How do you load several objects in the game using json?

[mighty bison]

hey again, it is this Sunguy again, so... i have this question, i was following sara spalding's save and loading json tutorial, and... when i want to load variables for several objects from the variables of other objects i saved from the save data script, do i have to put all of their respective variables under the ```var _loadEntity = array_pop(_loadData);
with (instance_create_layer (0,0,layer, asset_get_index(_loadEntity.obj)))
{
//your loaded object variables here
}

codeblock or do i have to do something else so that the game can load the states for all the other objects? This is the part that i am getting stuck at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R84mR52QaMg

[mighty bison]

like you see on 1st screenshot, i am telling the game to save several objects in game, but then, if i want to load several objects with their respective variables, is the outlined code of block on 2nd screenshot puts in calculation all the other objects i told it to save on 1st script or it will only load only one object?

[deep idol]

do i have to put all of their respective variables under the
Only the ones that you absolutely need

You do not need to save all of the variables if you don't need most of them

And especially if you can just recreate that data, either from using said variables or the instance already creates them

(Like an object that creates methods, you don't need to save those)

[mighty bison]

i mean, yeah, the ones that i need, but... if i put all the variables that i saved from several objects, on the script where i load the variables does this single codeblock that i shown on 2nd screenshot loads the respective variables for all the other objects that i saved or it only loads variables for only one object?

thats the part that i am not sure about

[deep idol]

It seems that you are pushing more than one object type

So it'll be at least more than 1 object

And more than 1 instance

...Did you try any of it

Or are you just asking before trying things?

[mighty bison]

yeah exactly thats what i was saying

[mighty bison]

no i didn't, i am asking it before trying because saving and loading stuff is pretty sensitive compared to anything else, it could mess up stuff if the loading code does not take into account several object type

[deep idol]

It's not that sensitive

Besides, I think you're at that point in coding that you can make those fair judgement and guesses based on the existing code

Worse case scenario, the saving or loading is broken, you can fix it

[mighty bison]

well if the loaded part of the game does turn out to be messed up, should i delete the save file to restore things back to how it was defined by gamemaker's room's editor?

[deep idol]

Take a guess

[mighty bison]

okay, well, the loading script will get triggered whenever i will enter back the level room where i saved the stuff, but... if the loading script is not put to use when i enter a level (like if its trigger activation code is removed or commented out), then the game will load default GM room editor assets as how it was defined in room editor instead of loading the stuff from the load data script. Is that how it would work?

[deep idol]

I can't entirely comment on that aspect, but I would assume as such coming from your own words

I think it's better to just give it a whirl

We could play 20 questions

Or you could answer all 20 in about 2-5 minutes

By testing your game

[mighty bison]

okay, one more thing, what path directory would the saved game file will be saved to?

[deep idol]

The "safe" save directory

And that differs between platform

(Unless you're on desktop and sandbox is disabled, then rules are likely out)

[pale mango]

game_save_id

This read-only variable points to the area of local storage that is reserved for your game on the target device. See Save Area Locations.

Mar 11, 2025, 2:38 AM

[deep idol]

Will at least give you the path to where it would save

In game

https://manual.gamemaker.io/monthly/en/Additional_Information/The_File_System.htm#:~:text=dealt with asynchronously.-,Save Area Locations,-Each target platform

Otherwise you can just read the manual page here and look up the respective OS

[mighty bison]

the one i was asking was for windows as this is the game i am developing on the platform for

but alright

[deep idol]

I know

I'm linking you the manual with the intent on reading 🙂

[mighty bison]

well either way, i now know where it will save the .save file now thanks to this, i am gonna go and test stuff. Oh and i think i should define the game to save objects whos instance exists in the rooms to avoid errors if it cant find objects to save

as i didnt do that yet, i probably should

[deep idol]

I think you should just test it anyway

Before you do that

There's a chance that your code maybe does that already

[mighty bison]

i know, but i want it to make sure the instance exists for it to save the object anyway just for safety measures

[deep idol]

Sun, listen to me

I think you should just try your code

Before you go running around and making changes or adding in "safety measures"

Cause like, are you certain that you need to add them?

[mighty bison]

i am very sure, things can be very random in life, and you have to prepare for things

[deep idol]

Well if you are 110% sure, don't let me stop you

[mighty bison]

i will report any results that came from testing and if i run into the problems that i had feared about

[mighty bison]

ok so this thing happened when i tested loading feature, it seem to be not being able to load any progress at all, and my suspicion goes as to why, because of the fact that pause menu disables the layers when it activates, and because that the save game progress option only works if it finds that instances exist.

i am gonna do and make so that the game progress gets saved only if i press a letter button while being in the game itself and not in the pause menu

[deep idol]

disables the layer
I assume you mean deactivate?

