80% Of My Game Was Deleted.

[Wyatt Putman]

for the past 3-4 months i have been working on making my own game in Gamemaker Studio 2. i also wanted to make a simple game with basic movement and such, so instead of copy and pasting the code from my already existing game i decided to copy my first game project and use the copy of it for the second game. my first game had lots of stuff i didn't need in my second game, so i deleted stuff i did not need in the second game(copy of first game) but it also deleted that stuff in the first game, so now 80% of my original game is gone and deleted. i tried going through all my files but i can't find the deleted .gml and .yy files, i only see the files i did not delete, i also lost a lot of my sprites.

i am completely devastated and don't know what to do, it would be greatly appreciated if anyone can help.

note: i did not have the 'enable backups' on in the preferences.
however, when i open my project it says it "can't load these resources", and it lists the names of all my lost files, does that mean they still exist? if they were completely gone wouldn't it say "can't load deleted files" or "these files don't exist?'

i also have a yoyo runner file with a completely playable version of my game (file looks like a white rectangle with the letter "A" on it). is there any way to export the sprites and code from that file?

EDIT: I GOT MY WORK BACK

turns out a few days ago i tried exporting my game but i gave up because it "didn't work".

apparently it did work when i ex[orted it but i didn't realize but anyway i still have that .yyz file and i opened it with gamemaker and everything is here, everything is back!

if i didn't have that file then i probably would have been completely screw

thanks you to everyone who tried to help.

 

[Evanski]

copy my first game project and use the copy of it for the second game.

well now you know, thats a mistake.

i did not have the 'enable backups' on in the preferences.

Theres no hope in recovering them unless you made your own backups

when i open my project it says it "can't load these resources",

That just means when it reads your project.yyp file, it finds that those were there but it cant find them, its like a gravestone

i also have a yoyo runner file with a completely playable version of my game (file looks like a white rectangle with the letter "A" on it). is there any way to export the sprites and code from that file?

you could use a decompiler from a shady back ally but we dont discuss them/how to get them here
other then that I dont know any way of doing that sorry

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

These kind of things really shouldn't happen as often as they do in GameMaker, unlike virtually any other game engine I've used or heard about. The whole "well, you should've kept a backup" attitude is laughable bs. Who's real fault it is is not the OP. It is YoYoGames' fault for creating a trainwreck of show-stopping bugs and having the audicity to sell it for any given price, let alone how overpriced it would still be if at all stable.

I just am thankful i personally don't run into these issues most people talk about, with the exception of not being able to run, debug, or compile anything after a whole year of having access to the Mac IDE, (Mac IDE only bug).

If i didn't own a Windows PC I would've refunded after the first month of having purchased an unuseable software.

 

[nacho_chicken]

It seems you've learned the hard way why people espouse source control and regular backups so much. It's not impossible to mess up and permanently screw up your project - which means at some point, it will happen. It would've happened to me had I not already been using source control.

I use git on BitBucket and use SourceTree as the client. I highly recommend them. I suggest not using GM's built-in source control solution; it's a mess. As far as backups go, make regular backups. Ideally, you want to have 3 copies, in at least 2 different media types, and one of them off-site. This may seem excessive, but it will save your butt in an emergency and all boils down to how much you value your work.

@Samuel Venable This could've happened no matter what engine or programming language the OP was using. You can delete your files whether you're a one-man dev or working at Blizzard. I heard the original Starcraft code got deleted and all the backups were broken, but I don't know how accurate this is. It's also not exclusive to game development. Good backup discipline is absolutely vital if you're working with digital media of any kind.

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

@nacho_chicken I'm honestly quite disgusted with this clueless sheep-like following YoYo has on this matter, when it should be recognized it is YoYo's fault for creating a software that is by far more unstable than most free and open source alternatives such as Godot, users like you could seriously learn from gaining some form of perspective with being of the mindset "you shouldve backed up" the real problem is "YoYo should've made a stable software and then start thinking about perhaps charging a premium like they do". Let me guess, you come from a world of only trying GameMaker and seeing/experiencing no other game creation software? That would explain a lot.

As a temporary way YoYo could say "I'm sorry" in advance for all the corrupted projects is making it clear on the software with a big phat label "use source control or use at your own risk, because you are playing with a polished turd rolled in glitter ". Kinda late for that now.

