I LOST Everything And It's A GOOD Thing | Devlog #3

[@RandomIndieDev]

Before you go down in the comment section just to type “you should have copies of your game”, as I’ve said in the video I did have them. However for some reasons the most recent ones crash my laptop when trying to open them. I’m also not giving up on the development of the game so don’t worry about that

[@inadad8878]

I think my previous comment was hidden by yt. Rollback a recent Windows Update or Video driver.

[@elijah-jones-inbox]

Not the end of the world. I did this on a game project after a few years in. I was able to catch up in like 2 months. I used to be a written code snob. I used Domo, which is a reporting tool. They have visual coding in it, and it's actually really nice. I feel like the logic is the most important part, and with the visual coding, you still have to think out all of the logic.

[@BrutalMagik]

You should be able to take your files out of the game project "content" folder and put into another UE project game's "content" folder. Something broke when I went from UE5.2 - UE5.3 and thats what I did in order to recover 99% of my progress.

[@BrutalMagik]

PrismaticDev has a pretty good cel shading video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJypqJhtf65riJo

[@amanthedev]

You could have used git , right?

[@RasmusMolck]

It's really great that you feel motivated from the loss of your work. Just remember that you might not feel the same way the next time it happens. Having backups that doesn't work aren't really backups. You absolutely should learn from this experience and make a more robust setup: start using version control (like git). You mention that you use visual scripting to buildi your game. This must be why you can't recover your work. If you had a backup of a text codebase then surely you could (as a minimum) copy your code to a new project and reuse it. Visual scripting can be extremely fragile and I've seen other people completely break and lose their game just by updating their game engine or something like that. If you stick to visual scripting then make sure that you have a setup where you can roll back to a working copy at any time and test that it actually works. Good luck with the project!

[@RandomIndieDev]

I know, I was setting a git repository when my pc gave up which is sad, since if I had finished it I wouldn’t have lost it. But the second I get my laptop back that will be the first thing I’ll do

[@michaelatkinson3139]

@@RandomIndieDev :)

[@talanock]

Visual scripting being fragile is not true at all. Any code is fragile because everything is data and data can be corrupted. If you use C++, upgrading the engine can break just as easy if not more easily than using blueprint. Yes, Make sure you have source control and you'll be fine because every time you check in it's a backup.

[@nullx2368]

I know git can be scary but it's really easy you understand how it works. To be honest I'm not sure if it's worse with unreal (I use unity). This is way better than manual backups. You could also look into perforce which might be better than git for you. Also if you have a secondary PC, make sure to try downloading the project through git on that fresh PC. This way you know what you are uploading isn't damaged or wrong. (You could technically test this on same pc by cloning to a different folder)

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting it up and my laptop gave up half way

[@alin5573]

Keep up the good work, Its great following your devlogs and being able to give feedback

[@RandomIndieDev]

Thank you! And will do!

[@IsaacPeek]

So as a systems engineer by trade, if your version control fails or you copies are not working you can still retrieve data from the laptop hard drive. Get a usb drive container, remove the ssd from laptop and put in the new container and just plug it into whatever you need. Now you have your data as an external drive.

[@DanPos]

Ouch that sucks but lesson learnt about using version control! Definitely a good think to be forced to refactor some code though for sure. Good luck!

[@RandomIndieDev]

Yes exactly! And thank you!

[@sfgmonah]

bruh. use git or something. this is painful.

[@patek2385]

or just make a home NAS

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting it up and my laptop gave up half way

[@patek2385]

@@RandomIndieDev there are two types of people, those who didn't make a backup and those who will make a backup.

[@TheLeoGBA]

No backup team on TOP​@@patek2385

[@Mikehy.mp3]

Keep your head held high! Glad youre motivated to keep working on things, im really interested in the project and cant wait to see what you do with it! If you need music for your project, hit me up!

[@Envixity---]

I love it Falcum ❤️

[@PedroL.Rosario]

You are doing well and I know how it hurts, I lost my HDD in 2019 and my project was lost, my luck was to find a backup in the cloud even though it was a very old version. I'm still working on the game and it was really cool to find your channel, you're motivating! Looking forward to your game, and I wish you all the best in the exam!

[@RandomIndieDev]

Thank you so much! I hope you will be able to finish your project flawlessly from now on!

