Find The Needle Guide

Find The Needle Crashing, Stuck Loading or Black Screen

Players report crashes, loading that stops at 98% and black screens. There is no official fix yet, but most checks come down to the game's graphics requirements.

Status as of Demo V8 · Updated September 28, 2026

What players report

Several threads on the Steam discussions describe the game stopping at 98% while loading, closing to the desktop, or showing a black screen. The developer hasn't posted an official fix for these as of Demo V8.

The most common cause worth ruling out is graphics. The Find The Needle Steam page requires a dedicated GPU with Vulkan 1.3 and warns that integrated graphics are not supported and may crash.

Belts that stop working after loading a save are a separate issue, covered in the conveyor troubleshooting checklist.

Checks to try, in order

These are general PC checks, not fixes confirmed by the developer. Restart the game after each one.

  1. Compare your PC with the requirements. You need Windows 10 or 11 64-bit and a dedicated GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM. See the full system requirements.
  2. Force the dedicated GPU on laptops. In Windows, open Settings > System > Display > Graphics, add the game, and choose High performance. NVIDIA and AMD control panels have similar options.
  3. Update your graphics driver. Install the latest driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel, and check on the maker's site that your card supports Vulkan 1.3.
  4. Verify the game files. In your Steam library, right-click the game, then open Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files.

Tip

If you are on a PC with only integrated graphics, the steps above are unlikely to help, because that setup isn't supported.

If nothing works

Report the problem where the developer reads it: the Find The Needle Steam discussions or the Discord server linked from the Steam page. Include your GPU, driver version, Windows version and the point where the game stops.

This page will be updated when an official fix is announced.