Save Files

A Save File is your private playthrough of a cartridge. It's the timeline you actually write in: chapters, locked canon, your cast board, your codex, and the route you're following all live inside a save file.

Open the same cartridge twice and you can run two completely different save files — different choices, different canon, different endings.

What a save file holds

• Chapters — the prose you've written and locked, in order.
• Canon — the structured state of your world right now (see Canon Lock).
• Cast Board — the characters you've met or developed this playthrough.
• Story Codex — the facts, places, and lore revealed so far.
• Route — where the story is heading and what's recommended next.

Main Save and Test Saves

Each story can have a Main Save — your canonical run — plus Test Saves for experimenting without risking the main timeline. A test save lets you try a risky direction, see how it plays out, and decide whether to promote it into your Main Save or archive it. Your work is always preserved before anything destructive happens.

Spoiler safety

A save file separates what you have experienced from what the cartridge knows in advance. Cast and codex counts only show what you've actually encountered this playthrough, and route/spoiler data is kept apart from the summaries you read — so the console never spoils your own story back to you.

Next: how drafts become permanent — Canon Lock.