 

[Evanski]

"YoYo should've made a stable software

but @Wyatt Putman 's problem is they copied the project edited it and expected it not to be confused as to which one they were messing with
thats a file system problem (whither OS or yoyo's idk) but still

 

[nacho_chicken]

@nacho_chicken I'm honestly quite disgusted with this clueless sheep-like following YoYo has on this matter, when it should be recognized it is YoYo's fault for creating a software that is by far more unstable than most free and open source alternatives such as Godot, users like you could seriously learn from gaining some form of perspective with being of the mindset "you shouldve backed up" the real problem is "YoYo should've made a stable software and then start thinking about perhaps charging a premium like they do". Let me guess, you come from a world of only trying GameMaker and seeing/experiencing no other game creation software? That would explain a lot.

Nope, deleting your files never happens outside of GM

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

Nope, deleting your files never happens outside of GM

lmao never said that. The fact you had to interpret what i said as an "all or nothing" isn't a good sign.

After reading @EvanSki's post it wasnt what i thought. Even then, this is one of the more common threads you'll see posted here "GM broke my project!" regardless of said cause.

 

[Evanski]

lmao never said that. The fact you had to interpret what i said as an "all or nothing" isn't a good sign.

After reading @EvanSki's post it wasnt what i thought. Even then, this is one of the more common threads you'll see posted here "GM broke my project!" regardless of said cause.

when it should be recognized it is YoYo's fault for creating a software that is by far more unstable than most free and open source alternatives such as Godot, users like you could seriously learn from gaining some form of perspective with being of the mindset "you shouldve backed up" the real problem is "YoYo should've made a stable software and then start thinking about perhaps charging a premium like they do".

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

Yeah exactly, i didnt say that. Good job.

I may have been wrong in this particular case, but we still get an influx of threads where what i said remains true.

 

[nacho_chicken]

lmao never said that. The fact you had to interpret what i said as an "all or nothing" isn't a good sign.

Please don't take this as me arguing against what you're saying, because I'm not. OP straight up deleted his files. This has nothing to do with GM corrupting files. Yes, that should never happen. That happened to me - that was the event I was talking about earlier. Had I not been keeping backups and using source control, I would've been screwed. It's YYG's job to keep this from happening, and they haven't been doing the best job. It's the user's job to mitigate freak accidents causing loss of work - whether that accident is due to user error, hardware failure, software failure, or even natural disaster.

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

Yeah i gotcha. Sorry for the confusion. (and for being rude when i dont have the excuse of getting no sleep this thyme)

Spoiler

 

[kupo15]

but @Wyatt Putman 's problem is they copied the project edited it and expected it not to be confused as to which one they were messing with
thats a file system problem (whither OS or yoyo's idk) but still

This^^^

I get the whole backup your work thing and there should be some level of personal responsibility to protect yourself from losing work. But who would even think that if you took a file, copied the file to make a new one to edit, would you ever think editing the copy would destroy the first? The OP basically did create a backup through copying the project. It seems like something within GM is messed up and that he is isn't to blame for not creating a backup

 

[Evanski]

This^^^

I get the whole backup your work thing and there should be some level of personal responsibility to protect yourself from losing work. But who would even think that if you took a file, copied the file to make a new one to edit, would you ever think editing the copy would destroy the first? The OP basically did create a backup through copying the project. It seems like something within GM is messed up and that he is to blame for not creating a backup

Oh your right, @Wyatt Putman did you rename the project.yyp?

either way we have our human vs machine answer

if yes. gm filed
if no. it was a human error

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

my love/hate relationship with GM and YoYo comes out a bit too much with my bipolar

 

[YellowAfterlife]

I wrote a "recovering lost work" post a while ago https://yal.cc/gamemaker-recovering-lost-work/

 

[Toque]

I get nervous working 3 hours without a backup.

What if my hard drive quits? Corrupted save?
No software save can be trusted.

You should been around when we save on 3 1/2 inch floppies. I triple saved because 2 disks could fail at the same time.

Been there done that. I hope you can restore your project though. It sucks to lose work.

 

[TsukaYuriko]

Have you tried using file recovery software such as Recuva yet? Such software can sometimes still read files that were deleted or even removed from the recycle bin, beyond the files you can find by exploring the contents of your storage using the standard file explorer (I assume that's what "going through all my files" refers to). It's been a while since this topic was posted, so this may not be as relevant anymore as the lost data may have been overwritten with other data by now, but it's worth a try.

Now, I'm not trying to make up excuse for the source of the file loss being a flaw in the software and blaming the user for not taking precautions, as shifting the blame won't help anyone after the fact, but for future reference, I strongly recommend using source control to version your projects and keeping the data safe on top of both local and online backups of the repository. This isn't just to protect your project from data loss due to flaws in the software, but also from other threats such as power outages corrupting whatever file is currently being written, data loss as a result of hard drive failure or malware such as ransomware rendering the data unrecoverable.

