GameMaker Tutorial: Saving & Loading .INI Files Video Lecture | Game Maker Tutorial: Build Games from Scratch - Game Development

alright guys welcome back so in our last
saving game tutorial we looked at how to
save the game using text files and we
would just write the name of the room
that we're in to the text file and then
we would load that name back whenever we
selected continue what we're going to be
looking at in this tutorial is how to
use any files to save our game which
will allow you to save more than one
piece of information at a time and
generally just provide you with a
different more interesting way of
setting up your saved games and saving
other information like options and all
sorts of things like for those can
confuse this is what on any file
generally sort of looks like when it's
got data in it it has a bunch of
sections kept in square brackets and
then different keys in those sections
and then each of those keys has a value
so here this is like a slightly modified
version of the indie file from another
perspective so here in options for
example
language is set to 0 which by default
would be English in the game
fullscreen is 0 so it wouldn't be
fullscreen the lights are turned on the
timer is turned off fps turned off music
turned on and so on so forth and like
you can store numeric values to these in
ease or you can also store string this
like I'd app down here in the profile
section name Sean J s as a string so
this is just one any looks like and I'll
show you how to create these files in
game maker and also how to read
information from them so that how we're
going to do that is we're actually going
to use the same game that we had set up
for the first saving game tutorial which
is just this little thing with the
little green dude walking around going
through the levels but this time instead
of just going through the levels and use
this as this here's level 1 points
equals zero I've added a point system
and so these these little pink squares
you can pick up and then give you points
just like a bunch more level we're gonna
pick up three and then carry on through
the level and says this is little three
points it's three we just have a global
variable is tracking how many points we
have that's the end of the game and what
I'm going to have this game do is at the
beginning of every level we're going to
save
how many points we had on what level
we're on and whenever we hit continuing
to load how many points we had on what
level we're on and then hopefully you
can use the system and apply to whatever
type of loading or saving system you're
trying to create so I've got two scripts
set up to do this on a totally blank at
the moment SCR save game and SCR on just
got a load game SCR and just got a load
game will happen when we select to
continue from the menu and se our save
game will happen at the very beginning
of every room our player object exists
in so the beginning of each room the
player object will call the script and
we'll save the game one or the moment
because the script doesn't do anything
so that's what we're going to do first
those of you who did watch the previous
a game tutorial will recognize most of
this code it's all very similar it's
just you know got a few minor
alterations but we're using any files as
time when we're going to save our points
as well our points for those wondering
is going to be tracked by a global
variable called global underscore points
which is already set up in the code for
this game there's that numbers added to
it and so on sleep well so we know our
points are any given time we just need
to save and load that value from our
ini' file so the first thing I'm going
to do is say if file underscore exists
save dot sab we're just going to use
that arbitrary sea
Sava extension again doesn't really
matter what you put that file delete
save that's how so if the file already
exists we're gonna get rid of it so that
we can overwrite it with a new save game
whether or not you want to apply some
sort of safety check here and say like
Oh player there's already a save file
you sure you want to overwrite etc
depends on what you're making
santé both but here we're just we're
just gonna if the file already exists
we're going to do it we need to know if
exit sorry
so assuming we've done that we know that
there is no file AB we're going to say
any underscore open saved us Plus save
don't sad now you might be confused
because we've just ensured that there is
no such file because if the file did
exist and we deleted it so why are we
trying to open saved us app while all
this really does is it
this file for writing and and reading
and if the file doesn't exist a game
maker creates it the file itself isn't
actually saved and created until you
finish with the file once you've like
added some stuff to it and then you say
enclose then it will save the file if it
didn't already exist in the first place
but for now having done any underscore
open this file is open now for reading
and writing them and we can write data
to it into memory and then when we close
the file it will create the file if it
didn't already exist so the first thing
we want to do is just add the room that
we're in exactly it's done basically in
the same way we added the save room to
our previous save game file say so yeah
var saved room is going to equal room so
it's going to set this variable to equal
the index of whatever room we're in
right now and I say any write real which
means we're going to write a real number
to our save file and now instead of just
identifying the file we're writing to
and identifying the the value that we're
going to write into it like we were
writing to a text file we need to
