So yeah, we all have been beginners, newbies. But not all of us were arrogant and whiny. I, specifically learned from my own mistakes and just picked up version control and be more careful around my projects.
And making mistakes and not using version control and getting burned is one thing, being an arrogant pr**k is another, and expecting something from the developers of the software he’s using and failing to do the same himself (basically testing his build at all) is another level. I think he deserves every word here. Not because of the mistake, because of the behavior.
I agree on version control being something that people need to learn, but it is clear from his posts he doesn’t have any form of recent backup. Backups aren’t even in the realm of learning software development, just basic computer usage stuff right there with how to save your first document and how to move the mouse around the screen.
It is simply not possible to be experienced enough with computers to be able to create your own software, yet be entirely unaware that you need to create backups of whatever you create that you don’t want to lose. He may be a Unity novice (don’t know), but he’s not a computer novice, making failing to create backups something he chose to do. Not some concept he was entirely unaware of.
Heck, I even saved my second C64 BASIC game to multiple tapes if one gets eaten by the cassette player I have the other one… (of course my first one was the victim of a power outage… caused by my father who tried to fix our washing machine… I was young but as a true Hungarian I was swearing for two minutes non-repetitively, continuously) and those were really jokingly khm let say “raw” projects.
WARNING: If you highlight your non-backed up project folder in Windows explorer, and hit shift delete, your project will be gone forever.
ADDITIONAL WARNING: If you take the laptop containing your non-backed up project, place it on your driveway, and back over it with your car, your project will be gone forever.
Yeah its going to be a real pain in the ass, but you can import all these assets and for the prefabs you are going have to manually go through them and recreate them (open up both editors – have fun).
Clearly it is, and the fact that we’re getting at least one of these threads per year proves that. I believe the core problem here is that people are getting complacent with their devices. Many devices that rely on the cloud for some service now come set up for automatic backups. My cell phone, for example, frequently backs up my contacts, messages, photos, etc.
Plus modern computer hardware and the software driving it is insanely stable now compared to how it was two decades ago and we’ve reached the point that an adult could have grown up without having experienced most of these problems.
Here we go with the usual noob bashing! Seriously though, the OP could be a 13-year old kid who stumbled their way into launching a game, which is more than what can be said for most of us
Just use version control and backups, listen to warnings, don’t upgrade to brand new releases, don’t patch your game without testing etc etc
Very true. There’s a wide gulf between the way that game development tools are marketed to new people and the way that an experienced developer perceives and uses them.
These days, it’s so easy to perform fairly complicated feats (like building for a platform) that you can pretty much have no idea what is going on technically except that you know what keys to press from a Youtube tutorial.
I agree with calling out the behaviour, there’s definitely room for improvement there. Most of the stuff prior to my last post was focused clearly on the mistake itself, so by my interpretation criticism of the behaviour wasn’t clearly coming through.
It’s quite possible, I didn’t bother to check … but is this kind of thread really going change things? I think the OP ran off and now everyone is just shouting at the void they left behind.
Generally I prefer to act as if everyone can learn simply by me pointing to their mistakes. It might not be the case all the time, but it certainly makes me feel good when it’s true, and the great thing about it is that I can just move on with my life when it doesn’t work out.
never release an upgraded project before testing it, fully.
But, if you do that, you can take the opportunity and make your game better, expand it, add new things, modify gameplay and so on. What’s the point of upgrading if it’s only for the sake of upgrading?
See what inXile did with Wasteland 2; they upagraded their game from Unity 4x (I think) to a more recent version, they added a lots of things in the process. Way to go!
Definitely an educational moment for my kids making games. Back up. Test. If you do not, do not come crying to me that you lost your game.
Must admit, this post made me laugh. I meet a lot of young inexperienced developers who have all sorts of excuses as to why they did not backup and why they have this urgent need to update to the latest beta version, no matter the status of their game. I warn them…and then I so often say…I told you so. lol
