Why This?
I lost my save game 😞. To prevent this from happening again, I implemented a quick and dirty cloud backup using a GitHub Gist.
Only export is implemented currently, but I might add an import feature later. Don't hold your breath though. 🤷
What does it do?
It makes a backup every 30 minutes (adjustable at the bottom of the script). The save game will be written to a gist, that is defined by the user. By using a gist, you also get the benefit of versioning. So you can roll back to earlier saves. 😉
Currently, it dumbly overwrites the file with the same name, so be careful with that. I recommend using a separate file for each PC, otherwise your savegame might get overwritten by another PC, which has the tab open in the background. Also, only have one tab open at a time, otherwise the save might get overwritten by the other tab. This is easily recoverable, using the revision history of the gist, but it is worth mentioning. 😅
Security Concerns
The API token is saved as plaintext, so be sure to only give it the gist scope and use a token for this purpose alone so you can revoke it if necessary. Better safe than sorry. If you are really paranoid, make a GitHub account only for this purpose. I don't want to implement encryption, that sounds like a hassle, and then you have the new issue of loosing that password as well as having to always enter it as saving the password next to the encrypted content pretty much defeats the purpose. 😁
How to use?
On first setup you will need to manually create a GitHub API key and a Gist. That is described in an alert box when you first use the script, but since I think I remember Google having plans to remove those, I will put the description here as well.
Be aware, I usually forget to update these descriptions, so if in doubt look at the code.
Also, this is only tested on Violentmonkey and Firefox. The Browser should not matter, but some other Userscript managers might handle the GM functions differently. If something does not work, try to use Violentmonkey, or message me, if I have time I might try to help.
Also, I export the makeBackup function to the global scope, so you can manually trigger a backup by typing makeBackup() in the console. This is useful if you want to make a backup before you close the tab, but don't want to wait for the next interval. In the future I might add a button to the UI. Maybe together with a button to import a save game. 🤔
Setup instructions
You will need a GistID and a Personal Access Token to use this.
Create a gist, the description does not matter, in it make a file e.g. called "save.txt" and add some random content so GitHub doesn't complain, you can do that here: https://gist.github.com
Afterwards, you can find the GistID in the URL: https://gist.github.com/{{Username}}/{{GistID}}
The Personal Access Token you have to create here: https://github.com/settings/tokens you only need the gist scope.
If you make a mistake you should be asked again, alternatively you can manually set these values in the Userscript storage.
How does it work? (technical)
The script makes use of GM.xmlhttpRequest for the request and GM.setValue/GM.getValue for storing/retrieving the secrets. The timing is done with setInterval. For saving the Data the GitHub API is used. The save game is exported using the exportGame function, which is exposed by the game. The save game is then sent to the GitHub API using a PATCH request.
I hope I can prevent some people from loosing their save games, and allow for more easy switching between devices. 😊
