I’ve been thinking a bit about versioning. StupidRPG as a project is version controlled, just like any software project should be. Now I’m considering versioning save files, at a yet-to-be-determined level of granularity.
The problem this is intended to solve is program changes breaking a player’s save file. For example, if I remove an area entirely from the game, and the player’s save puts them in that area, now they have an invalid savestate.
Versioning the save file (as a whole) allows for ‘migrations’ (a script that transitions the structure of the data) for save-breaking changes like this. A change that removes an area would also include a version migration to check for objects in the area and move them to another location deemed appropriate.
I don’t think there’s any case where the versioning needs to be more granular (i.e. per-entity versioning). I sure hope not.