I'm weird and frequently switch between different operating systems (I have an iMac, a Linux box, and 2 Windows boxes: one with 7 and one with 8.1 right now). A friend and I started playing on my Mac, but I'd like to move our saved games over to my Windows Laptop (easier to hook up to my TV).

I dug around and found the save file on my mac (weird spot for a Mac, but I got it eventually). I tried copying the save game file to the appropriate location:

Mac:
~/Documents/PJShooter/DEFAULTPROFILE_SHOOTERSAVEGAME

Windows:
%AppData%/PJShooter/DEFAULTPROFILE_SHOOTERSAVEGAME

I've done this with several other multi-platform games and it's worked without problem, but for some reason when I launch the game on the windows box it overwrites the save file with a new default one and starts us at the beginning of the game.

Is there a way to copy the save file to a different machine with a different OS? I've done similar things with FTL and Legend of Grimrock recently. I'm sure I've done it with others, but those are the most recent.

I don't have direct experience with this, but the most likely thing I can imagine is the game having some information in the save file that is os specific. Then it makes a new file when the existing one fails to load. Might want to see if it does the same thing when you go the other way, since it sounds like you already have a backup of the save file. Unless you're worried about potentially losing the save on your Mac.

I could be wrong of course. The pixeljunk forums might be a good place to ask if you don't get a better answer here.

Found this topic on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/app/255870/discussions/0/666826069096905910/ it appears the game doesn't have cross os cloud save functionality so it sounds like it has to do with how the game is designed.

Yeah, I contacted PixelJunk about this. They informed me that Double 11 is the company that handled porting from the Xbox 360 version. I have since contacted Double 11 and they have replied that they will look into it more, but it has been nearly a week now with no further follow up. It must be something like you suggest, but if it's saving data in a very specific way, they also have to be parsing it in a specific way that differs for each OS, and that just seems like poor design. Not sure why anyone would build it that way. Unless it is something as simple as windows using '\' for directories while everyone else uses '/'. I'll have to try putting it on windows and Linux, just to see. I'm guessing it might work between mac and Linux, but anything involving windows currently is broken, I think.

I have heard back from Double 11 again. The answer isn't good for this particular game, but it did make them aware of the issue and will hopefully improve their portability between platforms in the feature. I've attached the response I received. I'm going to mark your answer as the solution also, since I can't mark my own posts (wish GoG would change this).