Flash Game: Asking to be cracked?

[BlueWaldo]

I am going to start making a game. I have used Flash in the past so I know what I am doing with Flash. However, I know that it is easy to decompile Flash so it would be really easy for people to steal my game. It won't be hard at all for people to disable whatever registration I use. Because of this, I decided I would use Director. I figured it would be similar to Flash and I would be able to figure it out quickly. I was wrong. I still don’t know what I doing. So I thought, why not just make the game in Flash.

If I do this will my game be so easy to hack that I won’t be able to sell any?

[Sillysoft]

I am a programmer, but I have 0 clue how to decompile a flash program. I suppose I could find out if I wanted to, but I don't.

Don't let fear of crackers be the main reason for choosing your core technology. Go with whatever you like best/are most experienced with. You can start to worry about crackers after your game has become successful.

[shoecake]

I would guess an online Flash game is far less likely to be cracked than a compiled C/C++ game. It has nothing to do with how easy it is. I don't know how your Flash games will be presented to paying users (if it's downloaded and installed like regular games it may fall prey to the usual cracking.) I still don't think it would be any worse off.

Above all (as Sillysoft said), you shouldn't really worry about such matters. You'll be able to utilize some of the advantages of Flash if piracy ever becomes a real issue. For example Flash games are almost always played online so you have the possibility of requiring some "online checks".

Sell your games to honest people, there's plenty of them about.

[Gilzu]

Sell your games to honest people, there's plenty of them about.

Thats true, but I must add that I myself have no problem saving (legitimate!) flash files when nobody wants to. Simply look in your temp internet folder and copy that particular swf.

[shoecake]

I agree it's easy to save the swf files locally. But BlueWaldo seemed worried about "decompiling" rather than simply saving. I presumed saving the games localy would not be enough, and there would be some other system (perhaps having to log-in or enter password) that would need to be cracked.

[BantamCityGames]

I used Director to make an ROI program at work... blehhh... the "lingo" was ridiculous

[Chris Evans]

Well I like lingo. :)

It's MUCH better than Flash's scripting language. At least Lingo allows you to OOP. You just have to get the hang of it, as with anything else.

Fortunately though, the latest version of Director (I believe Flash too) allows you to use Javascript. So if you don't like Lingo, you can just use Javascript.

[formfarbeminze]

i do like lingo too. it is a language that was developed to enable "designers, teachers and other creative folks to make cool digital stuff", and it shows. unlike javascript and actionscript which both are definetly written by math-heads for math-heads, lingo is a programming language for real human beings :-)

anyway.

doing a game in flash is something i would not want to have to do. owning some games you could play online however is an entirely different thing. there are so many exciting oportunities to make money with these...

[BlueWaldo]

I think I will make the game with Flash. I seem to keep putting off working on the game, and not knowing how to use Director has allowed me to put it off all summer. Maybe someday I will break down and learn it, but for now, I will let the hacks have an easy one. Thanks for your input.

[PsychicParrot]

Sadly, it's not too difficult to decompile Flash movies - there are programs you can buy to do it automatically (which IMHO should be illegal).

There isn't THAT much you can do, although there are a few steps you can take to make it more difficult. These are outlined in a great book I just bought called "Macromedia Flash MX game design demystified" by Jobe Makar. I must say that it's a damn fine book on writing games in Flash!

I don't actually think, though, that stealing of peoples games is as frequent as it used to be. When I first started writing games in Director 3-4 years ago there were all kinds of sites stealing Shockwave games as well as Flash and putting them on their own sites with their own copyright messages on. Blatantly, they didn't even hack the games to take out any of the original author copyright text... thankfully, though, this doesn't seem to happen very often any more. Perhaps all that legal action did some good!??

When it comes to selling Flash games, this is never an issue. Write the game and flog it ... it'll be fine :D

[tewe76]

I'm actually thinking about making my game with Director. I'm new to it, but i think it won't be very complicated. The best thing of making games with Director is, i guess, compatibility (you can compile for PC or Mac with one click, i think) and easy to update to new systems (it shouldn't be so complicated to put Director 2004 code into Director 2010, i hope)

But, as i said, i'm new to it, so my question is: is there any commercial (not online) game made with Director? Well, not ANY but at least 20 :p

In the other hand, the main reason for not using Flash is that a game made with flash SEEMS to be made with flash. I mean, if user rightclick anywhere on the window a FlashPlayer menu appears. And also, the windows' bar points to be made with flash. At least this happens on the later version i has tried (v5, i guess). Someone knows if MX 2004 still has the same disavantage?