[mighty bison]

yes

[deep idol]

A deactivated instance would indeed not be included with the with()

You’d have to reactivate instances briefly

And then deactivate them again for that to work otherwise

[mighty bison]

yeah, got it

[mighty bison]

i got this error saying that jumpthrough platform object was not set before reading it even though i already told the game to check if this instance exists in the room

i think maybe its because the length variable wasnt set in its parent object since its create and step event use its parents event

ok i was able to make it save the progress, but when i try to load, it crashes because one of the objects does not have a walksp variable

yep, thats exactly one of things i feared about

we need to make so that the load script loads individual variables for each separate object type in the game

and the load script i have loads all the variables i wrote from the saved object types i loaded and does not distinguish other object types

[mighty bison]

maybe i should try to make so that the game saves objects, but each object name variable for each object type is different from each other and then load separate individual variables for these object types, can this solve the problem?

like if i name obj_ground_door_button object type as
obj_door : object_get_name(object_index),
instead of
obj : object_get_name(object_index),
and then in load script make ``` var _loadDoorEntity = array_pop(_loadData);
with (instance_create_layer (0,0,layer, asset_get_index(_loadDoorEntity.obj_door)))

to load THAT object type's variables, then would it load the individual variables for them, right?

[deep idol]

Would you prefer spaghetti-based solutions

Or a more cleaner solution

[mighty bison]

okay, tell me, what would be the more cleaner solution?

[deep idol]

Define import/export methods for each object you wish to save/load, with export returning a struct of variables (on save), import assigning values from said struct (on load)

Then instead of saving a bunch of variables

In that upper most Struct

You can have

with(object_of_choice) {
var _saveData = {
   obj: obj_name,
   data: export(),
}
 // push
};

You don’t need to know what each of the variables are, or redesign your code to constantly deal with varying different objects

You can just have the objects handle export/import instead

A lot of save tutorials go down this route for the same reason

It’s clean

[mighty bison]

import and export method? welllll... like which method? is there an example of how that looks like?

[deep idol]

Are you aware of what methods are, at all?

If you don’t, think about them like a function but it belongs to an instance

Scope wise

[mighty bison]

the ones with import and exporting, no, but wait you mean that, i can make a function within a object that has the names of all the variables. like...

//basic variables
hsp = 0
vsp = 0;

function living_object_variables(){
  hsp = 0
  vsp = 0;
}

this?

or maybe... like this?

scr_living_object_variables:
function living_object_variables(){
  hsp = 0
  vsp = 0;
}

living_object create event:
  scr_living_object_variables() //in place of the variables that would have been normally defined?

[deep idol]

Close but yeah

Methods are normally as living_object_variables = function()

Just because it’s easier to tell it’s not a global function

(Also GameMaker isn’t particularly the happiest with it defined the usual way)

(I’d suggest writing that in your notes/scratch pad project btw)

A method is just a function that belongs to an instance

I’ll get you a quick example

// obj_alice create event
get_name = function() {
    return object_get_name(object_index);
}

// obj_bob create event
get_name = obj_alice.get_name;

show_message(get_name());

In this example

Alice owns "get_name"

So when you have Bob take it from "Alice" and call it

You get obj_alice

Because the instance of Alice owns it, not bob

By that itself, it’s useful

But also since an object can define its own methods

You can give every single instance a custom method that does exactly what you want

So you could use it to define variables

Or to import/export any data per object type

[mighty bison]

right, uhh, i am gonna try and use this method when i come back because i need to go and clean snow outside my house as my dad told me to do it as a task

[deep idol]

All good

[mighty bison]

as soon as i come back and try it out, i will report the results

[deep idol]

I’d suggest try adding this to a test project and testing it out first

iirc this video does just that method

[mighty bison]

no, it didnt, it didnt have that custom method with getting individual names, it only shown a basic example of how you can save and load variables of objects

but i gtg, i will brb

[deep idol]

You’re right, it didn’t

Note to self: Tab needs to write a tutorial

[mighty bison]

okay i am back, heres something i had learned, apparently putting all the create variables from the object to the script of the variables then deleting the variables from the create event and placing the script in place of the variables is not a good idea because some events like draw event would not know the variable since the variable it uses is within that script and not the object and the game will think of it as "undefined" (feather messages told me this when i was trying to do that)

so instead of placing a script with variables in create event of the object, i need to define it as

  //variables here
}

instead, right?

[deep idol]

I honestly don’t think it’s the best for setting up variables tbh

In fact

I don’t even know why we’re changing that right now

We’re just meant to do save/load, aren’t we?

[mighty bison]

yes

[deep idol]

Yes, so I think we shouldn’t focus too hard on changing how we define our variables in create ^^;

Think we should focus on export/import for now

[mighty bison]

but how do we export the variables then?

[deep idol]

So, remember how we were defining our struct for each object with variables like x/y/image_index, etc?

