Game Progression: The Power to Save

The power to save progress in a game is quite astonishing. Many of us may take it for granted, but this is a significant piece in some of our games today. Otherwise our progression would be slowed (exception: unless you can beat the game all in one day!).

Different types of saving options:

Games with saving options (players have some control)

Many games have saving options. These options are put in place, so that the player can choose how they want to save the game. Manual and automatic are the saving options. One might ask, “What is the point of having both options to save?” Well if a game gives the player options to save, it makes the player seem in control. It is almost the same as changing controls on the control screen.

Manually saving: This option gives the player complete control on which areas of the game to save. Sometimes this option may be quite beneficial.

Automatic saving: This option gives the player the ability to let the game save by itself in specific areas.

Automatic and manual saving (Combination): This option gives the player unlimited control on whether to save the game automatic and manually.

Games with no saving option (players have no control)

Many games have no saving options. This is sometimes put in place because the game is prebuilt in a way that prohibits the player from controlling the games structure. For most games, it is not important to let the player control saving, so they establish one saving type in place.

Manual save: Some games have manually save as their main core and cannot be changed.

Automatic save: Some games have automatic save as their main core and cannot be changed.

Breaking the save

I am probably not the first one to do this, but there have been times where I have tried to “break” the save. For example, let us say that RetroNuclei (a made up game for example purposes) gives me the option to manual save and automatically save. After completing a big part in the game it would save automatically. Then in-between parts I would manually save, thinking that it would save that progress as well. This is usually a fail, because the game will only allow the automatic save to dictate where saving should occur. Unfortunately for me if I died, I would have to start off where my last big save was.