[@PaxKing]

While I am sad to hear this happened to you, it's good that it happened this early into the project and it's a lesson I'm sure many of us devs learned when starting. My hope is that you learn from this that making hard copies isn't the answer, rather that you invest just a small amount of time and look into source control. There are tons of tutorials on how to use stuff like git, and it's truly a lifesaver. The fact that it's free and simple should make it almost mandatory for any and all projects that go beyond a weekend game jam (in all honesty I would use git even in that case). Do keep your head up, learn from this and I'm looking forward to future devlogs

[@RandomIndieDev]

Yeah I’m thankful this happened in the early stages and that I can learn from it

[@Porplefish]

Good stuff, I definitely feel like slowing down on Procedural generation is a good idea! It will be much easier to test if the game systems are fun to play with planned world first, then to see what kind of map the procedural world should generate before generating the world. Can't way to see more! goodluck

[@RandomIndieDev]

Totally agree! I think I just got a little to excited 😝

[@DeviTheGoat]

I'm happy that u took this as a good thing and a way to improve rather than just giving up ,keep it up!

[@RandomIndieDev]

You know I’m not one to easily give up :)

[@Gknights]

Hi i just subscribed, expecting that i can learn things from you and I'm so excited about the game improvements in the future. Sorry I am not an english person so 😐 you might not understand me well

[@NeonfireStudio]

Really the slime looking nice

[@deviouschimp4663]

This has happened to me and I was devastated. Albeit, the game was rudimentary and the product of a child 😅, but I cried my eyes out because my backups weren't working either.

[@RandomIndieDev]

I know what you mean bro 😭

[@viewtifuljay2531]

I imagine a game about a frog who is on a quest to avenge his dead species. Along the way he encounters many other creatures. These npcs guide him in all manor of crafts, technology, and wisdom. He befreinds some tribes and makes enemies of others, but he is the only frog left. Midway through he confronts the evil overlord who threw the realm into chaos and murdered his kind. Before he can deliver the final blow the overlord gives up his soul for one final spell. This spell casts the frog into the ancient past where no other organisms are as advanced as himself. Giant neanderthals roam the land and prehistoric dinosaurs run freely. A whole new procedurally generated land. Cursed, the frog roams the land alone before coming to the realization that there is no point. Before hurling himself from a cliff to end it all he spots in the distance a female frog hunting for food. Intrigued he learns that his species were not killed, but thrown back in time like himself. They have a thriving and culturally beautiful lifestyle where they live in the treetops and the frog now understands what it means to be welcomed and alive. He bonds with them deeply overtime, but soon a sickness comes through ravaging the frog tribes. One by one they are losing their minds reverting back to mindless creatures. The elder frog knows how to cure this sickness, but needs ingredients that can only be found in the future. Our main character frog sees that the sickness is now affecting his wife, and he can no longer take standing idly by. The elder frog freezes him in an ice spell that will preserve his body while the ages pass. Once eaons have gone, he is revived. Sadly again, he is the only of his kind. He must now reface the overlord and find a way to get the cure back to his people, but the overlord has seen his coming in a vision. The overlord has been preparing and waiting. The frog must now raise an army across the lands that will help overtake the reign of the overlord. In the end he wins and is triumphant. His allies work tirelessly, but can only open one portal to the ancient past. All the mages in the land are not nearly as intune as the overlord was. The problem is that its only strong enough to transport one item. And now at the end of the game our main frog must make a choice. The choice should be made by the player of the game. Send himself back in time to spend the last few days of his existence with his people, with his dying wife. Or send the medicine back and save his home, but die alone in the future. Thus ends the chronicle of Frog. Why did i write this?

[@RandomIndieDev]

Man just made a whole bible

[@EE22807]

I hope everything works out for you, this game really has some potential

[@RandomIndieDev]

It will dw!

[@tiwaztyr4324]

Its always a good thing when this happens. "There is Always room for improvement" :) -Except when you have exams ofc. haha Good Luck. Hopefully everything works out!

[@RandomIndieDev]

Absolutely! And thanks!

[@WanekoThaneko]

Lol I lost everything twice now, after the first time I realised that backups are key and after the second I realised the more backups the better. My game is level based so on a separate drive I add a new backup every time I finish a level (or some other major change) and where my project is located I keep a backup which is my "go to", replacing it every time I make some progress, now if I lose my project for whatever reason its not a big deal. Also a hard learned tip is to package your game every week or few to test if it actually works, don't want to work for 6 months only to end up with a complete mess of errors during/after packaging. EDIT: Actually just package every day, its better for your mental health and if there's a problem you can find it easier, the above was just because I'm personally lazy as sin.

[@francobarrera5327]

Did you consider versioning your project? This might solve all your backup issues and also help when you made some progress and you break something for some reason. 😊

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting up a version control when this happened

[@slackamacgaming6721]

Stay positive...that's all you can do...I had an external SSD go corrupt on me...lost 100+gb of models and textures...backup save files etc...what-r-ya gonna do...smile and take it that's about it...

