From a technical point of view, how are the saves made interchangeable between the backer and the public builds?

[Raindrops]

Mayternity broke me and I got myself the backer build, and I was very surprised when I realized that all my saves from the public build was still there!

Now, going one way like that is of course easy, but I did some testing and found that you can use a save that has been made in the backer build, in the public build!

How did you do that? Is the save a JSON and you just ignore info that isn't used for anything? But what if the player takes transformatives that don't exist in the public build? Does it just break, or have you handled that somehow?

 

[Tarnakus]

Saves are just JSON strings nothing special there. They might brake if go from higher number build into lower one. There is a check that compares save build number. I don't remember how restrictive it is.
You will get something like this:

Spoiler

But what if the player takes transformatives that don't exist in the public build? Does it just break, or have you handled that somehow?

You would get parser errors or straight up freezes. It is not supported.

 

[Raindrops]

Saves are just JSON strings nothing special there. They might brake if go from higher number build into lower one. There is a check that compares save build number. I don't remember how restrictive it is.
You will get something like this:

Spoiler

View attachment 17178

You would get parser errors or straight up freezes. It is not supported.

Aaah, I see! So it's basically just luck that it works on an older version then. Thank you for the insight!