Save Guide — Playtest Transfer, Co-op Handoff & Broken Save Repair

Hi, I'm Vook, a sim player who keeps a backup folder for every save I touch — playtest imports, JSON surgery, the lot.

This page covers three save situations on PC: moving Open Playtest progress into the full release, handing off a co-op save when the original host is gone, and repairing a broken save when the game boots you to menu or you cannot interact with shelves. Same folder for all of it. Close the game before any file work — Windows locks the files otherwise.

Hub loop once you're in: beginners' guide. Cash edit on the parameters line: money cheat guide.

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Where saves live (Windows PC)

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Go to C: → Users → your Windows username.
3. Open AppData.
   • Missing? View → Hidden items, or type %AppData% in the address bar and go up one level to AppData.
4. Open LocalLow → OneMoreTime.

Shortcut paste into the address bar:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\OneMoreTime\

Folder	What it is
Anime Shop Simulator Playtest	Open Playtest / demo progress
Anime Shop Simulator	Full release saves

Save slots inside the full-game folder — file names count from zero, the in-game load menu counts from one:

File	In-game slot
0_save.es3	Slot 1
1_save.es3	Slot 2
2_save.es3	Slot 3
3_save.es3	Slot 4
4_save.es3	Slot 5
5_save.es3	Slot 6

Not save slots — do not swap these when moving a co-op save:

File	What it is
globalSave.es3	Global data — load-menu labels (shop name, time, day) pull partly from here
settingsSave.es3	Settings — not a playable slot

Each slot file has a matching N_save.es3.bak backup beside it. Treat .bak as part of the slot when you transfer — details in co-op handoff.

These are plain JSON — Notepad opens them. Not encrypted. Editing parameters index 0 changes cash — money cheat guide if you must; I barely recommend it.

Note: Saves are per Windows profile. Wrong user folder = empty Continue screen.

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Playtest → full game transfer

If you grinded the Open Playtest and bought the release, progress does not auto-import. Copy it manually.

Before you paste

1. Close Playtest and the full game.
2. Back up Anime Shop Simulator if you already started a fresh full-release save — paste replaces those files.

Warning: Replace overwrites the full game's current save. No undo without a backup.

Copy steps

1. Open Anime Shop Simulator Playtest.
2. You will see save files and four subfolders — copy only the loose files at this level. Do not copy those four subfolders into the main game directory.
3. Copy (Ctrl+C) → go up one level → open Anime Shop Simulator.
4. Paste (Ctrl+V) → Replace when Windows asks.
5. Launch the full game from Steam → Continue.

Tip: If Continue looks empty, confirm you pasted into Anime Shop Simulator, not Playtest again, and that you copied files, not an empty folder tree. Some playtest builds tuck data inside one of the four subfolders — grab the largest .es3 / .sav files you find there instead of skipping everything.

Transfer troubleshooting

• Game still running — copy fails or reverts; close Steam overlay and retry.
• Fresh full-game save you wanted to keep — restore from the backup you made first.

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Continue your save without the original host

Co-op shop stuck because the person who hosted quit? The save lives on their PC until someone copies it over. Two routes: manual zip (works everywhere) or SaveSync (automates sync, .bak cleanup, and sharing).

Hub co-op loop: split the floor.

Manual file transfer

1. Close the game on both sides.

2. Paste into File Explorer:

   %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\OneMoreTime\Anime Shop Simulator
   

3. Identify the slot you play on — file number vs in-game slot (0_save.es3 = Slot 1, etc.).

4. Copy that slot's pair:

   • N_save.es3
   • N_save.es3.bak (same N)

5. Skip globalSave.es3 and settingsSave.es3 — they are not playable slots. Do not include them in a slot-only handoff unless you know you want to overwrite global menu data on the receiver.

6. On the receiving PC, paste into the same folder. Either:

   • Include the .bak from the sender, or
   • Delete any existing .bak for that slot on the receiver before you paste.

   If a slot will not load, the game silently falls back to .bak — a stale backup on the receiver can undo the save you just pasted.

7. Zip the files (or the whole folder if your group swaps everything) and send — Discord, Drive, whatever.

8. Receiver pastes → launches → loads the slot once.

Note: The load-menu label (shop name, save time, in-game day) reads partly from globalSave.es3. A freshly pasted slot may show a blank or stale day until the game loads it once — that is normal, not a failed transfer.

Back and forth: When hosting rotates, repeat in both directions so anyone in the group can host and the same shop continues.

Using SaveSync

SaveSync on Steam automates the whole manual flow — syncs slots, clears stale .bak files, and adds share history. I use it when the group hosts on rotation and nobody wants to zip folders at 2 a.m.

1. Open SaveSync → select Anime Shop Simulator in the left list → save management page.
2. Click + New Save (top right).
3. In the dialog, pick your local save from the list → Create Save.
4. Wait for sync to finish (green checkmark).
5. Click the share icon on that save entry.
6. Search your friend's Steam username → Share.
7. They see the save marked shared by you in their SaveSync game list.
8. They click Activate — save is ready. They can host; the shop syncs automatically on their machine.

SaveSync also keeps full save history — who uploaded, when, and rollback to any prior version if someone loads the wrong day.

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If your save is broken — try this first

Symptoms I have seen:

• Save will not load — kicks you back to the menu on open.
• You load in but cannot interact with items, cannot aim at shelves, cannot place products.

Cause: something — usually a delivery box or piece of furniture — flew far outside the game world. The engine still tracks it. Deleting that object from the save file fixes the shop.

Do not waste time on Player.log or Sentry — nothing useful shows up there for this bug.

Repair steps

1. Close the game completely.

2. Open:

   %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\OneMoreTime\Anime Shop Simulator\
   

3. Copy 0_save.es3 somewhere safe first. (0_save = slot 1, 1_save = slot 2, etc.)

4. Open 0_save.es3 in Notepad.

5. Ctrl+F → search orders.

6. Look at each entry's Position values:

   Range	Verdict
   Single or double digits	Normal
   Small negatives	Fine — roughly x −1…10, y −0.3…5, z −11…11 (varies with shop size)
   Millions, or e+07 scientific notation	Broken

   Broken example:

   "Position" : { "x" : 21502924, "y" : -7.74e+07, "z" : 1650608 }
   

7. Delete that whole entry — from its opening { to its closing }, plus the trailing comma, so the JSON stays valid.

   • If it was the only order, you are left with: "orders" : [ ]

8. Also check buildings (Ctrl+F) — furniture uses the same rule. Anything wildly outside the range of everything else is suspect.

9. Save the file → launch the game.

Warning: You lose whatever was in that deleted box or furniture piece. The shop works again — that is the trade.

If repair did not help

Restore your backup copy from step 3 and try again — maybe you missed a second rogue entry, or the bad object lives under buildings instead of orders.

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Once your save loads

Jump back to the hub for pricing, bills and thieves, and level 5 Arcanis setup.

Played the playtest? Do the transfer before rerunning day one — hub checklist assumes you might skip it.