Does portal hate full-version delivery ?

[yanuart]

In my upcoming game, due to the software limitation I use to make the game, I can only use full-version delivery and not the usual license key system. Will most portals reject my game based on this limitation ?
I know that it's all about the game but I was wondering if that would be a turnoff to pitch my game to portals.

[Bmc]

In my upcoming game, due to the software limitation I use to make the game, I can only use full-version delivery and not the usual license key system. Will most portals reject my game based on this limitation ?
I know that it's all about the game but I was wondering if that would be a turnoff to pitch my game to portals.

most portals have their own systems... you provide them with a full version and they wrap it.

[Nexic]

Bmc, I think hes saying that his game will not be able to be wrapped, possibly because he's using a game creation system that automatically encrypt's its exes (like GameMaker).

Basically I don't think many portals will be willing to do this unless your title has some really serious potential. From my previous dealings it seems like some portals like Reflexive are much less strict on their requirements so they might be will to give it a shot. What you've got to understand is that having a wrapping system saves them time and effort, and most portals won't want to make changes to their system just for your game, unless your game is a sure hit.

ArcadeTown will do seperate trial/full versions. Also Brian is much more open minded about what games will appear, we just released the tile based RPG 'Aveyond' for example.

[arcadetown]

We do accept either separate demo and full versions or an unwrapped full version that we then wrap. We're more the exception than the rule though. Many portals use Trymedia/ActiveMark which believe only supports wrapping a full version. Reflexive's and Real's systems work similar (correct me if wrong).

What issue prevents you from allowing others to deliver full version that's wrapped? In business you want to make as few barriers as possible to deal making so I suggest you figure out whatever problem it is.

[yanuart]

I found that several applications made with Java or wrapped with SWF2EXE softwares sometimes crash when you wrap it again with protection software such as Armadillo.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it won't and I haven't tested all of it yet but it does bring me some concerns that even I won't know what wrapper portals use so there's a 50/50 chance portals reject the game because it won't work on their system.

It's kinda confusing when you must choose between this barrier or the advantages some platform can bring in developing a game.

[arcadetown]

I found that several applications made with Java or wrapped with SWF2EXE softwares sometimes crash when you wrap it again with protection software such as Armadillo.
Try Armadillo's protect and fake option. That seems to help on many games where there are problems.

Wow are you saying Motorama is all Flash using Swf2Exe? If so totally kick butt and made in Flash to boot.

[yanuart]

oh no Motorama was made just like an ordinary win32 application. I have no trouble with motorama whatsoever, I was thinking about my upcoming game.

Flash could indeed offer you with rapid development that's the biggest selling factor in my calculation but it also has some drawbacks, one of them is what i'm discussing here :)

[Nexic]

Flash could indeed offer you with rapid development that's the biggest selling factor in my calculation but it also has some drawbacks, one of them is what i'm discussing here


I wouldn't worry about it, some of the top selling portal games are made in flash and have no problems with wrappers at all. Sometimes you will get the odd game that has problems, but this can usually be fixed by modifing an odd few options in the wrapper program.

[yanuart]

it would be great if we "developers" could get an insight of what wrapper portals use. There are many development tools available that have their own quirks and setbacks and it'll be great to know this thing forward before we invest our time and budget on some tools.
as far as swf2exe problem (i'm referring to the most popular swf2exe program or at least marketed), yes there are several complains about it crashes with Trymark.

So most portals use trymedia activemark? can someone concur with that?

[soniCron]

as far as swf2exe problem (i'm referring to the most popular swf2exe program or at least marketed), yes there are several complains about it crashes with Trymark. I'm using swfXXL and I've tested it with the ASProtect wrapper and Molebox (at least, I think), and it works fine with those. Of course, this doesn't mean it'll work with portal wrappers, but it's a good sign! :)

[arcadetown]

So most portals use trymedia activemark? can someone concur with that?
Yes a lot of portals use ActiveMark but honestly most devs only must concern about it for BFG and perhaps Trymedia's affiliate system. The really huge players that use ActiveMark such as Yahoo and AOL (?) for example are not easy to get on to. You probably need to deal with these wrappers: Armadillo (ArcadeTown), Reflexive, and ActiveMark (BFG and maybe Trymedia). I believe Armadillo is used also by Gamehouse, PlayFirst, GameFiesta, and a few others.

Some guys use Zinc with Flash games and seen their games applied with all 3 with little problem that a few option tweaks in wrapper fixes. "Protect and Fake" setting in Armadillo is commonly used option on Flash & Shockwave games, for example.

[yanuart]

I remember back then BFG requires the game to call certain function through external dll. In that case no flash games wrapper will be able to do that, Zinc actually can but zinc slows down flash game so much :(
hm.. i'll try that protect n fake thing in armadillo

[soniCron]

I remember back then BFG requires the game to call certain function through external dll. In that case no flash games wrapper will be able to do that... I can't imagine it would be too hard to use fscommand to call a custom external application in order to communicate with the Windows subsystem...

[LilGames]

Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I am researching this at the moment.

What I have heard is that systems like ActiveMark depend on the wrapped application being single-threaded. Most Flash wrappers end up being multithreaded (the original SWF and the wrapper running on each their own threads). This causes problems with the DRM wrapper not functioning properly.

So if anyone has any further, real technical advice, please contribute. :-)

(PS: Yanuart, Hi! Why do you say Zinc slows down Flash?)