Getting Started

Introduction

The purpose of this tool is to provide a simple way to manage saves and user settings in your project. Once you understand the basics, you can very easily integrate it into your games.

Installation

Download the latest release from GitHub or Itch.io. In GameMaker, go to Tools > Import Local Package and select the downloaded .yymps file.

You'll see two folders: SSave and Demo. The demo includes a demonstration of the SSave system in use, if you aren't going to try it out, you only need to import the SSave folder.

Setting Up a SaveFile Class

Create a new script and inside it, add this code:

function SaveFile() : SSave("save") constructor {
    add_value("points", SSAVE_TYPE.REAL, 0);
}

This creates a new save file class that contains a points value. The "save" argument in the SSave("save") constructor is the name of the file that gets saved to disk. For example, this will save to save.ssave. You can leave out this argument, in which case it will default to data.ssave.

When creating save classes, you need to extend the SSave class. This is so you can call the add_value() method within it's constructor.

Working With the SaveFile Class

Setup

Before we start, create a new object and add this code to it:

Create Event

points = 0;

// we will define these functions later
Save = function() { };
Load = function() { };

Load();

Step Event

if (keyboard_check_pressed(vk_space)) {
    points += 1;
}

if (mouse_check_button_pressed(mb_left)) {
    Save();
}

if (mouse_check_button_pressed(mb_right)) {
    Load();
}

Draw Event

draw_text(0, 0, $"Points: {points}");

Now that we have this basic object set up, we can begin implementing the Save and Load functions.

Saving and Loading

When accessing save files, you have two options: manually creating save instances or allowing the SSaveManager to handle it for you.

Here I will cover how to use the manager, as it greatly simplifies the process of managing your saves. If you want to see an example of how to manage saves manually, check out this example.

Create Event

Save = function() {
    var _save = ssave_get(SaveFile);
    _save.set("points", points);
    _save.save();
}

Load = function() {
    var _save = ssave_get(SaveFile);
    points = _save.get("points");
}

The bread-and-butter of this code is the ssave_get() function, which retrieves a persistent instance of the SaveFile class. If it has not yet been loaded, it will automatically do so. If there is no file on disk to load, the class will just have the default values.

Once you've called ssave_get() for the first time, the save class will be stored inside of the manager. Subsequent calls to ssave_get() will return this same instance, allowing you efficiently access and modify the save data from anywhere in your code without needing to load the file each time.

Multiple Saves

What if we want to have multiple slots of SaveFile? This is where the filePrefix argument comes in.

Right now, our save file is reading and writing to save.ssave. If we set filePrefix to 1, it would read and write to 1save.ssave.

Using this, we can modify our Save and Load functions to treat the filePrefix as a slot index:

Create Event

slotIndex = 0;

Save = function() {
    var _save = ssave_get(SaveFile, slotIndex);
    _save.set("points", points);
    _save.save();
}

Load = function() {
    var _save = ssave_get(SaveFile, slotIndex);
    points = _save.get("points");
}

SetSlotIndex = function(_slotIndex) {
    Save(); // save the current slot before changing
    slotIndex = _slotIndex;
    Load(); // load the new slot
}

Load();

Note: you can use any string or number as a prefix.

And in our step event let's listen for keys 0-9 to change the slot index:

Step Event

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    if (keyboard_check_pressed(ord(string(i)))) {
        SetSlotIndex(i);
        break;
    }
}

// rest of the code remains the same

Chaining Functions

SSave functions can be chained together for convenience. We could update the Save function to look like this:

Create Event

Save = function() {
    ssave_get(SaveFile, slotIndex)
        .set("points", points)
        .save();
}

If you're unsure which functions can be chained, take a look at the return type of functions in the SSave section.

Conclusion

You should now be able to save via the left mouse button and load via the right mouse button. The points should increase when you press space. You can save to 10 different slots, and if you close and reopen the game your points will persist.