[@RandomIndieDev]

That hurts more then what happened to me, hope you keep going!

[@thecalculatedcreativecoder1428]

Dude!!! THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME, but I was working on my game for so long before. I just made a video about things that I did to improve the game this time around, but this time, I did so much more planning.

[@RandomIndieDev]

Ill check it out!

[@ArksideGames]

This is why I seperately zip my successful systems, and save them in drive or separate drive.

[@ppussoma]

already 1k subs, congratulation

[@RandomIndieDev]

Thanksss!!

[@rovercubecubixo]

Man it's cool to see other devs struggling in the same stuff that I'm struggling, because it kinda of reminds me that "I'm not the only one getting fucked here"

[@RandomIndieDev]

Yeah I know how you feel

[@DeadWayfes]

Keep at it bro! I think when you redo stuff it turns out better, code wise. And agree on the refactor, takes a lot of time, in web dev i end up doing a new component from scratch instead of refactoring cause its faster

[@RandomIndieDev]

I think so too!

[@ImmacHn]

My dude, no git? Why? Using git is easier than making a game, especially as a solo dev.

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting it up and my laptop gave up half way

[@ImmacHn]

@@RandomIndieDev Ahhh well, thankfully it was not too much work lost, and a good learning opportunity, first thing you do before you start, always, is the git repo.

[@RandomIndieDev]

Yes exactly

[@alexale5488]

One of the reasons I hate using game engines instead of using frameworks. Using a framework is like using a bunch of scripts that run a library...impossible to corrupt. I still don't know why game engines tend to corrupt so many things...

[@iljabrudel6224]

I agree with some other comments, use a version control system like git, it is free. Maybe not for big files, there you can make a backup with other free tools combinations (even every week archiving all content and uploading to a google space, wehre it is private). If you have money issues you could be creative and even making a good protected backup (encryprtion+password) and uploading it into the wild www , where you save the urls from where to get it. Rethink also on continue doing the overwork for yourself, after time it will just getting too hard and it is unhealthy in general.

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting up a git for the project when my pc died.. and yeah I'll take it slowly ones I get my laptop back. won't over work my self as much anymore

[@iljabrudel6224]

@@RandomIndieDev I did not checked your last video , but all those mistakes you can also share inside the videos and it will by itself already gathering a lot of info for a video like, "if I would redo my project with my current experience and knoledge this and that I would do different and why" ;) I wish you good luck and have someone who also is for you there even on hard times, friend, family member dont rely only on comunity support for hard times. lastly just a reminder without health other things are not possible ;)

[@m24f8]

And what does that teach us, kids? Correct. Use remotely hosted version control systems that smart guys developed long before most of us learned how to walk and don't rely on local backups only.

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting it up and my laptop gave up half way

[@m24f8]

@@RandomIndieDev That's really unfortunate. :\ Do you have it now?

[@RandomIndieDev]

I don’t have a pc rn that’s strong enough to use unreal, waiting for mine to get fixed

[@Neon-x2t]

You should make a sword class and climbing

[@RandomIndieDev]

Was thinking about adding climbing

[@paulbarriosduque1101]

You are progressing so fast I was wondering where and what are you actually studying? Keep up with the good stuff. Would love to see some of your logic implementing features, systems or solving problems. Thanks

[@RandomIndieDev]

Thanks! I study game development and will do ;)

[@chessersstudios1778]

bro its ok, most of the times, the knowledge of how to setup code & systems is more important tham the files themselves

[@RandomIndieDev]

Exactly

[@rainbowthumb9979]

May I suggest something as a fellow dev? I've recently restarted my month+ project JUST to work on base systems first: Saving + Loading, Menus, Base Game feel... exc.

[@lyomon9981]

The stuff should still be there

[@joaquimneto5617]

You got this, frog man.

[@mkaks22gamerserise16]

keep trying bro i am also motivated by you but working in godot 4

[@RandomIndieDev]

You got this!

[@secretsecret7475]

Growing pains 💪

[@el1mz930]

I actually really like the illuminous night frog😅

[@RandomIndieDev]

😭😭

[@cops99]

W game ideas bro i knew cops was dead and boring

[@grindalfgames]

I dont back my game up as often as I should. I think my most recent back up is two weeks old at this point....... I should go back that up right now :P

[@RandomIndieDev]

Good idea!!

