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Game Saves Are Messing Up Our Drives!

By -
My first article on here! Hi everyone! :)
I am writing this in the hopes that someone who can do something about this, reads it
eg. Valve and all game devs I guess.

I now have over 300 games for Linux. In most ways this makes me very happy. But there is one thing that is getting me very unhappy. Currently games seem to be saving wherever the hell they like, it's making one hell of a mess. Heaven forbid I might want to ever backup all my savegames.
Just trying to navigate my home folder to find something important is becoming extremely annoying.

There needs to be some rules that are followed. Like making all games save in a certain place
like /home/user/.local/share/gamename or /home/user/.config/gamename or better yet /home/user/.savegame/gamename
If they save ANYWHERE else, DON'T let them onto Steam.


Just for fun here is my current installed saved games (at least that I can find).
I will only write the names of really bad examples though.

3 folders In ~/ and NOT HIDDEN! Devs really didn't care here.
3089/, eschalon_b1_saved_games/, PlanetExplorers/

18 hidden folders in ~/.

4 folders in ~/Documents/ - not hidden
(cause we wanna be like Windows, right? Or maybe we like opening our savegames with LibreOffice.)
7 Days To Die/, BladeofDestiny/, NeocoreGames/, Shadowrun Returns/
The Shadowrun Returns folder is completely empty and doesn't need to exist, it saves elsewhere.

12 folders in ~/.config/
Harebrained Schemes/ is another empty useless folder from Shadowrun Returns.
Zigfrag also has a folder in ~/.config/unity3d/
Snapshot also has a folder in ~/.local/share/

60 folders In ~/.config/unity3d/ (Lots of Unity engine games, but not all Unity games save here.)
Here are some standouts.
Bigmoon Studios_ S_A_/, Bigmoon Studios, S.A./ both for Jagged Alliance
Headup Games GmbH _ Co KG/, Headup Games GmbH & Co KG/ both for Shiny the Firefly
N_Fusion Interactive/, N-Fusion Interactive/ both for Leisure suit larry
Pathea/ Pathea Games/ both for Planet explorers + don't forget also has 3rd folder unhidden in ~/
The Fun Pimps also has a folder in ~/Documents
Entheogen for Zigfrak also has a folder in ~/.config/
Harebrained Schemes for Shadowrun Returns has other folders in ~/.config/ and ~/Documents/
Logic Artists for Expeditions-Conquistador has another folder in ~/.local/share/

24 folders In ~/.local/share/
Snapshot/ Snapshot also has another folder in ~/.config/

71 folders In ~/.local/share/Steam/userdata/somenumber/ for cloud saves

So the Top 3 messiest games
--Planet Explorers
1 folder in ~/ wich isn't hidden, holds the actual savegame
2 folders in ~/.config/unity3d/ both with identical config files

-- Shadowrun Returns:
1 empty folder in ~/Documents
1 empty folder in ~/.config/
1 folder in ~/.config/unity3d/ which has prefs
1 folder in /home/bjorn/.local/share/Steam/userdata/3790390/234650 which has the savegame

-- 3089 and Eschalon Book share this spot for not at least being hidden in ~/

I only have 154 of 301 Linux games installed. I can only imagine the mess if I install the rest. I try to keep my HDD nice and tidy, with everything in its place. I don't have my music collection splattered everywhere, it's all in my ~/Music. Pictures are all in ~/Pictures etc.

Please someone with some pull, FIX THIS. Until then I might make a separate user just for games.

Does this annoy anyone else? Voice your opinion, let them know this isn't acceptable. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc
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60 comments
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Orkultus Sep 30, 2014
Yeah i had noticed how long it took my home folder to load up. I hope they can re-direct the saves to somewhere in the .steam/ folder. Or at least in a .steamsave/ folder.
N30N Sep 30, 2014
@stan: rewritefs. I use it myself as I'm a organization freak. :)
adolson Sep 30, 2014
Quoting: DrMcCoy
Quoting: deBeauharnaisCreate a file named .hidden in the same folder than the unwanted folder.
Except that is something only Nautilus (aka "GNOME Files", the GNOME file manager) does, nothing and no one else.

Cinnamon/Nemo does it as well. It started as a fork, yes, but still, something other than GNOME/Nautilus does support the .hidden file.

It's not really a solution to the problem at hand, though.
fabertawe Sep 30, 2014
Random crap strewn throughout $HOME has bugged me as long as I've used Linux!

Re 3089... I put it to the dev a while back who replied - "just rename the directory to .3089 - I programmed the game to look for and use that directory first if it exists". Why "$HOME/3089" is even a possibility is just crazy.

Something randomly creates an empty "Documents" folder which I keep deleting. I'll find the culprit one day and when I do.... :><:
minj Sep 30, 2014
Linux: we need games!
Devs: here you go.
Linux: too many game save folders!
Devs: first-world problems.


Seriously, I approve this message.

My naughty list:

Quote~/:
.Broken Rules
.Cobra Mobile
.Nifflas
.dynamitejack
.frozenbyte
.klei
.paradoxinteractive (use to be in ~/Documents/)
.renpy
.sidhe
.uplink

With the amount of games available it's gonna be folder soup in any case.
Hence I would actually prefer ~/.local/share/games/$GAME_TITLE
Who has the time to learn 100 game studio names and their games?
adolson Sep 30, 2014
Quoting: fabertawe"just rename the directory to .3089 - I programmed the game to look for and use that directory first if it exists".

Well, that's pretty cool, actually!

