Demos and Saves

[Verincia 0]

I will say at the beginning that I use RPG Maker XP. But this discussion can fit onto any engine. When people make Demos for their upcoming games, there is always this little thing about whether or not the save files that are saved for the demo can be transferable to the final product. What does it take to make a tranferable save file from demo to final product? Two things I have learned is the placement of items, maps, and equipment is important for the transfer (that is where they are in the lists and number of the map, this also includes switches and vairables), the other thing is characters. If you offer a demo with only four characters in it, but the total game has eight, if the save is to be properly tranferable, you would already need all eight characters designed and developed within the engine even if you only offer the demo with four. If you only design four with the demo, and then the person tries to use the save for the final product problems can occur. I had that experience while developing my own game and play testing it. Any comments on this?

[Broken Messiah 20]

If the demo and final don't have the same scripts, saves usually won't work.

[Rook 0]

I have a disclaimer at the start of my demo that says:

 

NOTE: In no way is the demo an exact representation of the finished projects same scenes. Therefore the production team deams it wise to notify you of the fact that any saved files from the demo will not carry over to the final product.

[Zeriab 9]

Check if you can load your old saves whenever you add or remove scripts.

If you at some point can't load then you'll know.

If you never get into to trouble then chances are that the demo saves can be used. (There could still be problems with a switch being OFF when it should have been OFF)

[Shalaren Metropolis 0]

Save file will work on both Demo and final product only if they have the same data, I’m not talking about events, but let’s say you added a script to the final product that the Demo does not have, in most cases it won’t work. Another example is that if you changed something in the character, it will not change in the Save file, and it’s possible that the save file will not work as well.

[Zeriab 9]

It is unfortunately not as simple as that.

And having added/removed scripts are not the only possible cause for incompatibility between demo saves and complete game saves.

If you change the layout of the switches you may gets. If you delete or change maps you could also get stuck.

This is of course not a real problem if you have a complete game and then make a demo, but it could be a problem if you make a demo before the game is complete.

[Noob Saibot 38]

I just pull information from one RMXP file to the next. Demo will have what I copy, graphic, events, etc wise. A lack of certain things will prevent a save from working. Which makes sense because what commercial demo has anyone played and then saved it to use and work on the actual game...I'd say none.

[Zeriab 9]

Yes indeed. If you make a demo when you have the full game making a demo where the saves are compatible with the full game is fairly easy.

The problem is to ensure compatibility if you are still developing the game when you release the demo.

[Noob Saibot 38]

I would assume that in truth it couldn't be done. I mean if I make a game and I'm at 70% completion and decide to make a demo by copy and pasting stuff from one to the other or editing the current game to work as only a demo. Then well the copied and paste method would not work because they lack all files that the full game would have. On the other hand if I simply added a few extra events to take my 70% game and turn it in to a demo then once I delete those events I don't need in the game the demo save would be come useless.

[Shalaren Metropolis 0]

"This is of course not a real problem if you have a complete game and then make a demo"

I would say thats the only Solution X: