Savegames

Aaah savegames… Without them it’s impossible to go through the whole game. In this post I will explain the internal format and the data used in these savegames.

The format

This format can be represented by a json struture, here is an example, a lot of data have been removed to make it clear:

{
  "actors": {
    "bankmanager": {
      "_costume": "BankMgrAnimation",
      "_dir": 2,
      "_lockFacing": 0,
      "_pos": "{541,61}",
      "_roomKey": "Bank",
      "defaultVerb": 3,
      "detective": 0,
      "dialog": null,
      // ...
    },
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "callbacks": [
      {
        "function": "analyticsCallback",
        "guid": 8000217,
        "time": 29920
      }
    ],
    "nextGuid": 8000218
  },
  "currentRoom": "TrailerAlley",
  "dialog": {
    "#ChetAgentStreetDialog14reyes": 2,
    // ...
  },
    "easy_mode": 0,
  "gameGUID": "",
  "gameScene": {
    "actorsSelectable": 1,
    "actorsTempUnselectable": 0,
    "forceTalkieText": 0,
    "selectableActors": [
      {
        "_actorKey": "ray",
        "selectable": 1
      },
      // ...
    ]
  },
  "gameTime": 29738,
  "globals": {
    "abducted_agent": {
      "_actorKey": "ray"
    },
    "abducted_agent_seen": 1,
    "act1": 0,
    // ...
      },
  "inputState": 101,
  "inventory": {
    "slots": [
      {
        "jiggle": [
          1,
          0,
          0,
          0,
          0,
          0,
          0,
          0
        ],
        "objects": [
          "raysBadge",
          "raysNotebook",
          "countyMap1",
          "cellPhone",
          "fingerprintKit",
          "speckOfDustRay",
          "rayHotelKeycard",
          "pillowTronTool"
        ],
        "scroll": 0
      },
      // ...
    ]
  },
  "objects": {
    "aStreetArcadeDoorWF": {
      "flags": 1073742912,
      "name": "@29000"
    },
  },
  "rooms": {
    "AStreet": {
      "background": "AStreet",
      "speck_of_dust": 1,
      "speck_of_dust_collected": 1
    },
  },
  "savebuild": 0,
  "savetime": 1587988116,
  "selectedActor": "ransome",
  "version": 2
}

Actors

For each actor the properties are saved, there are 2 types of properties:

• internal properties: costume, direction, position, they starts with an underscore
• script properties: defaultVerb, detective, dialog

Callbacks

Callbacks are functions that can be called at a certain time of the game. These callbacks are added from a script file, for example:

addCallback(60*5, analyticsCallback)

With this example:

"callbacks": {
  "callbacks": [
    {
        "function": "closeElevatorDelay",
        "guid": 8000036,
        "param": 5,
        "time": 15186
      }
  ],
  "nextGuid": 8000218
},

• function: name of the function to call when time is elapsed
• param: optional parameter given to the function when it is called
• guid: unique identifier of the callback
• time: time in ms to wait before calling the callback
• nextGuid: specify the identifier to use for the next callback

Dialogs

As you know, we have to save the state of the dialogs in order to know what choices have been displayed or chosen.

This state is described like this:

"dialog": {
    "#ChetAgentStreetDialog14reyes": 2,
    // ...
  },

Each line corresponds to a condition of a dialog, the format can be described like this: "[mode][dialog_name][line_number][actor]": [value]

• mode: mode is one of the following value: ?: once #: showonce &: onceever $: showonceever ^: temponce

• dialog_name: name of the dialog file without extension
• line_number: line number where the condition has been met in the dialog file
• actor: actor’s key indicating which actor is used in this dialog
• value: don’t know yet :(