We just have export() create a struct

And return that

[deep idol]

Then call it like so

data just holds onto all of our variables we want to save, as a separate struct

This is pretty the same case as if you were to make separate global functions for each object type

So just

export = function() {
     return {
          x: x,
          y: y,
          image_index: image_index,
      };
}

[mighty bison]

ahhh alright, but... the other object types have their own different variables, so i think i probably should make a different export function for each individual object i want to save?

or wait no

[deep idol]

That’s the point

You make a method per object type

In their create event

This is so you aren’t cluttering up your save/load logic with a bunch if/else or big switch for different objects

You just create an instance from the object and handle it with their import method

It keeps your code cleaner that way

[deep idol]

This export method would be for obj_alice, but obj_bob might need his hp variable for example

[mighty bison]

ahh wait i got it, so like...

export = function() {
     return {
          x: x,
          y: y,
          image_index: image_index,
      };

//then inside the save data script:

with(living object) {
var _saveData = {
   obj: obj_name,
   data: export(),
}
 // push
};

that yeah?

[deep idol]

Yes

[mighty bison]

woohoo!

[deep idol]

Well, ofc obj_name being the objects name

import() is not much more complicated

import = function(_data) {
    x = _data.x;
    y = _data.y;
    image_index = _data.image_index;
}

And then on load, as you’re looping the array, you can do for example

with(instance_create_layer(0,0,"Instances", asset_get_index(__save[i].name))) {
     import(_save[i].data);
}

Many more things you can do to make it a bit more nicer

But that’s the general gist

[mighty bison]

i think i am getting the full picture now, but uhh... i am thinking that it would work like this:

export = function() {
     return {
          x: x,
          y: y,
          image_index: image_index,
      };
}

get_name = function(){
  return object_get_name(object_index);
}

import = function(_data) {
    x = _data.x;
    y = _data.y;
    image_index = _data.image_index;
}

//then inside the save data script:

with(living object) {
var _saveObjectData = {
   obj: get_name(),
   data: export(),
}
 array_push(_SaveLevelData, _SaveObjectData);
};

var _string = json_stringify(_SaveLevelData); 
    var _buffer = buffer_create(string_byte_length(_string) +1, buffer_fixed, 1); 
    buffer_write(_buffer, buffer_string, _string); 
    buffer_save(_buffer, "savedgame.save"); 
    buffer_delete(_buffer); 

//then the load script:
var _buffer = buffer_load( "savedgame.save"); 
var _string = buffer_read(_buffer, buffer_string); 
buffer_delete(_buffer);
var _loadData = json_parse(_string); 

var _loadEntity = array_pop(_loadData); 
  with(instance_create_layer(0,0,"Instances", asset_get_index(_loadEntity[i].obj))) {
       import(_LoadEntity[i].data);
  }

[deep idol]

The load portion would need to account for the whole array, since right now it’s only popping off 1 entry

But otherwise yes

(Also export is missing a right curtly brace)

The other thing to consider as well, this assumes that the loading script is at some point dealing with the instances that do already exist within the room (otherwise you’re making additional instances on top of the existing ones)

[mighty bison]

oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out, i fixed it now.

[mighty bison]

well i had already made that measure because i have the code part in loading script that deletes the existing instances

[deep idol]

nods

[mighty bison]

this is a bit unrelated, but would there be even easier way to save game data sometime in gamemaker's future? like in new updates and such?

like something that wouldn't require deleting existing instances and being able to load data into those existing instances?

[deep idol]

There are solutions you can apply now, but admittedly they aren’t the best. Especially if you’re adjusting where instance positions are in the room editor a lot

But you can save the xstart/ystart variables at the root of the struct (not data), and instead of destroying every single instance and replacing it with a new one

You check if there’s an object type that matches the same xstart/ystart.

And then you can call their import function instead

The xstart/ystart is the least work

[mighty bison]

ahh alright, that seems to be very interesting, also, destroying instances is kinda a problem because some objects in my game have a event that does something whenever they're destroyed, like spawning a coin, or spawning a powerup

and if i destroy that means they will spawn them even though that theoretically they shouldn't when we're loading them

[deep idol]

Instance destroy has an argument that can avoid that

[pale mango]

instance_destroy

You call this function whenever you wish to "destroy" an instance, normally triggering a Destroy Event and also a Clean Up Event. This will remove it from the room until the room is restarted (unless the room is persistent). Calling the function with no arguments will simply destroy the instance that is currently in scope and running the code, but you can provide an optional "id" argument and target a specific instance by using the instance id value, or you can target all instances of a particular object by using an object_index. For example:

Arguments
id: OPTIONAL The instance ID to destroy, or the object asset to destroy instances of (optional, default is the calling instance)
execute_event_flag: OPTIONAL Set to true or false to perform the Destroy event or not (optional, default is true)

Mar 11, 2025, 10:39 AM

[deep idol]

If you set the second argument to false, it skips the Destroy event

[mighty bison]

ahhh

thats awesome

glad that feature exists!

[deep idol]

[mighty bison]

okay so i was able to make so that all the objects that i saved to use the get_name function and the "export()" function, i am now at the load script and i now i wonder: what should i write in the place of the [i] in the part of _loadEntity variable?

is it "get_name"? like...
_loadEntity[get_name]
this? or something else needs to be wrotten in place of [i]?

