047 Xbox One Saving & Loading Data
Wednesday 27th Feb 2019
8:30am
Well today has started amazingly well – we just got two uplifting emails – the first was to let us know that we’ve been accepted to exhibit at Insomnia again this year as part of the Indie Zone! Last year’s show was immense, so we’re super excited about that. The second email was a really nice surprise - as this was originally something we were told was not going to happen - but as part of our reward for winning Game of the Show at Game Anglia, we have been entered into the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect! Our exhibition space and accommodation is all paid for too, which is absolutely incredible!
In the best mood now to start the day – which is good because getting my head around saving/loading data on Xbox One is going to be a tough nut to crack!
12:25pm
Quite a slow day so far, with all the software/tools updating I needed to do, but everything is now updated.
The Xbox OS update took quite some time this morning, so whilst the update was in progress I managed to finish writing the code that handles loading, saving, and clearing save game data (heavily relying on users sharing their code on the Unity Forums – which helped tons).
I also added an extra option to the main menu, which gives users the ability to clear their save data, along with displaying some appropriate warnings before doing so.
A decent morning, time for some lunch!
1:45pm
Back in the office
2:45pm
I have to down tools somewhat as I am unable to create an xbox build from Unity anymore. Turns out I need to update Visual Studio as well now (at least add some additional individual components to it) which is a few Gb. In the meantime I’m going to look for some hotels for upcoming events, and sort out some other admin bits that need doing.
I think I have almost finished the code side of game data management now though, and have plugged in a couple of triggers for both loading and saving game data, so that I can test them on the xbox once I’m able to run a build off.
5:40pm
I managed to get Unity and Visual Studio playing nicely again - fairly quickly too thanks to ItaloCapasso’s answer to another Dev on the Unity Forums. That allowed me to do a bunch of trial and error with the work I’ve been doing. It’s been a fairly stressful afternoon figuring this save/load game data malarchy out on Xbox, but I think I’ve made decent progress. It is close to working now, I just need to iron out the flow and try to catch all the potential errors.
Stopping for some tea.
6:40pm
Got back in the office around 6:10pm, but only to fix a small bug / test something I remembered before eating, and to write this blog entry really. I think the foundations of save/load game system are pretty much there now, but I’ll spend more time tomorrow testing it properly and trying to find flaws with it. A positive start to my 2 weeks of Xbox-Requirements workload, but definitely lots of head scratching to content with!
Adios amigos!
Signed by my face
