Serialization Design

The file format we will use for saving the state of the game and all it's components will be a binary file.
Each object will have it's own serialize/deserialize method to read/write data from/to a binary file.

Note: The world instance will have save/load methods that call the player serialize methods and the level serialize methods. Which will recursively call every objects serialize method as needed to save an entire game state.

The binary file will be saved with the following format/order:

currentLevel
difficulty

playerInventory
playerEquippedItem
playerArmor
Strength
Speed
Health

levelNumber
  totalEnemies
  currentScreen
  currentRow
  currentCol
  screens
     entitiesOnScreen
         entityCoords
         entityType
         entityHealth
     grid
     location
     screenLeft
     screenRight
     screenUp
     screenDown

  

Where each variable corresponds to the variables of the object:

Ex.

• currentLevel = The world's currentLevel variable (int)
  • totalEnemies = the currentLevel's totalEnemies variable (int)
  • screens = the list of screens the level has (Screen[][])
    and so on...

Save/load file implementations

• Serialize Test Class
• World Class

Design Review

2022/04/12 Ethan Collins Recommended adjustments:

• Note the use of planned recursive serialization for objects with instance variables of other objects.