[formfarbeminze]

But, as i said, i'm new to it, so my question is: is there any commercial (not online) game made with Director? Well, not ANY but at least 20 :p

www.shockwave.com

At least this happens on the later version i has tried (v5, i guess). Someone knows if MX 2004 still has the same disavantage?


you can turn all those things of via actionscript. offcourse you have to export the flash movie as a standalone program. as long as your flash movie is displayed via a browser there is "someone" who knows it is dealing a flash file.

but how do see this as a disadvantage anyway?

[princec]

As y'all know, I wrote my game in Java, and even left in all the symbol and debugging information in it when I deployed it. And then I gave away the source code anyway.

Effect on sales = 0 (AFAIK, I don't get many sales anyway), and so far as I can see, I can't see Fluxian Ales or A-line Phlux clones appearing all over the place.

Cas :)

[BlueWaldo]

I'm not really consered about people coping my game and trying to sell it as their own. It is going to be such a simple game that anyone who wants to will be able to make their own. It is my first game and I want to make something small. My consern is that it will be very easy (even more so than normal c programs) to bypass my copy protection. Although my game is so simple that I don't think my game will sell very well, and I am doing more to prove to myself that I can make and sell a game, I still want to take all the steps to sell it the best I can.

[Chris Evans]

But, as i said, i'm new to it, so my question is: is there any commercial (not online) game made with Director?


Check out the game in my signature. ;)

As for PC and Mac compatibility, theoretically it could be done in one click. However if you have a complex application with extra components, then it requires some pre-planning. Still as I said before, with minimal work you can have your game available on three platforms, PC, Mac, and Web browser.

Director has been used for general CD-Rom applications for a long time. Recent versions of Director of the past 2-3 years have made it a viable game platform as well. There's also a very strong developer's community.

The only downside to Director is that Macromedia has treated it like a step child in recent years. Flash's popularity exploded so they decided to put most of their resources toward Flash instead of Director. Because of this, the last two updates of Director have been a bit weak. v8.5 was probably the last major update. While the 3D engine has potential, it hasn't had any real updates since 2001 when it was introduced.

If there's an upside, supposedly Macromedia is teaming up with Yahoo to give Shockwave a huge marketing push in the coming months. The Director R&D team now says they have more resources available to them. So hopefully things will get back on track.

[benben]

stick with what you know. ehhh!

there is a book by o'reilly called "Flash Hacks 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools "

hack number 98 is probably along the lines of what you want Protect and Obfuscate Your Flash Files (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/excerpt/FlashHacks_chap1/index1.html?page=2)

hope this helps haven't had much time to evaluate.


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benben *** feeling like the village idiot

[tewe76]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tewe76
At least this happens on the later version i has tried (v5, i guess). Someone knows if MX 2004 still has the same disavantage?
you can turn all those things of via actionscript.
Oh...thank you. But, are you talking about MX2004 or also earlier versions? would you tell me the actionscript code for doing that?
offcourse you have to export the flash movie as a standalone program. as long as your flash movie is displayed via a browser there is "someone" who knows it is dealing a flash file.
Yes, i'm thinking about a classic exe offline game.
but how do see this as a disadvantage anyway?
because i think, subconsciently (i think this word doesn´t exist in english :o ) that flash=free of charge. So i don't think of people paying for something they think would be free. There are millions of flash anims or games so, why to pay?

Quote:
Originally Posted by tewe76
But, as i said, i'm new to it, so my question is: is there any commercial (not online) game made with Director?
Check out the game in my signature.
It looks fine, keep on ;)
As for PC and Mac compatibility, theoretically it could be done in one click. However if you have a complex application with extra components, then it requires some pre-planning.
Aha, thanks, i didn't think about that.

Now my new question is: is there any commercial (not online) game made with FLASH? (uh oh, a dejÃ* vu :D )