Episodic narrative game and saved files

[vagrant quartz]

Hi,

I'm currently designing a narrative game which could follow an episodic format (like one chapter being released every month or else). I was wondering if it would be possible/how hard it would be to have players have their previous choices/saved files carried over to a new version of a same game. (For example, month 1 is the game with only one chapter, month 2 has chapter 1 + 2, etc.) A bit like what Telltale games used to do a long time ago.
I've mostly worked with Godot 4 + Ink, using GDScript so far.

Thanks!

[maiden nacelle]

That actually sounds relatively simple to do. In https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/io/data_paths.html#accessing-persistent-user-data-user, it describes being able to save files to user://. That's where you'd typically save in most games, so the techniques are no different for this sort of game. There'll be plenty of guides online for regular saving.

All you need to do differently is set up a custom dir and name as described on the page, and make sure each chapter saves to the same custom folder. You can either save to a different file per chapter, or put every chapter's save into one big file, whichever you find easiest. (I'd recommend having at least a different file per save slot though, to make transferring and backing up saves easier for the user.)

As long as you make sure to save right at the end of the chapter, then the next one can load the save file once the user has bought the next chapter, and pick up right where the previous one left off.

[vagrant quartz]

Ha thanks for the quick answer and details! Will look into them 👌🏼

[dusky agate]

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_pcks.html

You can just release content packs that get loaded into the already installed game.

You can even use this to update/override stuff.