Exclude gameobjects from final build

If you are pressed for time you can

 if(!Application.isEditor)
 {
     Destroy(gameObject);
 }

until you find a better solution.

Alternatively, Save a Dev and Release version of the Scenes themselves rather than relying on going back and forth between versions within the same file. Thats asking for trouble.

Using samizzo's answer below for example, Perform his process on your Dev build and when complete save it as release.

A little editor script to find all objects marked with a tiny identifier script which removes them then saves a 'Release' Scene file - ideal. Then you can just double click Dev version and keep working.

That's cheap haha, but that data must be removed from build though. For now i see one solution which could be an editor script who prepares for build and later un-prepares. Storing that data in editor or editor utilities folder as prefabs, so it wouldn't be included in final build. I was hoping there are some events or methods in build process. I know there are assets which can obfuscate scripts on build, thought there might be something different with scene data preprocessing.

prepares for build and later un-prepares.

This is what I was getting at. If your scenes are 1, 2, 3, name them 1Dev, 2Dev, 3Dev and have your editor script save off 1, 2, 3 as the release versions. You never need to open those, just have the script reload your xdev scene after its process. No reverting hectic death nonsense to worry about.

All you need is a blank script called Killscript and have your editor script look for all instances in scene.

Editor script should:

Save scene as Copy.

Load Copy.

Find instances of script, kill said objects.

Save Scene.

Load original.

I think it'll take about an hour to put together :P Worth it if you intend to redo the process.

Yeah, something like I was thinking first, but scene copying is a bit of overkill i think. It could just loop through build scenes and look for that gameobjects and save them as prefabs in editor. Later unpack and place.

But it depends on the setup really, maybe thats why we think about this differently lol. I have one gameobject which acts as parent and rest of the cake is inside as childs, so its perfect as single prefab.

Yeah, not more than 20 min script I'd say lol, just wanted to be sure if there aren't any hooks for build pipeline.

Thank for the input

There don't seem to be any hooks unfortunately! The build pipeline seems lacking in extensibility in that way. But if you do what I suggested, you can load the levels and destroy the GameObjects (you have to call DestroyImmediate though, not Destroy).