 

[IndianaBones]

i have been working on making my own game in Gamemaker Studio 2

i decided to copy my first game project and use the copy of it for the second game.

but i can't find the deleted .gml and .yy files,

This should be in the Game Maker Studio 2 Community Tech Support Topic then. @TsukaYuriko @Nocturne

But who would even think that if you took a file, copied the file to make a new one to edit, would you ever think editing the copy would destroy the first?

Yeah, if someone doesn't understand the project layout and what files are where etc...they may not end up copying it correctly.

Solution : Use the Export Project option, then Import that into a new project.

note: i did not have the 'enable backups' on in the preferences.

I don't think Game Maker Studio 2 has this option. The project saves automatically, and doesn't do backup folders like GMS 1 did.

however, when i open my project it says it "can't load these resources", and it lists the names of all my lost files, does that mean they still exist?

They may, but you would need to investigate using Windows Explorer, check your original project manually to see if the files still exist.

What if my hard drive quits? Corrupted save?
No software save can be trusted.

Exactly - you never know when a hard drive is going to fail (and this is for hardware failure, not to mention human error ) - so for things like game projects where hours/weeks/months or even years can be lost source control + backups are essential.

@Samuel Venable has a point, there have been quite a few posts on corrupted projects through no fault of the user. I have experienced a corrupted project a couple of times myself early on in GMS 2's life. I had to edit the YYP project file manually to fix it in one case. Another time the Views were corrupted and my project would not open until I manually deleted them. Another time, I had to export and re-import the project into a new location to fix a problem.

It's been stable for me for around a year now though.

 

[kupo15]

Solution : Use the Export Project option, then Import that into a new project.

Yep, I should be using Git but for the moment I have my project file on DB for small day to day changes but frequently create and upload project exports to DB for major updates and milestones as a super safe backup

 

[Jobo]

i decided to copy my first game project and use the copy of it for the second game. my first game had lots of stuff i didn't need in my second game, so i deleted stuff i did not need in the second game(copy of first game) but it also deleted that stuff in the first game

If you copy your project folder, then you have a completely new project.
There is no link between the old project and the newly copied one (unless we have a really bad bug here!)

Can you please describe, and try to carry out, the exact steps you performed to cause the issue? And also what version of GameMaker Studio 2 you are using.
If you try these steps and the files are gone from the original project, then there is definitely a bug that we should look at. If the files are still there then it sounds unlikely.

I am not insinuating that this is a case of human error, however if you copy a project then the copied project will have the same name as the old project (but a completely unique project path - no links to the old project). This could be very confusing in the Start Page, where you will have two projects show up under Recent Projects with the same project name. Could you perhaps have launched the wrong project by mistake? If the project paths are long then the Start Page will cut them off - and this can even make the two projects look completely identical under Recent Projects.

 

[IndianaBones]

Yep, I should be using Git but for the moment I have my project file on DB for small day to day changes but frequently create and upload project exports to DB for major updates and milestones as a super safe backup

Yeah, I do something similar, git + bitbucket, regular backups to an external drive and a copy of the exported project on dropbox as well. Also I send a copy of the export to a friend to store on their computer.

 

[Wyatt Putman]

turns out a few days ago i tried exporting my game but i gave up because it "didn't work".

apparently it did work when i ex[orted it but i didn't realize but anyway i still have that .yyz file and i opened it with gamemaker and everything is here, everything is back!

if i didn't have that file then i probably would have been completely screw

thanks you to everyone who tried to help.

 

[IndianaBones]

Glad to hear you got your project back!

I'm calling that a win for backups! ( With a bit of luck thrown in that you did an export of your project earlier )

 

[Sam (Deleted User)]

Just to give everyone the update, I know this thread is old, but I finally got the Mac IDE working. It required purchasing a Mac. (Again). This Mac is a newer model, but it's ok. it only took me more than a full year to make the decision GM was worth that much. That, and I was really upset with not being able to not use the Mac IDE when I wrote the older posts in this thread. I cringe reading what I said here. I'm guessing the Mac I originally had must've been an unsupported model or something, (it was about a decade old, and can't run past High Sierra). On topic, I haven't seen as many threads like this as of late, it makes me happy YoYo has seemed to have fixed this problem for the most part.

 

[Toque]

wow. what a relief. Well now you know. Save, save, and backup again and again........

Lucky you!!! Happy it worked out.