Hello all of you out there in the great big (little) world!
So this is a continuation of the last post titled: How to use saves and checkpoints in the best way! Dissecting Games!
Many games have an auto save or save when you want feature. But truth be told save locations are part of level design and there is a purpose for their locations. When I say save locations I mean places where the game will autosave or where you have something to interact with to save or the spawn location for when you restart the game later. So let’s talk about a few different styles for saves: There is the save anywhere any time, time based autosave, location based autosave, location manual save (interact with object or person to save), conditional saves and conditional auto save.
So you must be thinking what’s the big difference between normal saves and auto saves?
Well with auto saves you know all your progress is being kept up to date for you, on the fly! I know I know fancy right? So I guess normal saves are manually triggered and aren’t as fancy? Yeah one sounds better than the other, but one or the other may not always be best. Auto saves are nice because it lets you play worry free not having to forget to save or having to worry about checkpoints. A problem is that you don’t always notice when the game auto saves and you lose track of how far back it is that you will respawn or start up up the game next time. You think it may be when you entered this town but nope it's 15 mins worth of gameplay back. The other gives you more control you can say when you want it saved and in most cases where (either specific save location or the any where any time) and the security of knowing where and when.
BUT like I said they aren’t perfect for everything. Some games need a specific style.
But I’m going to stick to save points mainly because in most games today save points are your checkpoints.
A save system is more than just saving a game, it adds a lot of depth and emotion for the player.
IT IS A RISK REWARD SYSTEM!
In a game which uses save/auto save locations as its primary or only saving function you have, this is a big part of the level design. The placement of these is crucial. Now the difficulty has to be looked at. If the game is hard you may want to have the save locations spread out as this adds a sense of tension and need to survive. That is one thing but now you have to take into account learning! Do you want to have them set far enough back that they have the knowledge of what is to come so they can practice and try to learn something new till they beat it or do you have it so they get set back with the chance to get to where they need with more health and mana/ammo because they know what to do better now? You can set it closer to where they have to go, for example outside a room with a lot of enemies or before a boss battle, leaving out tedious journeys. But now you have an issue. If they fail and respawn do you let them respawn with the stats they had going in the first time or do you refill their life and rest of the stats?
There is a risk reward system to it. If you set it further back they get to learn and have to fight harder, there is a bigger risk of the amount of time on any one part and the challenge of the area it self, so you must have a good reward, where is the next save point? Is it right after the hardship or is it further down the line but they get a cool upgrade? You need to consider the risks of where they are and the payoff for the players hard work.
With the save any where any time there really isn’t much of a risk or reward system to it. But there are risks! As a player they may not see an enemy or a game object about to one shot kill them ( or anything to hinder the play progression) but they save right before the hindrance and now when they load the game they die/fail basically instantly in this loop of spawn then death. So you need to have a way to balance this. Fallout 4 does this in a way I like. You get one quick save slot which means you can save at a terrible spot and have this loop or make something incredibly hard now. BUT they have 3 - 5 auto save slots for you which are incremented so you can load a save further back if need be, also they have the manual save any where any time method which you can have unlimited slots for your increments. This was a good way to balance it because it gives a fair amount of control but also may be a setback if you're relying on auto saves and quick save for they may not be in the best locations or timing.
We also have conditional saves. By this I mean when the game asks you to save after a level, cutscene, bosses, etc. These are triggered events not so much needing the right level, or items, but by advancing the story or mission, or travelling. These are more prominent in linear based games or some RPGs. You can use these to break up the story and give the player a chance to put the game down to be picked up again later. Red Steel did a bad job with this at one point. I had to pick a load out before going to the mission. I forgot to go get a load out and entered the mission. The game had a conditional auto save with no increments. So I entered the mission with no weapons, unable to defeat an enemy and pick up their weapon without being gunned down in the process. This leaves me 2 options: keep trying till I get it but may never get it, or restart the game from the beginning because I had no way of going back. So needless to say the game got shelved and has not been picked up again (this was many years ago but still left a sour spot for me).
I don’t want this to get much longer so I am going to try and do a good conclusion so it isn’t a TLDR (Too long didn’t read) article.
In the end you have to look at what system works best for your game and why. The save anytime anywhere works good for games like Fallout and Deus Ex because they are open world games, progression based off of player decision and multiple ways of doing tasks. The conditional saves work good for story based RPGs and shooters like Call of duty, once all the bad guys are defeated and you reach point B the game will save and you will be ready to go to point C. The location system works well in adventure games, you walk into a town or different area and you get a save point so you can start at the beginning of that area.
These system can work good together if done right.
Also you have to consider the RISK AND REWARD of where these save prompts are. Will your character go through repetition hell or will they learn and adapt? Will it be a challenge or can they go about it in different ways? Once they succeed what is their prize? A cut scene, dialogue bite, a checkpoint/save point, upgrade? You have to keep a certain amount of challenge without it becoming too hard or boring, and you need a reward for your player so they feel they have accomplished something, they have won something, this keeps their mood up wanting more, keeps the player interested.
These are not things that are easily crafted but can make a game worse or better.
I hope this was interesting to you all and have a wonderful day/evening!
BYEEEEE :)