Quoting: minjLinux: we need games!
Devs: here you go.
Linux: too many game save folders!
Devs: first-world problems.

Heh... Pretty much.

QuoteWith the amount of games available it's gonna be folder soup in any case.
Hence I would actually prefer ~/.local/share/games/$GAME_TITLE
Who has the time to learn 100 game studio names and their games?

It wouldn't solve the clutter problem, but if Game Stasis had taken off (seems to be abandoned), a good backup solution would have existed. I'm not aware of anything similar.
berarma Sep 30, 2014
Quoting: tuxisagamerActually, this is not limited to Linux games. Windows games are just as messy.

Windows is messy by nature. Probably no one notices the savegames.
fredrikfritte Sep 30, 2014
Good article skully
I agree and hope devs and valve can adress this, all saves in same folder would be nice.
No fun backing up disc with the mess

Agree on first world problem but its worth taking up
GoCorinthians Sep 30, 2014
Im fine with it...too much noise out of nothing!
adolson Sep 30, 2014
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: adolson
Quoting: fabertawe"just rename the directory to .3089 - I programmed the game to look for and use that directory first if it exists".
Well, that's pretty cool, actually!
IMO it just adds insult to injury.
At least he gives us a choice...
minj Sep 30, 2014
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: fabertaweSomething randomly creates an empty "Documents" folder which I keep deleting. I'll find the culprit one day and when I do.... :><:
Might have something to do with your ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs…

That's the thing with user-dirs.. I changed all of them to my liking and deleted the defaults but paradox recreated ~/Documents anyway. Probably what @fabertawe was describing as well.
kozec Sep 30, 2014
Quoting: dean36963Means you don't need to rely on any devs fixing this.

Steam might clean your script when updating the game though.
Run Steam with changed $HOME, create symlink ~/Steam/ -> $CHANGED_HOME/.local/share/Steam. Problem solved.
EKRboi Sep 30, 2014
I completely agree with this article and it's one of the things that has always bothered me. Like others have said it's the same in windows as well. There is just no standard for them to follow so they do as they please. Even if a standard was created for it, there is no guarantee games prior to the standard would be updated to it which sucks, but it would be something great to have going forward. I would prefer something like ~/.games/ or ~/.local/share/games/ if I were to get a vote on it. I saw someone say do away with local storage and only use steam cloud. I say HELL NO to that. I can think of too many reasons not to want that. Make it an option if they want, but I wouldn't use it. I tend to .tar/.zip up game save folders even as I am playing in order to have a backup in case something goes wrong, like a corrupt save or I make a horrible mistake in the game and need to go back. Especially in long RPG type games where it's easy to make a mistake and need to go back. I tend to (re)backup those after every session.
sev Sep 30, 2014
I only play games on Steam, and all the saves go to ~/.local/share/steam

Also, this doesn't really read like an article. I think the right place for this discussion is in the forum, personally.
Cheeseness Sep 30, 2014
I've been meaning/wanting for a while now to write an XDG advocacy page to help developers understand the value of supporting it (a little like the early HTML5 advocacy sites). It's just a matter of being able to find the time.

People should definitely recommend to their favourite developers that they follow the XDG spec (for more than just saves) though - every voice counts!
berarma Sep 30, 2014
I agree with the post and truly dislike when games misbehave like that. Sometimes developers complain about the lack of standards but most of the time it's just them ignoring the standards. I guess that's what they learn in the Windows world where there's no rules and common practice becomes the standard, it doesn't matter how messy it gets. They need to be educated on good practices and real standards.
Skully Sep 30, 2014
Unfortunately I can't edit my own article.
But apparently you can rename the folder
~/3089 to ~/.3089
to make the folder hidden and the game will still work.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/263360/discussions/0/613937306867699126/?tscn=1412097010

EDIT: This was already mentioned before my bad :/
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/game-saves-are-messing-up-our-drives.4382/page=4#r24582
mike4ca Oct 1, 2014
Quoting: kozec
Quoting: dean36963Means you don't need to rely on any devs fixing this.

Steam might clean your script when updating the game though.
Run Steam with changed $HOME, create symlink ~/Steam/ -> $CHANGED_HOME/.local/share/Steam. Problem solved.
This worked great for me. I created a new folder and ran

HOME=path_to_new_folder steam

This actually allowed me to save all of my game info to a separate partition. Hopefully it will allow me to access the info better as I switch distros.

Note, I never share my actual home folder between distros. I have had bad experiences with this, especially between desktop environments.
mike4ca Oct 1, 2014
Another gripe is the lack of recognizing case sensitive folder and file names. When I download Dust to a new install, the "cloud" data is stored in a folder called dustaet. The program wants a folder called DustAET. In Windows I don't think it matters, but in Linux it does. I believe Mac is the same way/
strycore Oct 1, 2014
I agree this is a huge mess. Being the type to have a bunch of saved games and to keep them around for years (my Quake 3 profile must be older than 10 years), I workaround this issue by placing my saved games in a single folder and manually creating symlinks in whatever the appropriate location is.

This is extremely tedious and I want to have something better. Being the founder of a gaming platform (Lutris), this is a huge opportunity to set things straight. While we will never be able to fix the root of this issue (every single game would need to be patched), we can minimize the problem by making easier to manage and backup those saved games in a single location. This is one of the main features we have on the roadmap for Lutris 0.4.x and we'd really appreciate to have some feedback from players before starting developing this feature. Anyone who wants to have a say in this should get in touch with us on IRC (#lutris on Freenode) or on our new mailing list at http://lists.lutris.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lutris
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