esides writing, I love coding games. Always a challenge. As far as versioning (making sure you have a backup copy), I always make sure that before I start coding for the evening, I save a copy with an incrementing number on it. So, we have “game1” “game2” “game 3” and so on.

During Christmas weekend I had a lot of free time so I threw myself into my game. Wrote for six hours and managed to get a number of clever and interesting game paths done. Since the game saves on every compile, and it’s all saving to that same version, there shouldn’t be any problems. Played a couple of test runs and then shut down, very satisfied with my effort.

A day or so later, I went back in. No changes at all. Poof. Gone. The thing is, these paths have a number of connections – the debug area (which allows for a quick link), the function area, the actual sections of the code. But no, nothing. It was gone from everywhere. I felt like I was in some crazy version of Dark City.

No, to be truthful, I was pissed.

I looked around at every version (I had 13 of them). I looked in every side folder I used for development. Nothing. It was like it didn’t exist. Maybe I fumbled and picked the wrong version to build off of? That’s all I can think of. Otherwise, it was a locked room mystery. I was confounded. And, pissed, you know?

Once I got over the prissiness, I opened my code docs and started recreating what I’d lost. It took four hours, which I’d thought I’d be using for new development. Nope.

It happens. I’ve lost parts of documents back in the day. I’m now very careful with my backups, keeping them remote from my computer. But yes, I have rewritten entire chapters lost then the power crashed (before laptops and on-board power). And generally, what I write the second time around is a little better – all that messing around I’ve already solved. Essentially, any time you second draft anything, it’s probably going to be better.

Then again, is doing things twice worth a minor improvement?

Me? I’m still pissed.

Keep backups!

>>>OF COURSE, IF YOUR COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS IS DESTROYED, YOU CAN ALWAYS GET ANOTHER ONE HERE. FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE BOOKSTORE!<<<