Custom Location¶

By default, Game Creator saves games using the Player Prefs built-in system. However, although this solution is cross-platform and will work for most users, some might prefer to sync their saves with an online database or use a different system than Unity's PlayerPrefs.

Here we will explore how easy it is to extend the save location.

TDataStorage class¶

To create a custom save location, one must create a class that inherits from the abstract class TDataStorage, which contains all the necessary methods to store game information.

Let's create our storage location class called StorageMyDB.cs:

[Title("My Online Database")]
[Category("My Online Database")]

[Image(typeof(IconDiskSolid), ColorTheme.Type.TextLight)]
[Description("Stores the data in a custom database location")]

[Serializable]
public class MyOnlineDatabase: TDataStorage
{
    public async override Task DeleteAll()
    {
        // ...
    }

    public async override Task DeleteKey(string key)
    {
        // ...
    }

    public async override Task<bool> HasKey(string key)
    {
        // ...
    }

    public async override Task<object> Get(string key, Type type)
    {
        // ...
    }

    public async override Task Set(string key, object value)
    {
        // ...
    }

    public async override Task Commit()
    {
        // ...
    }
}

The Title and Description attributes allow to define the name and give a brief description of what this storage does, so it can be easily identified when choosing it from the Setting's dropdown menu.

The Image attribute determines the visual icon from the dropdown menu. We recommend using the disk icon and only change the color.

The Category attribute determines the location in the dropdown menu.

The TDatabaseStorage class has a collection of abstract methods that need to be overridden and implemented in order to use the custom storage.

• DeleteAll: Is used to erase all information stored.
• DeleteKey: Is used when deleting a single entry in the database.
• HasKey: Returns true or false depending on whether the database has a field with that key name.
• Get: Returns the contents of the database field with the specified key name.
• Set: Sets the new value on the database with the specified key name.
• Commit: Only used when setting multiple values on a database is very slow. The commit is always called after a batch of data is send to be stored.