[mighty bison]

ok maybe later, i will come back to this post sometime later again

[deep idol]

Why does it say 84 fields omitted?

What are you exporting

[deep idol]

Better question, do you need to change it?

[mighty bison]

Well i was wondering what the [i] part meant from your own code, i thought it was some sort of additional piece of code

[deep idol]

I made an assumption based on an array loop

I think you can figure that out

[mighty bison]

Player's important variables. I know exactly why i am exporting all these out.

Dont worry about it okay? There are reasons why. I just cant really explain it in english to you. But just know that i know what i am doing.

[deep idol]

I don't think a ping reply is needed every time

Maybe I want an explanation before proceeding

Unless you prefer to not get help

[mighty bison]

Sorry its sometimes a habit for me to ping. But listen, those variables i export they're needed for the player's states, although, i could remove some of these variables if they turn out to be not needed, i am just a type of guy that would have wanted to take into account everything necessary for the safety.

[deep idol]

Do you take account for all built in variables too?

Not trying to say what you're saving isn't wrong, but I think it's good to evaluate what you need, and what you can just recreate

If it's data that you're saving that the player will have when you create an instance of them, then you don't need it

If it's state specific variables that are like timers and such

Then I could say saving them is worthwhile

You can be that type of guy sure, but also saving everything is bad for not just serializing/deserializing nightmares, but also because it's a bunch of unnecessary data taking up space you don't need

[mighty bison]

Yes. Well i could just go and check the code, again, if the variables i have dont ever actually change in the game.

And i could remove them

[deep idol]

I'm just saying haha

It's better to make sure that stuff you don't need to be saved, that can be recreated on import, is definitely doable

[mighty bison]

Right, but be rest assured i can check what i actually need or not. I can figure that out myself, i do remember a couple of things that dont change at all

[deep idol]

nods

[mighty bison]

hey tabby fax, i wanna show this but i got this error when i tried loading the assets into the game, it says it cant find the object with grabbed variable at the load script, i removed the part with [i] to see if it would work just fine without it and it seems like it cant?

and if i try using the [get_name] part after the _loadEntity, i get this error instead:

[deep idol]

Okay, just to double clarify

Do you understand completely where a method is stored?

[deep idol]

Also the error here was that _data was trying to reference a non-struct

(Could be also that grabbed wasn't exported, but hard to tell)

[deep idol]

But seriously do confirm this first

[mighty bison]

its stored here in appdata local folder in game's folder?

[deep idol]

Nope

Try again

[mighty bison]

inside the object's function in create event?

[deep idol]

Correct

Does it exist outside of that object?

[mighty bison]

oh wait, yes, it does

[deep idol]

Does it actually?

[deep idol]

If no instance of that object exists

Does it actually exist?

If you want a genuine answer

[mighty bison]

no

[deep idol]

Correct

get_name is a variable

[mighty bison]

its a function

[deep idol]

Nope

It's an instance variable, that holds onto a method

It. Does. Not. Exist. Globally.

Getting that out of the way

[deep idol]

This is also wrong

_loadEntity[get_name] is not needed

None of that is

Just _loadEntity.data

My suspicion is that one of your export methods happen to not be returning a struct

So that's why it's throwing an error on import

[mighty bison]

right, i removed that from import and export function, removed the old .save file and made a new one then i re-entered the level, and it now works just fine!

i tested the stuff out it all works just how it should, although now we would need to make a saving hierarchy system for separate rooms so that the game doesnt load the game state that i saved from other rooms and only loads the state that i saved in the room i saved it in

and how can we do that?

[mighty bison]

cause i know that the save and load function we made only saves and loads general stuff, it wont account for other rooms and it will think of all of them as the same room and attempt to load stuff i saved from other room even though the assets the other room has are different.

so how do we make it save and load stuff for separate rooms then?

[deep idol]

I can give you some ideas on where to take it from there

How familiar are you with structs as a whole?

[mighty bison]

i am half familiar with it, i sorta know what they are, like... for certain functions, but dont know them in-depth

[deep idol]

nods that's all good

We know that a struct is basically a very light weight object by comparison, just a container for variables

person = {
  name: "Alice",
  age: 27
};

show_debug_message(person.name);

So within reason, they can only follow variable defining rules

...However, there is one exception to that rule

Structs come with a ton of functionality, some that allow you to get/set from a struct, bypassing conventional rules

person = {};
person[$ "name"] = "Alice";
person[$ "age"] = 27;

show_debug_message(person[$ "name"]);

Keep in mind, it's pretty much the same as doing

person = {};
person.name = "Alice";
person.age = 27;

show_debug_message(person.name);

Except it's utilising what is known as the struct accessor (which is in of itself a supplement of struct_get/struct_get)

Why I bring this up, is because unlike the dot operator, the struct accessor lets you define things that aren't normally apart of a variable

