[1 - *Solution* Launcher Play Button Does Nothing]

I discovered the source of this problem was a corrupted game. The simple solution was to remove the corrupted game and replace it.

I was able to verify that the EXE files from the corrupted version and the working version had different hash signatures of the EXE file. I'd recommend to the developers to use a hash verification of the EXE file from the launcher.

NAME: Play button doesn't start game
SEVERITY: 1
LOCATION: Launcher, play button
REPRODUCIBILITY: ALWAYS
DESCRIPTION: Game fails to launch when clicking the play button from the launcher and produces no helpful error messages.
SCREENSHOT: 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This is the result of a corrupted game.

I hope this helps you guys clear up a lot of these mysterious post about the game failing to launch with no error messages.

[DirectX9]

Quote

Switch to display parameters: 1024 × 768 @ 0 Hz

0 Hz looks problematic and would likely cause a crash. Manually setting the parameters and making sure the refresh is 60Hz would probably fix the crash.

[Game won’t load]

A quick search on google found a result with your mentioned error message related to virtual box on mac.

https://superuser.com/questions/541537/how-to-solve-issues-with-shader-model-in-virtualbox

Hopefully, that helps with your issue. Let me know how it goes.

[Game won’t load]

Sounds like your missing the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable package. Try downloading and installing this https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784