Hello This is Anton and this will be my last post. I wanted to give a last post outlining the work I did with the save system and how it did not make it in the end.

Where to call load

One of the parts I worked on earlier in the project was together with Jonathan on where to call load from the character object. Then it was a checkpoint based system where the player would walk into a checkpoint and then reload at the same checkpoint when the player died.

This system seemed to work for the initial death system but in order to keep the load proceedure working the save operation had to not save if the player was freshly spawned. This was later checked with a variable.

However somewhere between Jonathan leaving and the second test something went wrong. The load system was no longer working. and had to be replaced with loading the main menu directly.The problem was where exactly the variables should be loaded. Inventory was a part of the character and when the character was loaded it had to load the variables before they were saved from walking into the checkpoint.

A possible simpler system

In hindsight a simpler system for this game could have worked. Instead of saving every piece of data on the save file it could simply have saved which part of the level the player was at. When it load it simply draws from an array the values the objects on the level is supposed to have as the player is moving forward. If the player can only proceed if certain objects are picked up then the save function only need to save the number of the checkpoint. The only downside of this is that it would’ve been problem with batteries.

The failed push

My initial plan for the final week was to work together with Max to make the load system work again but postponing it to the final week was a mistake. Due to multiple reasons we never worked together on how to make the system work with the new character object. I was abscent one of the days and Max was either abscent or busy during the others.
In hindsight I should have made sure the system was better tested earlier and made more effort on it during the second to last week.

The working parts

All of the work made into the save system was not wasted as much of it was used for the page system where it was used to record the number of pages the player has picked up and ensuring the pages had an independant save game. The lessons learned designing this save game system will be useful if I ever work on another save game system in Unreal Engine.

The Presentation

I worked on the presentation and showed how the main menu, pause menu and page system worked.
The image summarizes how the different parts works. In the end I managed to convey how the system worked even if every piece was not working.