But also can take in any string

Which means

// Defining a global room save struct in some script
global.saveData = {
  rooms: {},
};

global.saveData[$ room_get_name(rm_test_game)] = {};

The same as doing

// Defining a global room save struct in some script
global.saveData = {
  rooms: {},
};

struct_set(global.saveData, room_get_name(rm_test_game), {});

And you can fetch it t oo

show_debug_message(global.saveData[$ room_get_name(rm_test_game)]);

or

show_debug_message(struct_get(global.saveData, room_get_name(rm_test_game)));

Going with that, this means that you can save your data per room, and assign that data to the current room, to global.saveData

Then save global.saveData as a json file

On load, you would convert it back into a struct, and then fetch the current room, via room_get_name(room), and the struct accessor

And then you can point to the current room you wish to load in

https://manual.gamemaker.io/monthly/en/GameMaker_Language/GML_Overview/Accessors.htm

I suggest taking a read on struct accessors here if you want anymore information

Or using these functions when it comes to interacting with structs, if it makes it easier for you

[pale mango]

struct_set

With this function you can set the value of a given variable in a struct. You supply the struct reference as well as the name of the variable to set the value of as a string (see example code below), and then finally the value to set (can be any valid data type). If the variable does not exist already in the struct it will be created and then assigned the value.

Arguments
struct: The struct reference to set
name: The name of the variable to set (as a string)
val: The value to set the variable to

Mar 12, 2025, 12:56 AM

struct_get

This function gets the value from a given named variable within a struct.

Arguments
struct: The struct reference to use
name: The name of the variable to get (as a string)

Mar 12, 2025, 12:56 AM

[deep idol]

As well as this, just to check if some room exists on save/load

[pale mango]

struct_exists

This function checks whether a variable exists within the given struct or not. You supply the struct reference to use as well as the variable name to check for as a string (see example code below). The function will return true if a variable with the given name exists for the struct and false otherwise.

Arguments
struct: The struct reference to check
name: The name of the struct variable to check for (as a string)

Mar 12, 2025, 12:56 AM

[mighty bison]

ohhhh nice, i will try to read them when i can, i need to go and eat some breakfast and stuff, i will get back later!

[mighty bison]

ok so i read about what the structs are and decided to see if putting global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(ROOM NAME HERE)]
in array_push is a correct way of assigning the data to the current room, and the gamemaker doesnt give any errors of it being a wrong way of indexing it in feather messages, so... am i assigning it correctly?

and... if i am assigning the data to multiple rooms, do i have to go like...

array_push(global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(ROOM NAME 2)], SavePlayerEntity);
array_push(global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(ROOM NAME 3)], SavePlayerEntity);

?

[uneven moss]

no cuz these are structs not arrays

{} is a struct

[mighty bison]

Hmm... how do i assign the data to the rooms then?

[uneven moss]

yes you do

is global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(ROOM NAME 3)] supposed to be a struct or array

[mighty bison]

No i am asking you how to assign the data to the rooms

[uneven moss]

i know

[uneven moss]

answer this sun

the [$ room_get_name(..}] stuff is correct

your code is not, because you're inconsistent in whether global.SaveRoomData [$ room_get_name(..}] is a struct or array

[mighty bison]

Its not an array, its a struct, yes

[uneven moss]

then you can't use array_push

[uneven moss]

is it supposed to be a struct

not global.SaveRoomData

global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(...)]

the thing you're array_push-ing to

maybe, it is supposed to be an array, and array_push is correct

you tell me

[mighty bison]

The one with dollar sign and room get name is... yeah not a struct, it only gets the name of the room

[deep idol]

The value that the struct is holding is a struct

Not an array

That’s what your code has

If you want to treat it like an array, you gotta define it as an array

Not a struct

Again, my code is purely an example

Need to differ/write comments/use that scratch pad project whenever you are stuck or confused @mighty bison

Path of least pain

[mighty bison]

Alright. But i kind of dont have the time to make a separate project just to test it. I wanna test stuff on the fly and wanna get stuff done sooner

[deep idol]

You’re gonna have to make time

Not an excuse

[uneven moss]

done sooner
why the rush

this isn't a game jam you've been working on this for ages

[mighty bison]

Well unfortunately i have the life made in a way that i need to be almost always on the move as i would soon need to go to university in a different country as i want to move out from country i live in due to the worsening life conditions and have to do chores like cleaning snow outside because of my region being located in arctic/russian far east (yes, its real, i am not making this up in the slightest, i am telling the truth)

[deep idol]

Sun, going to be completely honest

I don’t care

That’s an excuse

That hurts your learning, and not something I or anyone has to deal with

[uneven moss]

is the 30 minutes of your time to go to a separate project and test stuff out gonna throw a monkey wrench in that?

[deep idol]

So unfortunately, despite your circumstances, you will have to find some time to sit down and work out a separate project

[mighty bison]

What does monkey wrench means?

