Making a Two Act/Episodic Game

Hi, I might need Ashley 's help for this one, though anyone with experience on the matter will be very helpful!

So I'm seriously considering splitting a current game I'm working on into two acts, much like Broken Age or Broken Sword 5.

I've made a small test project to ensure that completely new objects added to a new version of a game can be loaded from an old version's save state. It seems to be working well. I just want to be sure that a bigger and more complex game will not have any unforeseen problems when loading a state from a much older version of the game.

I have no intentions of changing the game's first act after it is published, but the second act might include returning to locations from the first act, but with new objects in the locations.

I just wanted to double check before I fully committed to this idea, thanks!

The savegame system is not designed to work between different projects. I'd recommend simply making it all part of the same project, or come up with your own way of passing shared data between two separate projects using something like WebStorage or something server-side.

The savegame system is not designed to work between different projects. I'd recommend simply making it all part of the same project, or come up with your own way of passing shared data between two separate projects using something like WebStorage or something server-side.

Sorry if I wasn't too clear, I do intend to make it all part of the same project. If the game is on Steam, for example, when the second act is released an update will simply overwrite the existing game data (Act 1) with the newer version of the game (Act 1+2). The newer version will contain all the content from the first act, along with new scenes, objects, audio etc. for the remainder of the game. Do you foresee any problems loading the older save from the newer version, or should it be smooth sailing?

I think it should be fine, providing you basically are only adding, not changing or removing the old content. Then after your update to add a new section, loading an existing savegame is basically the same as loading it in the old game then simply proceeding to a new section.

That makes sense, thanks ashley, this is going to make things a lot easier!