Demo Transfer Data

In about a week or two I plan to release a demo for one of my games, and I was wondering if there was a way for me to incorparate a save transfer from the demo to the full game in some way. What I mean by this is when the Player completes the demo, they are able to transfer the demo save to the full game. Is there anyway to do this, or will the player have to start again?

If you would use the same save files (meaning the things saved into the save file made in the demo is the same as those that will be saved on the finished game), then he can just use the old save files into the finished game (via copy pasting the files from the demo into the folder of the finished game)...


They would only need to make a new one in case you add/remove things to be saved between the demo and the finished version (which wouldn't happen unless ur editing the save file creation/loading). Some scripts add things to the save file, so make sure that all scripts that you want to use is already in the demo so that it won't cause problems.

If you use something like an AppData save script (Shaz has a good one, free for commercial) then it will automatically pick up save files from the demo.  What you have to ensure is that between the demo and the full game you don't add things which cause the full game to crash.  A good example is a new script which often requires the player to start from New Game as the script is not part of the saved data.

So basically, I send out the full game but restrict some parts of the game with events? But what if the player goes in the project and gets rid of the events by going in to the project? How would I stop that?

You don't need the full game itself, as long as you save the same data that's enough... By same data, I mean same data types (like if in the demo you only save actor data, then on the final game you should also only be saving actor data), not same data as in like the actor database only have 3 actors on demo then the finished game should also have 3.. Also as ksjp said, some scripts doesn't work on save files made before adding them (a lot of yanfly's for example is guilty of this) so better make sure that all scripts that you want is already there on the demo.


To disallow them to modify the data easily, encrypt the game...


Anyway, basically, unless you have any of these things, the demo data should be transferrable:


1) Scripts that modify the amount of data saved (added after the demo)


2) Scripts that don't work on saved files made before the script was added (again, added after demo)


Also, you might not want to modify the already made database objects on the demo as that might look weird to the player.

So have everything in the database the same, your saying? I think I get it now. Thanks.

Not really too... You can modify them though modifying the data already there during the demo might look weird to the player... Some changes might not reflect though like modifying the name of the actors in case they're already on the party I think


The only thing that should remain the same just to make the save files transferable would be which data is saved... You can look at DataManager script to see which data is saved into the save file. All you need to ensure is that you don't modify that list either via directly modifying the DataManager or implementing new scripts that modify that list. Plus the thing that ksjp said about some scripts not working on saved files made before they were added.


You can try it yourself, make a save file, then edit some of the database entries and see if you can still load the data.

Finally I get it. Sorry it took me so long to understand, I'm kind of new.

If ur not really putting any custom script or modifying the default ones (especially after the demo is released), then you should be free of worries. XD