[deep idol]

For testing and learning

[uneven moss]

ruin your plans

[mighty bison]

Somewhat yes, i had many times where spokes were put in my tires of the progress and i just really dont like when it happens suddenly (with me having no way of knowing that it would happen) and i want get stuff done as soon as possible to do anything else

[deep idol]

Here’s the deal sun

If you don’t do this

You prove to any programming-related jobs that you’re not fit for it

Because the sad truth is, this is one of the many programming critical skills

Being able to isolate and narrow down problems, and learning scope

This isn’t just for YOUR SAKE

This is literally a fundamental skill that every programmer should have

If you act like this in any professional environment, you’d be lucky if you even get a weeks notice after being fired

Rushing an entire game project, that you’re not even making a dime on

Isn’t going to magically make it better

So yes, you do need to slow down

You do need to break things down

[mighty bison]

Okay okay fine, i will do it. But, would i have to delete the test projects everytime i get something tested working fine?

[deep idol]

And not jam everything you find into a project

[deep idol]

Put it on GitHub

It’s on GitHub

You can delete it safely

And pull/look at GitHub online if you ever need to refer to it

As simple as that

[mighty bison]

Still cant believe i have to make entire separate projects just to test something, it just didn't felt like fun doing it. You know?

[deep idol]

We all gotta do it

Especially in a professional job

Especially when you are on said professional job and you’re learning something brand new

It helps break it down tremendously

[uneven moss]

so here's what happens if you jam all your learning into one project:

you never ever start out doing something the first time well. so you keep it, but then later you want to add to it and you have no idea what's going on or how because the code is bad.
so you're spending time figuring out what the hell beginner you was doing + trying to find ways to make the new thing you want to add to work with the old thing
and then rinse and repeat

this is technical debt. and you have ALOT of it if your first and only project is your final project

i was telling you how your state machine was spaghetti and fundamentally flawed

this is an example of that

you're making it take longer to develop your game, by trying to rush everything early on

[mighty bison]

I havent seen any other way of making a state machine. The only one i seen was from... sara spalding's tutorial i think and it worked fine for me

[uneven moss]

there are many many ways of making a state machine

and your spaghetti state machine is just an example

[deep idol]

Also

If you think doing that is boring

Imagine working on a programming job and you’re dealing with boring tasks

We don’t get to always decide “maaan I don’t like this, it’s boring, I’m doing something else”

❌

You’ll get fired for not doing your work

Jobs aren’t going to be super merciful and let you get away with things

That’s just reality

If you can’t handle working with breaking stuff you’re trying to learn in programming, into smaller projects or even tests

Then programming is the wrong choice for you

And you’re much better off finding another career

[mighty bison]

Hey I just wanted to say this earlier, but if i am not gonna respond now, then i am working outside as i just went to go and cleaning snow as i have to finish my task my dad told me.

I will read all of this later

[uneven moss]

you've been in the help channels for however long sun
and we've just kept telling you over and over and things haven't really changed, and you're still here struggling with stuff

like, we can accomodate slow learning or taking your time, but at some point there has to be something you can do to help yourself. if you're just doing the same thing over and over and over and you're not learning or you're not making progress, then it wouldn't make sense to not change, right?

i'm pretty sure the things we're saying right now aren't new

iono man
we want to help you, and we're saying this for your own good. but like, it gets frustrating if you just don't take our advice
after months and months of repeating ourselves

[mighty bison]

Hey i am back from cleaning snow outside, now for answers... ahem ahem...

[mighty bison]

Wellllll i somewhat did manage to do certain stuff on my own, i mean there was this one time i asked something in one of channels but then changed my mind because i figured it out on my own after tinkering with the thing i was trying to solve, and that project i had is a different smaller one different from one i usually develop and able to figure out the rest. I can try and figure out stuff on my own but i am just a bit afraid of making certain mistakes, its my intuition that tells me when it comes to certain parts i am having hard time figuring out. Now, i am not saying i have hard time with literally everything new, i can go silently figure stuff on my own if i was already familiar with something thats similar to what i did before. And i am gonna be honest, those years i spent on this project alone kinda were actually not full 5 real years (like working on the game every single day), these years were spent on anything else considering my time in studying in college and other tasks i had to do and my time for break.

[deep idol]

Mistakes are a natural process of learning, sun.

You can’t be afraid

If you are hand holded through every problem

And someone does the work for you on figuring things out

Do you actually learn anything?

Just going to answer for you. No, no you don’t.

And it’s clearly evident

This is also why you use a test project

A test project will let you make mistakes freely

Without breaking your project in half

It also gives you a point of reference when it comes to troubleshooting

Cause you know what does work

Also….

