Game stuck on loading screen

I uninstalled Google Play Games and then I was forced to install it again by the game itself.
The black screen of death with Morty still haunts me when I want to play...
The only way to make the game work again is to give up on my progress and start over and I already did that and I don't want to do it again.

yeah it happens all the time with me, got driving me nuts, but (maybe) {as} fix that in the next update

This problem exists for so long and nobody ever made a fix for it.
I don't think they care about this huge error at all.
I just lost all of my progress once again btw.
I am done.

THERE IS A FIX FOR THIS! this used to happen to me. ASG claims there was a patch for this in the March update, but that's just not true. the problem is, i havent identified the fix yet; it could be any number of things, but here's what I did the last 2 times it's happened to me (something worked...)

1) back up all files in Android > data > com.turner.pocketmorties on an SD card
2) make sure you did #1 correctly
3) back up your files to the cloud
4) uninstall Google Play Games
5) uninstall Pocket Morties
6) reinstall Pocket Morties (i reinstalled Play Games as well)
7) delete the new cloudcontainer.dat file, or try replacing the new one with your old one
replace the new multiplayer.dat file with your old one you backed up
9) restart your phone

i know this isnt a ton of help, but one or more things on that list fixed the issue for me. twice

Launch the game from the Google Play Games app

Found the fix (at least for me)
Disable notifications for the game
I realized that this only started happening to me once I turn on notifications for it, ever since disabling, it opens just fine.
Hope this helps