc 2.39+; Debian 13, Fedora 40, current Arch are all fine), an OpenGL driver, PulseAudio or PipeWire. On an older distro the game refuses to start with a glibc version error. That’s the distro being too old for the build, not a broken download.

If it doesn’t start

Run it from a terminal so the error is visible (./run.sh on Linux; on macOS drag WhoreMasterRenewal.app/Contents/MacOS/WhoreMasterRenewal into Terminal and press Return), and check gamelog.txt next to the game. Every launch writes one, and it usually names the problem. When reporting an issue, that file is the single most useful thing to attach.

2. Sample content

From 1.21 the game ships without test characters. resources/characters/ is empty and is yours to fill. A small Base Roster pack of random characters, drawn with the default images, gives a new game people to meet, buy and find before you install anything. The example packs for pack makers sit in examples/packs/, next to resources/, and the game does not load them.

Unpacking 1.21 over an older version cleans up by itself: at startup the game removes the sample files older versions shipped. A file you edited is moved to a retired-files/ folder instead of being deleted. In an existing save, anyone working for you stays, characters from the removed files leave the market, and items and traits from the sample packs disappear, along with the stat bonuses those items gave.

On 1.20 or older, the sample content is still live. To clear it by hand, delete everything inside resources/characters/ and the Sample_* folders under resources/packages/.

3. Add character packs

Character content loads from two places, and both are live at the same time:

Location	Format	Use it for
resources/characters/	Legacy: loose .girlsx / .rgirlsx files + a folder per unique girl	Most Collection drops today
resources/packages/	Structured pack: one folder per pack with package.xml at its root	New packs; can also carry traits, items, jobs and scripts, declare dependencies, and be toggled per pack

Lowercase matters on Linux

Older packs and guides write these folders as Resources/Characters/. On Windows and most Macs that works anyway; on Linux it does not: the folders must be lowercase, exactly as the build ships them.

Legacy packs (loose .girlsx / .rgirlsx)

Legacy packs have no package.xml, so the in-game drag-and-drop installer can’t take them; they go in by hand. Extract so the files land directly in resources/characters/, not inside a subfolder (anything one folder deeper is silently ignored):

resources/characters/
    RandomJobs.rgirlsx
    RandomFantasyGirls.rgirlsx
    <girl-name folder for each unique the packs ship>

Everything at this top level acts as one big pack. Two legacy packs defining the same girl name will collide, and you’ll have to pick one.

Structured packs (folder with package.xml)

The easy way: drag and drop, in-game. Open Settings → Content Manager (the screen inside the game; the separate Content Editor app is for making packs, not installing them), then drag the pack onto the game window: the downloaded .zip as-is, or the extracted folder, both work. The game checks the pack before installing, puts it in the right place itself, and tells you on screen what happened. It won’t overwrite a pack you already have. Drops are only accepted while the Content Manager is open; anywhere else in the game they’re ignored on purpose.

The manual way does the same thing by hand: drop the whole pack folder into resources/packages/. Don’t unpack it further, don’t merge it with another pack:

resources/packages/
    MyPack/
        package.xml
        Girls.girlsx
        Characters/
            Jane/
                Profile/
                ...

If the pack requires another pack (declared in its package.xml), install that one the same way; missing dependencies are reported in the Content Manager instead of girls silently vanishing.

Mixing both layouts is fine and expected. For the full breakdown, see Where packs go.

4. Verify

1. Launch the game.

2. Load a save or start a new game.

3. Open Settings (top-right) → Content Manager.

The Content Manager lists every loaded girl with a status. Every row should be OK. If a row isn’t, the right-hand panel explains why: usually a missing image folder, a Name that doesn’t match its folder, a malformed XML block, or an unmet dependency. Fix the pack on disk and restart; the Content Manager re-reads on every game load.