[deep idol]

I’ve been a cleaner for 8 years

Done school for nearly a good chunk of my life

And all during that time I’ve made several test projects

I didn’t get good at GameMaker by being on/off 1 singular project

Or 3

I have tons

Hundreds

Of test projects

You don’t gain 17+ years worth of knowledge by taking shortcuts

And keep in mind, I have a learning disability

It was hard

But nothing stops me from developing skills to get faster at learning

You gotta do the same

I say all of this

Because I have also worked on multiple games

Big and small

Behind NDA and not

[mighty bison]

hey sorry if i am gonna interrupt but i actually found a test project from 2 years ago i had that was used for move and collide function

i was using that to test if it was good for collision with slopes

i can just go and make test menu and make several rooms to test if saving in multiple rooms work

[deep idol]

Yes

Exactly

Do that every time you’re learning something new

And develop your own skills, your own system in learning and maintaining these things

Cause only you can do that

[mighty bison]

i am gonna go and quickly export some code from my main project to the test one and modify stuff so that things could save respective stuff from this test project itself

[mighty bison]

also i am gonna say this but... i am VERY grateful for my past self to have this old dusty test project lying around in my computer so i could quickly use it to test certain functions

i wish i could meet my past self and handshake him just for this very simple project alone as ANY form of small project is enough for me to just rapidly clone it for other testing purposes, i can save it as many other separate projects as i want and all will have different purpose for what they were testing

[mighty bison]

hey so i made several rooms, made export, get name, and import function for the player, gave the option to switch between rooms and saving the progress via pressing T button and made the corresponding save and load scripts that do same thing as one from my bigger project but having to only handle one object

i am testing the saving and loading function, i will report in in literally few seconds

[mighty bison]

yeah so here's results of the testing, save and loading works exactly as how it does from my bigger project, but just like the bigger project, it doesnt take to account the saving and loading for separate rooms

[mighty bison]

because when i try to switch between other rooms i get teleported to place i saved in room3, and doesnt distinguish other rooms

[mighty bison]

like for example on the 0:36 timestap where i switch to room1, i am not there anymore because i fell down as the game teleported me to place where i saved in room3

[mighty bison]

now, we need to do the room saving hierarchy, how we are gonna save the game progress in different rooms to avoid confusing the game where it should import the progress back in?

we were on the part where you, tabby fax told me that if i want the global.saveroomdata to be an array to be pushed, i need to make it to be one, right?

[deep idol]

Sun I’ve given you all that you need

I think it’s best for now you take some time learning

[mighty bison]

oh right, uhh

[deep idol]

The manual is your best friend

[mighty bison]

i am gonna go and tinker around with how i could make this thing save stuff in different rooms

[mighty bison]

okay so i decided to see what would happen if i use global.SaveRoomData = {}; instead of ```global.SaveRoomData = {
rooms: {},
};

