Rant: I’ve lost one year’s worth of game development progress!

The Amberly office, one of the maps lost in my videogame alpha along with local event codes.

I was recording the alpha build of my videogame with the GeForce Experience app, then the screen suddenly went black and my computer became unresponsive. I tried hitting the keys, even ctrl + alt + delete hoping the task manager would pop up. Nothing. Nothing at all was responding, so I had no choice but to turn off the computer to reset it.

The OS boot up and I’m back on my Windows 10 desktop. I admit that a computer crash happens from time to time, so I just shrugged at what happened. I opened the Smile Game Builder software, and I quickly noticed that the map I’m trying to load isn’t loading. I was confused and something was wrong. When I looked at the list of the maps I’ve created. More than half of them were missing. I literally froze for a few seconds. I examined the root folder of my project and noticed that some files were indeed missing. Resetting the computer erased my files — multiple files that were saved on my local drive.

I thought I lost you, Mira. Although I lost the maps where you appear.

I never knew that such a software could do a heinous act! As things started to fall apart, I looked for a data recovery software to see if I can confirm that the reset (a cold boot) erased the numerous files I’ve worked for a year. The data recovery tool (Disk Drill) FOUND my missing files. However it became utterly terrible at 2am when the files could not be loaded. The reset had corrupted the files as well, therefore the software deleted them so the project can still compile properly. It was tragic. The files are there, but they’re useless. I was angry at myself and in disbelief, because they were due for backup on the same day. 

So what now? Quit? Heck no. We stay the course! There is still the backup from last August and we’re doing this!