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Save & Load (Save State)

The Save State extension allows you to save and restore the full state of your game at any time — including all objects, variables, sounds, effects, and more.

It is designed to be easy to use by default, while also providing advanced configuration options for developers who need finer control over what gets saved or loaded.

Basic Usage

You can save and load the game state in two main ways:

1. Save to Device Storage

This is the recommended approach for most games. It automatically stores the save data in the player’s device storage (web, desktop, or mobile), ensuring that the save persists between sessions — even if the game is closed or restarted.

Use these actions:

  • Save game to device storage
  • Load game from device storage

Each save uses a storage key, such as "Save1", "CheckpointA", or "Autosave", to identify the save slot. This enables you to offer multiple save slots (in some games, it's usual to have 3 to 5 save slots that the player can use).

While there is no hard limitation on the number of saves, some devices or browsers might have a limitation on the total size occupied by the saves. It's usually safer to limit the number of saves the player can do.

2. Save to a Variable (Advanced)

You can also save the entire game state into a scene or global variable.
This is useful for:

  • Implementing checkpoints or quicksaves that don’t persist after closing the game. In this case, be sure to exclude the variable from the save state (see "Exclude Variables or other scene/game data from Save States" section below).
  • Sending save data to a remote server or cloud.
  • Debugging.

Important

Variable-based saves are stored only in memory — they are not persisted between game sessions. You must persist the variable somewhere if you want to keep the save state.

Monitoring Save/Load Operations

The extension provides a few expressions and conditions to help you monitor saves and loads. In particular, the "Load just succeeded" condition is perfect to run some logic after a scene was loaded. This is somewhat similar to "At the beginning of the scene", except that after a loading a scene is already considered as started (because it was "frozen in time" in the save state).

Advanced: Excluding Objects from Save States with the “Save Configuration” Behavior.

By default, everything in the game is saved — all objects, scene data, and variables. However, you can customize this behavior using the Save Configuration behavior or dedicated actions.

Add the Save Configuration behavior to any object you don’t want to include in save states or only in some save states. It has two properties:

  • Persistence mode:
  • Persisted (default): the object is included in save states.
  • Do not save: the object is excluded.
  • Save profile names: optional comma-separated list of profiles (see below) in which this object should be included.

For example, you can exclude a particle system object or UI elements like Joysticks or health bars that doesn’t need to be saved.

Exclude Variables or other Scene/Game Data from Save States

You can also configure scene or global variables to be included or excluded from save states dynamically. Use the action "Change the save configuration of a variable".

This lets you: - Exclude a variable from all saves. - Include it only in certain save profiles (see next section). - Adjust what gets persisted during gameplay (for example, disable autosave for debug data).

Similarly, you can use these actions for broader control: - Change the save configuration of the global game data - Change the save configuration of a scene data

Even More Advanced: Using Save Profiles

The Save State system supports profiles, allowing you to organize save data into different categories.

Each object, variable, or piece of scene/game data can be assigned one or more profile names (like "default", "checkpoint", "player", etc.).

When you perform a save or load, you can specify one or more profiles — and only the data tagged with those profiles will be affected.

Example Use Cases

  • Split save data: Save “player” progress separately from “world” state.
  • Selective restore: Load only some data (for instance, restore player stats without reloading the entire scene).
  • Checkpoints: Save lightweight data per checkpoint using profiles.

Known Limitations

Note

While it’s technically possible to save the game at any moment, it’s recommended to save or load at stable points in gameplay — such as checkpoints or after the end of an action — to avoid inconsistencies (e.g., during physics updates or combat animations).

  • Custom objects are not yet fully serialized. They will be recreated and placed correctly, but their internal state may reset to default.
  • Third-party extensions that manage data outside of GDevelop’s variable/object system might not be captured.
  • Performance impact: Saving large games (many objects or variables) can briefly freeze the game; use with care on mobile or web platforms.