I just bought this and couldn't get it running at all. Immediate crash to desktop no matter what I did.

A bit of googling brought me to this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/352520/discussions/0/1696046342864092504/

A few users there reported problems with the game clearing up when they disconnected their gamepad. I thought it might be a coincidence, but it was easy enough to try.

And it worked. If you're having problems starting the game, give it a go.

Thanks, because my game also crashes after a few seconds (doesn't display anything but the icon at the bottom, or if I run it in a window then it shows a gray window for a few seconds, but either way it closes without displaying an error). I have an XBox controller plugged in, as well as maybe some DirectInput controllers and a SpaceMouse Compact, so this might be the problem. I'll try it without that stuff and see if it works.

Thank you for this, thanks!

When running it, it crashes immediately after selecting resolution, in fact it doesn't look like a crash, just does nothing for a few seconds.

I found out that it ran OK when my Xbox gamepad was connected but turned off; once turned on, however, I had to disconnect it to run the game.

Connecting the gamepad while the game was running didn't cause a crash, but you can't use the gamepad for anything.