and then instead of using multiple get names for actual rooms ```global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room1)] = {}``` use ```global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(room)] = _SaveLevelData;```, i saved the game, and it came with a debug message saying:
```game saved!{"Room3":[{"obj":"oPlayer","data":{"canJump":10.0,"x":448.0,"y":480.39981079101562,"image_blend":16777215.0,"grv":0.20000000000000001,"hsp":0.0,"image_index":0.0,"vsp":0.20000000000000001,"hspWalk":4.0,"vspJump":-5.0}}]}

i then decided to switch to another room and the game froze, i couldn't switch to any other room and i couldnt even quit to the main menu due to the appropriate room missing

i left the load script to be the same by the way, i didnt change anything in here

but since its now able to grab the name of the room, it appears that i am getting closer to what i want, i am gonna try to see what would happen if i define global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room1)] = {}; global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room2)] = {}; global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room3)] = {}; as global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room1)] = _SaveLevelData; global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room2)] = _SaveLevelData; global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(Room3)] = _SaveLevelData;
and then in load specify what room i wish to load the progress back in

[uneven moss]

ok sun, comment:

there's no point in doing room_get_name(Room1)

you already know the name of Room1

it's "Room1"

[mighty bison]

so then we just keep using the one with room_get_name(room) to generally save names of the rooms, alright...

[uneven moss]

room_get_name(room) is a more useful operation yes

[mighty bison]

alright then i guess i am going straight for the room loading specification to avoid confusing the game and leading to game freezing

[mighty bison]

ok so like, i figured out from manuals that i need to check if the struct i am using exists and check if its a struct, i now need to figure out how to fetch the current room since i am not using ```global.SaveRoomData = {
rooms: {},
};

in the save script
and only use ```global.SaveRoomData = {};```

[mighty bison]

wait i think i am now getting it, i need to check if the room i am currently in is "room 1" and then in import, i tell it to import the data in that room, like this?

[mighty bison]

i mean you said to fetch the current room via the room_get_name and the accessor... this is what popped off into my head... i am gonna try and make several of these and test if what i am thinking is true or not

[mighty bison]

wait hold up, malformed assignment? the import(_loadEntity.data) = global.SaveRoomData;
is not a correct way of pointing which room i want to load the progress back into?

then how do i point what room i want to load the progress back into?

[uneven moss]

backwards

global.SaveRoomData = import(_loadEntity.data)

[mighty bison]

right

thanks!

this is the moment of truth now, now i need to play and see how the save and loading works now...

[mighty bison]

ok so it turns out, it still makes the game freeze when i try to switch to other rooms, HOWEVER, it does not output the message of loading the progress.

[mighty bison]

Something is probably wrong with the code, but what exactly?

[uneven moss]

what is this code supposed to do

there's a difference between asking to get rid of an error
vs asking for getting code to work

there's no error, but does that code make sense?

[mighty bison]

to load back in the progress from its respective room?

[uneven moss]

more specifically

the entire function is to "load back in the progress from its respective room"

what are those 4 lines of code i showed you supposed to do

[mighty bison]

ah the codeblock?

okay welll....

[uneven moss]

this

[mighty bison]

it gets the asset index of the object i saved in the room previously, and creates it in a layer called "instances", then the struct gets the data imported from the saved object...

uhh yeah

it doesnt make sense

[uneven moss]

which part doesn't make sense

[mighty bison]

global.SaveRoomData = import(_loadEntity.data)

[uneven moss]

why do you think it doesn't make sense

[mighty bison]

because i am not actually pointing to a room i want it to be in

[uneven moss]

and
you're accessing a global variable. just as a whole

that global variable just gets overriden with import(...) for each entity

do you need global.SaveRoomData=?

[mighty bison]

no

[uneven moss]

what does import(_loadEntity.data) do

what is _loadEntity.data

[mighty bison]

that imports the data from the saved object data i saved from the room, and the import function, in turn, is a struct of the _data. variables of the object in its create event

[uneven moss]

sun i want you to think about it for yourself
these are guiding questions

[mighty bison]

well ok, so using global.SaveRoomData is a bust because i was not pointing to the room at all, instead, i made it get overriden with import function that imports the variables from objects which essentially pours all the variables into basically... nothing at all

[uneven moss]

ok so my one big tip and last thing for today is

if you're working with data, you need to be absolutely crystal clear 1. how that data is structured, and 2. what that data is supposed to contain

like absolutely clear

so if i ask you what does global.SaveRoomData contain, you should be able to tell me exactly what it is, and what it contains

or what it should contain

no touchy code

because if you don't get your data straight, you will be very very lost

and you can't just like
throw stuff at a wall til it sticks

that's not how this works

you need to sit down and re-evaluate your code and think

[mighty bison]

alright so looking back at the global.SaveRoomData, on what it contains, it says that it omitted 1 field, but doesnt say what that is, it doesnt even mention _saveleveldata. And i remember few things, one, the SaveRoomData is supposed to contain names of the rooms i tell it to when i press the save button

and two, its also used to tell which room i am pointing it at

which... gasp, wait a minute...

i am already pointing it which room i am telling it to load stuff into???

[mighty bison]

but when i try to save and then load, it still leads to the game freeze which gives me suspicion that i maybe didnt even fetch the current room i was in correctly at all...

[uneven moss]

this line of code makes no sense

i can tell you don't really have a grasp of how your data is structured

[mighty bison]

yeah, i now see that it is wrong, alright well lets see this from the matryoshka within matryoshka perspective alright, from save script, what i first make? an array for saveleveldata, then i make a global struct named "SaveRoomData", and after i make instance looping code, i make SaveRoomData grab the name of the room and put it inside _SaveLevelData, i stringify it, put it into json, then in load script, i check if "savedgame.save" exists, i then convert the buffer from savedgame.save file which contains saveleveldata array, turns it into a struct, i check if struct global.SaveRoomData exist and if it's a struct, then i override global.SaveRoomData with room1 even though its supposed to contain data of the stuff i saved in the rooms, tell it to recreate the saved objects and import their variables

[mighty bison]

yeah i misunderstood tabby fax's instructions, they told me to assign the data to the current room after they said i can save my data per room

[mighty bison]

soooooo what should we do? do we begin again from the top?

i mean... from what i know from manuals, the global.SaveRoomData i made is a struct, which is a container for variables...

and it contains the variables that were previously mentioned, say, i mentioned a variable called health inside the "obj_person" object, then i define it in a struct like

{
  health : health
} 

and that creates an instance scope struct in the variable person_status_struct

[mighty bison]

and the variables can then be added to this struct at a later point

and they can be added afterwards with a dot operator or (an accessor)

which can be... person_status_struct[$ "wellbeing"] = health

so then wait... i think that when i made ```global.SaveRoomData[$ room_get_name(room)] = _SaveLevelData;

i literally told it to ```
global.SaveRoomData = {
  (get name of the room) : _SaveLevelData
}

and that same _SaveLevelData contains:

  obj: Obj_Player
  //the objects variables()
}

so i am telling this SaveRoomDatastruct to get the name of the room, access the level data, and that contains arrays of the objects saved in the room... huh...

[mighty bison]

so if this is the case, what am i actually doing wrong with my save script here?

[mighty bison]

am i containing the wrong data for the room? like not the actual room?

ohhhhh man... this is confusing...