Troglodyte in Underbelly: Save/Load System

Author: Shemaiah Nelson

Date: 3/13/2024

This week, I took on the task of implementing a comprehensive save loading system for our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly." The objective was clear: enable players to seamlessly persist their progress across different scenes, retaining vital information such as the player's position, time of day, collected items, and discovered ores scattered throughout the map. However, as I delved deeper into the development process, I encountered significant challenges that tested my problem-solving skills and technical acumen. One of the primary hurdles was ensuring the persistence of saved data between scenes. Despite initial efforts to serialize and desterilize game data, I struggled to establish a seamless transfer mechanism that preserved the player's progress accurately. Furthermore, incorporating dynamic elements such as the player's position, time of day, collected items, and discovered ores added layers of complexity to the save loading system. Balancing the need for data integrity and performance optimization posed additional obstacles, as inefficient data handling could compromise gameplay experience and hinder player immersion.

To tackle the complexities of implementing a robust save loading system in our game "Troglodyte In Underbelly," I devised a modular and scalable solution consisting of four scripts and an interface, each serving a specific purpose in managing game data: FileDataHandler Script: This script serves as the backbone of our save loading system, providing functionality for saving, loading, and deleting game data files. It encapsulates methods for data serialization, encryption, and backup creation, ensuring data integrity and security. GameData Script: This script defines the structure of our game data, including variables for the player's position, time of day, collected items, and discovered ores. It implements the IDataPersistence interface to enable seamless serialization and deserialization of game data. This allows for the game to create .bak and .tiu along with data encryption so it can't be altered. I even made it so the Main Menu changes once the game is saved.

Files created after saving

Main Menu after saving