[@kacast-]

yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh man the frog game

[@JuhoSprite]

Looks like u have an ASUS ROG gaming laptop? If thats right, we might have the exact same model, your keyboard and whole design looks a lot like mine. And the thing is, mine also stopped working recently, I have no idea why, but the screen stopped working occasionally, I always have to turn it off and on multiple times and just hope the screen will work somehow. Sometimes this does it, sometimes it doesnt... well anyways I switched to another device now and Im glad I did before it completely stopped working

[@RandomIndieDev]

Yeah I had the exact same issue but at one point the screen just didn’t want to turn on, brought it back to the shop and now I’m waiting for them to either fix it or refund me

[@OttoEko]

you should check out sky children of the light for some cool ideas

[@polar8107]

Sounds like you cooked your GPU - having been slammed with an unoptimized open world 12+ hours at a time. I suggest making small prototypes rather than trying to build the final product in a single project. Keep it up fellow procrastinator

[@TheByteBard1]

Do you not use source control? I think it's something you should really look into

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting a git up and my laptop gave up half way

[@Alex-jx3if]

Do you use blueprints only or also c++?

[@RandomIndieDev]

mostly blueprints

[@Fiper-]

What kind of game you work on? I guess it's a RPG game

[@RandomIndieDev]

Open world RPG yeah

[@scrollex4798]

Gl with ur project

[@RandomIndieDev]

Thx

[@MisterOx]

This video deserves a sub

[@lipt0n187]

C'est giga intéressant

[@intingido9751]

please I beg you please use a version control

[@RandomIndieDev]

I will next time

[@M3gooo]

you should have copies of your game ara ara

[@mengxiaochao333]

Your game inspiration from BOTW or something?

[@RandomIndieDev]

Ive actually never played botw or toftk 😭

[@medusa3357]

W

[@netcore10]

This is why you set up github xD

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting it up and my laptop gave up half way

[@noset6434]

W frogg

[@Brick_is_cool]

Epik frog man

[@JustinSixVideos]

how did you make this video without a computer 🤔

[@RandomIndieDev]

Did you watch the whole video?

[@JustinSixVideos]

​@@RandomIndieDev Ohhh I misunderstood, you clarified that just the screen is not working. When I watched it first time I saw the laptop with black screen and thought you said it was completely dead

[@RandomIndieDev]

No worries ;)

[@itsafish4600]

nice

[@RandomIndieDev]

Thanks

[@D4KiRZ]

please use git to safe your projects xD

[@RandomIndieDev]

I was setting it up and my laptop gave up half way

[@kelayt2.064]

Am I the first LOL just wanna say the same thing I don't wanna like this but I have to LMOAOAO

[@unubun]

what is man yapping about

[@G1brown]

@@unubun my question exactly

[@treytavares1727]

People should learn about RAID before doing stuff like this. Probably learn basic stuff about computers period.

[@RandomIndieDev]

I know basic stuff about computers. My job is litterly fixing phones and pcs, but the problem here was on the screen and since I still had a warranty on the pc I send it back since it wouldn’t cost anything

[@maxtres764]

Is it really a good thing tho🤔

[@TELFI.]

Mec est-ce que tu es français ?

[@RandomIndieDev]

Non belge :)

[@sabuthebadguy]

comment

[@gamedevaccount-os8dv]

use git

[@MichaelEmbers]

i dont believe it

[@RandomIndieDev]

Wdym u don’t believe it?

[@kraken5057]

I will gift you the fortnite battle pass if you make it till episode 10!

[@tanver3d982]

notisss

[@Uhfgood]

Pro-tip - try not to swear/curse/cuss in your vlogs. So far you haven't said anything objectionable and it seems pretty all-ages appropriate, but you have to realize you'll probably have children watching, and really you should be a little bit more intelligent in your word choice (not saying you're not, but I'm just saying intentionally be a little more discriminating). Note I'm not telling you, you have to fill it with smart words, or a clever script, especially if you're not using a script in the first place. I'm simply saying be a little bit more deliberate on what you say. While I don't think anyone should write or say offensive material, if you're going to curse and swear, then be sort of up front that it's not for kids, and just go at it. Keep in mind, I'm not saying you should go this route, I don't think "shock jocks" are all that healthy for society, but basically don't use foul language if it's not your intention to be vulgar for comedy or whatever. Or if you swear like a sailor normally and that's how you want to talk. Sorry to sound so judgmental, but I wasn't expecting an f-bomb in the middle, of an rpg about a cute frog. Keep up the good work other than that, as I really like your style, and I'm subscribed and have liked all 3 of your devlogs.

[@Neon-x2t]

WOMP WOMP