Posted on 20 November 16 at 22:40, Edited on 22 November 16 at 15:39 by mike cupcake
I had an existing save on slot 1 and then started a new game on slot 3, ran through the first level without rescuing anyone then quit from the in-game menu and found the slot still empty.
Did that twice with the same result, then tried using slot 2 and rescuing a single mudokon. That fixed it.
edit: after losing a couple hours progress on my main save I now understand the instructions: always fully quit the game from the xbox's menu either before or after playing.
while playing if you see the blue icon when entering a new area you should be good.