Binary Save/Load for Unity

A simple tool for saving and loading data in Unity. Quickly serialize objects, from Dictionaries and Lists, to complex, serializable object structures.

All it uses is a BinaryFormatter to serialize and deserialize objects. Any object type (as long as it is marked with a serializable attribute) can be saved and loaded. This does however mean that MonoBehaviour objects will need special attention if you want to save/load data for them. We'll go over that in a second.

How to use it

To save data, this is what you do:

SaveData.Save(Items, "Inventory");

This takes the object you're saving as the first parameter, and the key you're saving it with for the second. For instance, this Items object looks like this:

Items = new Dictionary<int, string>
{
    { 12, "Broken Sword" },
    { 20, "Health Scroll" }
};

For a more complex inventory structure example, check the examples directory. I'll be adding more over time.

And then when you're loading your game, to load the Inventory data back in, just do this:

Items = SaveData.Load<Dictionary<int, string>>("Inventory");

Notice that the methods take a generic type so in this case I know I want an int/string Dictionary. Saving data uses a generic type as well, but the overload simply takes an Object so it's optional.

Saving/Loading non-serializable objects

This is something that we have to do a lot of in Unity since MonoBehaviours are quite special. For instance, let's say we want to save this Player object:

public class Player : MonoBehaviour {
    public int Health { get; set; }
    public int Level { get; set; }
    public float Coolness { get; set; }
    void Start() {
        Health = 154;
        Level = 12;
        Coolness = 12.7645f;
    }
}

I need to save the Health, Level, and Coolness properties. Unlike a serializable type, I can't just pass a Player object to the Save and Load methods.

We have a couple options, but what I'm going to do is within the same file, create a class called SerializablePlayer with those properties, and mark it with [System.Serializable]. I can now create an object from this, pass my values in, and save as I please.

[System.Serializable]
public class SerializablePlayer
{
    public int Health { get; set; }
    public int Level { get; set; }
    public float Coolness { get; set; }
}

And then to save player:

SerializablePlayer serializedPlayer = new SerializablePlayer()
{
    Health = this.Health,
    Level = this.Level,
    Coolness = this.Coolness
};
SaveData.Save<SerializablePlayer>(serializedPlayer, "PlayerStats");

Load player:

SerializablePlayer playerData = SaveData.Load<SerializablePlayer>("PlayerStats");

This is a trick you may be familiar with if you've worked in Unity long enough.