Everything was great and then at one point I saved the game and tried to reload the level, and everything that I had placed in the world was gone. 0 actors to be found in the game outliner, just a black nothingness in the view port.
And now it is repeatedly doing so. My project might as well have been deleted because nothing carries over from save to save.
I have a couple of suggestions that I would like for you to try.
Could you try going into your project settings and try setting the level that you would like to see on start up as the default editor level (Project settings > Maps and Modes > Editor Start up Map)? I would like to make sure that you are not opening up to a blank level.
If this is not the case, could you try going to File > Open Level and then navigate to C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Unreal Projects\YourProjectName\Saved\Backup so as to load up a back up copy of the map that you were using?
We have not heard back from you in a few days, so we are marking this post as Resolved for tracking purposes. If you are still experiencing the issue you reported, please respond to this message with additional information and we will follow up.