The game making backup

[MrKiwi]

Hello there, after loosing my progress for at least 3 important times this year, I just realized how important is to backup your work at some point. (To avoid some game making depression )

So today's thread goes for the question: How do you backup?
As far as I know, the options would be:

1. Copying your files on a hardware (usb pendrive, external hdd, etc) or,

2. Uploading your files in some storage or cloud service (Drive, Mega, Dropbox, etc).

Which one do you guys use? Which one do you prefer? As for me, I've been using an 8gb pendrive

 

[Lemonrice]

I keep zipped files of backups and older versions of prototypes on my pc and on an external hdd. small deployments of prototypes i usually keep on drive so that testers have access to older versions of the game as well.

I think frequency is also important but approached very differently. I make a backup whenever I have implemented a major feature or want to implement something for testing purposes so that i can easily go back to the last working version of the game.

 

[Soulrender]

I have a nice tool for making automatic backups of rpg maker MV project. Creates a nice compressed zip file and it creates backup every X minutes depending on user preferences.

 

[ShadowDragon]

just to a USB drive and keep that one save, as well for a different HDD back up folder.
in case the HDD can crash, I always have 2 backs ups saves of the project =)

 

[bgillisp]

I do a backup every Saturday/Sunday at minimum, more if I've done more work through the week. I also put eht date in my backup .rar file so I know when it was made.

Most backups I upload onto mediafire, and some also go onto flash drivers or the spare computer.

 

[Milennin]

I do all those. I keep a an extra folder of my game on my hard drive, more in case of when I want to undo some big change I make or to reference to my older systems, but I also do transfer a back-up folder to an USB stick as well as a external hard drive. I also upload them to a file hosting service.

 

[Roden124]

When I'm done for the day, or at a good checkpoint, I zip a copy of the project immediately.
Each version is specially named so I have a cool reminder of what I've done and when.
Every major and minor milestone deserves recognition and celebration!

You look at these filenames and think, "How far I've come..."

Then, at the beginning of each month I put the latest zips into Dropbox.
This is in case of an apocalyptic event that leaves me unscathed but my equipment destroyed.
It's bad enough for the world to end, but I refuse to entertain the thought I'd ever have to redo anything ever.

 

[Indinera]

USB stick, external HDD. Have several of both.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I backup on my laptop, then I backup in my external HDD, then if I have some internet connection, create a backup in my Microsoft OneDrive too.

Sometimes I also put a backup on my phone.

I usually backup after a few changes, which is usually per day of work or per week.

 

[TheoAllen]

I only backup the data files and I use dropbox. The resource is less likely to get corrupted. And even if it corrupts, I already have the copy somewhere else. The thing that needs to frequently update is the data files.

 

[Lihinel]

Zip the project (or if I am mainly working on Plugins just the Plugin folder or use the specific file I am working on), rename it name-year-month-day and save it to a folder and 1 of 3 different USB Sticks (rotate that one) and also to dropbox every couple days.

Kinda overkill, but I lost a version of my old main project about a decade ago.

I also save my new resources every 2-3 month on USB and laptop.

 

[Kokoro Hane]

Whenever I have major progress (wrote a lot, adding a ton of maps or events, etc.) I IMMEDIATELY back up in a flashdrive. I recently got a new one that is 64GB that will literally be for my games only. Admittedly, I have once in awhile forget to, but I am trying to break that habit and back up as soon as I can. Probably best to keep your flashdrive in the port whilst you work, so you can just immediately drag and drop when you're done.

As for online backup, I will sometimes save artworks made for my games in my deviantART st.ash, which is great, I can't find some of the cover arts and well, I can easily access it whenever I want. I do try to keep all those things in a hardware, but it's nice to have a small secondary backup for those types of things so I can access it even when I am apart from my drives.

 

[Aesica]

I think this thread already exists in another section (recently) but I'll post it here too: I use github to back up my project over other solutions for several reasons:

1. Once set up, it's as easy as opening the github desktop app and clicking like 2 things.
2. I don't trust local drives or usb sticks due to past experiences with them.
   
3. Unlike dropbox/etc, it's not just a copy of your files as they are now, it also retains previously-committed versions so you can roll back if you break something horribly
4. It's free and has a pretty generous storage limit (1gb soft cap--if you go over that, you'll probably get a message from them saying to tone things down a bit)

The only things to be aware of though are that it's a pain to set up, and that you need to make sure that, when you create your repository, you do so as private.

 

[Kaelan]

I just keep my entire project on Gitlab. Free accounts get 10GB of storage per project and my game should never be anywhere near that large. I'm using the Git VSCode plugin, so I just need to click a button whenever I want to push my changes. I make a habit of always doing it before I'm done working on my game for the day.

For other things, like raw PSDs and large audio or sprite libraries that I may-or-may-not-use-but-i'll-keep-it-around-just-in-case, I keep them all in Dropbox and only import the finished versions in my project as they're needed. The Dropbox app syncs stuff on its own, so I don't have to do anything manually for that.

If I lost every single PC, HDD, phone and flash drive I have, I would still be able to access my entire project from anywhere with an internet connection, and it would be exactly the way it was the last time I worked on it.

 

[FleshToDust]

I upload to MEGA at the end of every session(and date it) if I do a lot of work.
Both cloud and Thumb Stick are good choices. Could even do both in case one fails.