Steam 2 Questions on Saving for a Steam PC Game

Two Save Questions

1. Does the basic save system ( game_save() ) work for a Steam PC game?

2. What is the best type of save system for a Steam PC game (ini, txt, ds_map_secure_save, ect)?
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
1. Hell no. Would a system that doesn't save any data structures or dynamically allocated resources (e.g. buffers, surfaces, etc.), is a complete black box to the developer, and loses all context upon updating work for a Steam PC game?

2. Any of those is fine if you plan for it. These are simply formats, it's still up to you to determine what to save and how to arrange it in the file. If you want a quick way to do encrypted saves then ds_map_secure_save() is an easy built-in solution, though there are extensions on the marketplace that add the encryption to otherwise plaintext formats.
 
1. Hell no. Would a system that doesn't save any data structures or dynamically allocated resources (e.g. buffers, surfaces, etc.), is a complete black box to the developer, and loses all context upon updating work for a Steam PC game?

2. Any of those is fine if you plan for it. These are simply formats, it's still up to you to determine what to save and how to arrange it in the file. If you want a quick way to do encrypted saves then ds_map_secure_save() is an easy built-in solution, though there are extensions on the marketplace that add the encryption to otherwise plaintext formats.

1. Don't think I'd need to save surfaces. Would it save variable values, and arrays? That might be enough, but if updating a game makes these save files unreadable that would be a major problem worth using a different system for.

2. I do want encryption, but this below indicates ds_map_secure_save() doesn't work if you login to Steam from a different computer. (in Ariak's first post)

https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/simple-advanced-ds-map-based-save-system.11613/
 

andev

Member
Would it save variable values, and arrays? That might be enough, but if updating a game makes these save files unreadable that would be a major problem worth using a different system for.
If you're publishing a game to steam, you probably want to have the confidence in GML to know how to write your own saving/loading systems. If / when something goes wrong, you will need to be able to fix it immediately. The worst time to be scrambling for the manual is when you have actual paying customers waiting.
 
If you're publishing a game to steam, you probably want to have the confidence in GML to know how to write your own saving/loading systems. If / when something goes wrong, you will need to be able to fix it immediately. The worst time to be scrambling for the manual is when you have actual paying customers waiting.
I haven't published anything yet. I'm asking to figure out how I should do things when I do.
 
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