just out of curiosity

[billybob884]

do any of the games in the project listing make use of the save feature? i was considering adding it to my game, but I wasn't sure how it worked, i've never played with it before.

[GameDeveloper]

Well, I know that at least two of my games on the listing use it ['Turok World','Family Reunion'].  If you want, i could tell you how to use it[or someone else], or you could just look through those two games. 

To answer your question, yes, I do believe many of them do.

[billybob884]

thanks, ill d/l turok world and see how it works.

[Guilect]

I think if you wanted to find out how to save by looking at another game, then you're better off downloading 'Family Reunion'.  It might be a bit easier to understand than Turok World.  But that's just my opinion...

[durnurd]

The save function is rather easy to understand.  It saves the game in the exact state it's in to a sub-folder of the directory the GDP is in with the name you give the saved game in the special function.  You can then have multiple saved games in this way.  Then loading it just restores the state to the same place it was saved at.

The way it saves everything is simply by creating new MAP files that are the current state of all of the maps as well as creating a .sav file in the same directory as the GDP file to store other information (like inventory, etc.)  It's very similar to a GDP file with some different information.

The GameDev Academy project illustrates this specifically in an educational manner (I think).

[bluemonkmn]

Yes, save is quite easy to use and only gets a little tricky if you want to do a menu.  To save a game all you have to do is activate a save function and provide a name.  Behind the scenes it does what durnurd describes, but you don't really need to understand that to use it.  Just be aware that there are a fixed number of save "slots" depending on how many different names you use with the save game functions.  Each distinct name represents one slot.

The Game Academy Demo demonstrates some of the tricky usage.  And by "tricky" I mean loading the game in a slightly different state than it was saved.  For example, you might want a save game menu to pick a save slot, but when you load the game, you don't want to load back to the state where you're looking at the save game menu.  So if I remember correctly, the Game Academy Demo gets around this by using a "activate series" function that transports the player and then saves the game in a single function.  The new location of the player activates a function that returns to a more sensible location instead of the save menu.  Technically it gets loaded to the exact same state it was saved in, but that state is one where you're in the middle of transporting somewhere else.  The one thing that doesn't get saved is the state of the script.  If you have any script, its data have to be saved separately (I think there's an example of this in the 2-player demo, to save the second player, but I can't remember for sure).

But if you don't want to do anythig tricky, it's much simpler.  Just save the game, and offer some way to load the same game and there's really no trick to it, especially if you only use one fixed slot.

[billybob884]

this sounds more like what i want to do. if i did implement saving, it would jsut occur at the end of each level, after the boss, then have a load option at teh title screen, and when u opened one of the save slots it would go right to the "next" level or map in line.

[Guilect]

"Just out of curiosity..." shouldn't this topic be in the Help/FAQ thread?

Just wondering...

[billybob884]

So if I remember correctly, the Game Academy Demo gets around this by using a "activate series" function that transports the player and then saves the game in a single function.  The new location of the player activates a function that returns to a more sensible location instead of the save menu.

ok, so i would have to have a different "save map" after each level boss (i.e. each time i wanted to save)? thats no problem, ill only have 5, maybe 6 places to save

[Guilect]

I don't think you would requrie multiple save maps.  After every boss fight, just teleport the player to the same save map with an item that signifies that they beat that specfic boss.  Why you would give the player a different item after everytime you beat one boss is so that on the save map you can have multiple global functions that send you to the next level.  Here's an example:  You just beat the level one boss and it teleports you to the save map with an item called 'GoToLevel2'.  On the Save Map you have multiple functions that teleport you to a different level, and each function requires an item so that it san teleport you to that specific map.  So the player saves and he goes to some part on the save map to be teleported to the next level.  When he uses the function to teleport, have one of the functions that teleports you to level two require the item 'GoToLevel2' and have it removed.

If you have trouble understanding this, then just let me know and I will try to simplify it.

[billybob884]

Heh, no, it makes sense, but the problem is by the time i found your post i had alreasy finished adding in the 7 sets of save maps. Oh well.. at least it works

[Guilect]

Oh well...

Glad it works for you though .  How much have you completed with that game?  It seems like you've been working on it for quite some time.

[durnurd]

Another way to do this would be after each boss fight, teleport to the next level, where there is a special function that is deleted after it's first use which teleports to the save map (remembering the old map), saves it (if they want to or whatever), then simply return to the old map.

[Guilect]

Your suggestion would have been more helpful if you had posted it before he created the 7 save maps .

You're a little late there durnurd.

[billybob884]

well, actually it turned out to be 14 maps, 7 sets of 2, one for saving, and one just for deleting (yes i know you can overwrite, just thought itd be nice to have the option available). well lets see, i started most of my, ahem, "concept work" in august of 04. so i guess its been nearly a year and a half, but lets not forget that it hasnt been stright through for me. at first i was learning it as i went along, so that slowed me down. then i remember losing a LOT of work that winter (04) due to a harddrive crash (that was also the time i went and built a new computer [my current 1], so a few weeks there), so that was 1 set back, then i had midterms and finals, so like 2 weeks for each, and over the summer in 05 i didnt really get too much done on it, my family from phili was here for a month, so not too much time then. and of course a bunch of stupid little mistakes that held it up for a day or so at a time, none in specific i can remember. all in all, im pretty close to finishing. im working on the final boss right now, then after that ill have sort of a generic "final escape" type level, well a mini-level, then the credits. after that i believe all is left is the "multiplayer", which will probably be 3 short 2-player races, maybe they'll loop once to make them seem longer (hehe), but the multiplayer is still in the planning stages right now. all thats really done for it is the scripting.

just out of curiosity, Guilect, are you at least 15? cuz a few things in this are a little inappropreate/wont necessarily make sense if you aren't (well, they probably wont make much sense to you even if u are over 15, hehe a lot if inside jokes)