establish exactly where we're writing
this information to the any file because
if you remember has a slightly more
complex structure it has all of this so
like it has this we need to know what
section were writing to what so I'll
bring it up again
you know what section we're writing to
what key we're writing to and what value
we're actually going to be writing into
that key so the first thing that you can
see down here it comes up down there the
section so the section we're going to be
writing to I'm just going to say like
like giving the idea that when maybe we
had multiple save slots I'm gonna say
like save one press next one by mistake
and save one so you could have multiple
sections got save one save two and so on
so forth in theory because each key
would be unique to that section you can
have the same key in different sections
the key is going to be the room so the
room name that we're currently in and
the actual value we're putting in that
should be obvious say room the variable
that we just assigned a second ago
Sam you go on so now we've stored the
room room and the next thing we want to
do is store how many points we currently
so I'm going to use the same line again
enlight real which again is to write a
real number if you want to write string
and using the right string as well to
write a string into the loonie file but
i'm just going to write use real uses
same section again this time the key can
be called points and the value of
writing that's going to be global dot
points the number of points we currently
have in the game and then all I need to
do is say any underscore close Open
bracket close bracket semicolon and then
it'll take all that stuff that's done in
the memory will close and will actually
finish creating that don't sound file
and we'll close it so that we can no
longer read or write to it so now that
we've done that and to save that I'm
going to run this and hit start I'm
going to move through so level two I'm
going to pick up two of these so we have
exactly two points and then move to
level three so now we're on level three
and we have two points to start this
room is save down information so that
information should be saved in our any
file now so if I go to the folder the
working folder for this which is out
data local saving to just happens to be
the name this project you can see here
our new files been made called save dot
SAP and if I open that you can see here
it's done as we expected as created
section called save one the points
equals two that's the number of points
we have and the the index of the room is
three it's it's the third room so that's
the room it'll load excellent so we know
we're saving all our information
correctly now now all we need to do is
make it so we can load the game so I'm
going to go to SEO underscore load game
and again right mostly the same code as
from the previous tutorial if file
exists save dot SAP all right
save save dot so there we go so if that
file exists oh I can't type today at all
so if that file exists any open again
save dot salve we is the same line of
code whether or not we're reading or
writing unlike text file so we just open
up the file again and we're going to say
var loaded room equals any underscore
read under store real so same as I'll
prove this line but we're reading
instead of writing now and so we're
going to get a get a value from our any
file and put it into this variable so we
need to declare the section that we're
reading which is say 1 um the key that
we're reading which is the room and then
all you need to do is put in a default
value so if there is no if some reason
it's open this file but those like I
can't find this value or there's nothing
in the value the value doesn't exist for
some reason like it got edited or
corrupted in some way then you need to
give it a default they will just have to
assume and that obviously makes sense to
say level 1 which is the room name of
our first level so that's in that line
then we need to we need to load in the
number of points that we've got on our
save game the global dot points we're
just going to assign this to PE whatever
we read from the file
anyways go read real again save 1 the
key is points and the default value
would be 0 but guess any under store
clothes say
so we opened up a reading we're not
written anything to it this time but
we've just read this information from it
and then wack we've done that we can use
that information as a room go to a
little bit and then we can put an else
in here as well if the file doesn't
exist at all and just not do anything in
there maybe you want to have some things
as all we can find just a file or
whatever but for the sake of this
tutorial I'm happy with it they don't do
anything
why is this alright of course yeah so
you don't actually need to put in this
sorry my mistake if you were writing
along you don't actually need to put in
the name of the file you opened with any
underscore open you just need to write
any underscore close as I'm pretty sure
we did and I'll say game one yeah you
just need to write only underscore
clothes and it will already know what
you want it's a little bit smarter and
easier to use really than the the text
file reading and writing so that's that
now we should load in the the room which
as we knew is three and the point which
is two so we should load on to level
three with two points when we run the
script and there we go it works
perfectly this is level three points two
and if I move on to level four and I
close the game reopen the game continue
level four two points C remembers
everything so that's that that's how you
save and load using in any file I hope
you guys enjoyed that oh I know what
catch you guys next time see it
you