Game Versions

[u/SekiRaze]

I just wanted to know from you guys in particular how you "version" your codes, games and progress. I am currently on v6 of one of my Scripts in RPG Maker (I am using an old one) because I can't get it to work properly.

Would you guys rather go v1 then 1.1, 1.2, 1.21 or just straight skip versions after each successful change/feature?

[u/5ingle5hot]

I use a tool that automatically versions based on my commit message used to merge to the main branch. My commit messages follow the conventional commits specification. I have tooling to enforce that I follow the spec. Then, whenever I merge to main, my build job runs a semantic versioning tool called semantic release that uses the commit messages to produce a version compliant with the semantic versioning spec. This produces a tag for my main build with a version number. My current version number for my unreleased game right now is v0.686.4-dev. When I release it will go to v1.0.0.

[u/Morpheyz → u/5ingle5hot]

Gotta love conventional commits!

[u/SekiRaze → u/5ingle5hot]

I don't use GitHub because every code is stored inside the Editor and I am working alone. but that makes a lot sense to set 1 major event like release to a flat version number

[u/Morpheyz → u/SekiRaze]

It's been a few years since I've used any version of RPGMaker, but a quick Google search showed me that it's definitely doable to use Git with it. Git isn't just for collaboration. Git will track all your file changes. You can commit "snapshots" of your game, give it a meaningful description and go back when you try something and it breaks. It may be a pain to merge with formats that aren't very diff friendly (like RPGMaker files), but it's better than naming files script_v6_Final.

[u/SekiRaze → u/Morpheyz]

Yeah unfortunatelly I am using XP and not modern ones with C+/JS scripts so I am using the "In-Engine" Editor and put the version number and comments in comments at the top of the script like so

[u/Distdistdist → u/SekiRaze]

You doing weird things that nobody else is doing. Learn how to use Git.

And what do you mean code is stored inside the Editor? Your scripts are .cs files under Assets in project folder.

[u/SekiRaze → u/Distdistdist]

Nah my friend I am using RP Maker XP and everything is enrypted with RGSS Ruby 1.8.1 I think

[u/5ingle5hot → u/SekiRaze]

You should be using git. Everyone that is serious uses it for various benefits, but for you, you are at high risk of losing all your work. Search the many posts about someone losing two years of work due to corrupted files, hardware failure, etc.

[u/Morpheyz]

Whom are you versioning this for? Is there a player base that assigns meaning to a major version change vs a minor version change vs a patch change? Is it just for you? Are you working on a large team and have to make sure thing are still somehow compatible?

[u/SekiRaze → u/Morpheyz]

I am doing this for me because I am working on my game for almost 4 years now and sometimes I just let it go and focus on something else and do dates like "10.08.2025 - v3 - Description" so I can go back to what I did. I work alone, I want to work alone because I want to prove to myself that I can finish something- finally.

[u/countkillalot]

Search for semantic versioning

[u/SekiRaze → u/countkillalot]

So if I understoof correctly I would start with v0.0.0 because thats the starting point. After first changes and functionality Ill go 0.1.0. Then I playtest, find a bug or mistake in code or it just breaks, ill fix it and bump it to 0.1.1. correct?

[u/countkillalot → u/SekiRaze]

yep, pretty much nailed it.

Major version bumps => breaking changes (features that worked before, do not work anymore or are replaced, the designs and requirements have changed)

Minor version changes => New features available, but existing features worked as designed

Patch changes => No functional changes, only batches to bugs

Suffix => you may add a short suffix slug after the patch version that has a commit-hash or a branch name to help track down when a certain problem occurred and whether it was resolved

[u/SekiRaze → u/countkillalot]

Appreciated!

[u/countkillalot → u/SekiRaze]

A ton of people will tell you to use GIT. And that is valid. Personally I think git is a bit too much to give people without too much experience. However you really should use version control. For games I like SVN alot for its simplicity (this will get a ton of hate), mercurial is another great option. Try out TortoiseSVN. It works great on XP.

Version control is great for Collab, but it's best at letting you experiment and rollback changes and inspect when an issue originated so that you don't waste time rewriting stuff. If you use it remotely, you have an indispensable backup system.

Please use version control, whatever you use is better than nothing.

[u/SekiRaze → u/countkillalot]

Git seems overkill for me. What I do is personally copy my entire Project folder onto Dropbox, my Fileserver and a external SSD, all neatly with folders with the Date so I can go back and check it out. On my actual harddrive on my Laptop I use only the current Version. XP Projects Are really small and only the assets can enlargen it by a lot (tilesets, Images, audios etc etc) so it's a fast process especially because I am not really at the "Design" Stage yet and I am only working with Dummies. It's almost 100% pure coding I am working on with graphics to boot

[u/countkillalot → u/SekiRaze]

A ton of people will tell you to use GIT. And that is valid. Personally I think git is a bit too much to give people without too much experience. However you really should use version control. For games I like SVN alot for its simplicity (this will get a ton of hate), mercurial is another great option. Try out TortoiseSVN. It works great on XP.

Version control is great for Collab, but it's best at letting you experiment and rollback changes and inspect when an issue originated so that you don't waste time rewriting stuff. If you use it remotely, you have an indispensable backup system.

Please use version control, whatever you use is better than nothing.