A save-schema check before an RPG inventory grows

[gamemakerH5]

Inventory bugs often appear after the visible system looks finished. The cause is usually not the UI; it is an old save loading into a newer item model.

 

Before adding more item types, I like to freeze a small schema test. Save one inventory with a stackable consumable, one equipped item, one empty slot, and one item carrying an optional field. Then load that fixture through every migration step and compare a normalized result rather than raw JSON order.

 

A practical check is to assert four things: item identity survives, stack counts remain integers, unknown fields do not crash loading, and missing optional fields receive explicit defaults. If equipment references inventory IDs, verify those links after migration too. Otherwise a save can load "successfully" while silently unequipping or duplicating an item.

 

I used this approach while testing a small editable browser-RPG loop here: https://www.seeles.ai/features/create/rpg-creator?utm_source=html5gamedevs&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=rpg_acq_202607_w4&utm_content=rpg36_06&utm_id=rpg36-06

 

The fixture is intentionally tiny. Its value is that it gives every future inventory change a stable backward-compatibility test, instead of waiting for an old player save to reveal the mismatch.

Edited 6 hours ago by gamemakerH5