Game development is a journey full of ups and downs, and sometimes, the downs can come at you hard. While working on Save The Village, I recently ran into one of those moments—an unexpected bug that turned a full day’s work into digital dust.

The day started like any other. I was designing the terrain for a brand-new village, carefully crafting every hill, valley, and patch of trees to create the perfect battlefield. Everything was going smoothly, and I was making solid progress. But then, out of nowhere, Unity decided to stage a rebellion.

Sudden crashes. Error logs piling up. The editor refused to cooperate, shutting down repeatedly the moment I opened it. At first, I thought it was a minor hiccup—something a quick restart or cache clear could fix. But no matter what I tried, the bug was relentless. It became a constant game of trying to open the project, watching Unity crash, and repeating the cycle. I couldn’t even access the scene long enough to save my progress properly.

I had been diligent with my saving, but in this case, it didn’t matter. The bug had infected the whole terrain, leaving no choice but to revert to an earlier version from my source control, effectively erasing an entire day’s work.

It was a hard pill to swallow. Hours of work, gone in an instant. But hey, this is game development! Instead of dwelling on the loss, I’ve embraced the lesson. In the end, I’m confident I can build an even better village than the one I lost. Plus, it’s not like I lost the level design itself—it’s all in my head, and now I know exactly what I want to improve.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Sometimes, you can’t save everything… not even in Save The Village. But that’s okay because it’s all part of the creative process. If I can bounce back from this bug stronger, then maybe it’s just another reminder that every challenge we face is a chance to make something better.

Until next time, back to the (virtual) drawing board!