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id Software had these questions when they were making Doom. At the end they decided to allow editing.
It worked out nicely for them, i think.
Should i bother encrypting level files, save game files and art files?
Should i bother encrypting level files, save game files and art files?
The way I see it, the person has paid for the game so if they want to browse or edit their save game and the level files, then what's the harm?
They could in theory make new levels by copying a level xml file, editing it to change positions and character types and adding it to the level index file. The game would then load it in and it would be playable.
But is that such a bad thing. They paid for the game. Maybe they could share these new levels. After all i do plan to release an editor.
As for the save game file they could unlock levels but the whole unlocking mechanism in the game is a game play thing. It is not an in-app-purchase or pay-wall.
Of course there are the pirates but i would rather focus on making the game-play better.
As for the art files, no one can legally use them in another game so what's the harm in having access to them.
Can anyone give their opinion on what they did?
id Software had these questions when they were making Doom. At the end they decided to allow editing.
It worked out nicely for them, i think.
Ha hagood point
Recently on this forum there was someone whose level files were stolen and used in a 'clone' of their game directly. That may be one reason to encrypt... with that being said I usually don't encrypt my level files.
You keep saying 'they paid for the game' - they didn't, they paid for a license to use it. By your logic they've assumed all ownership and you'd have no problem if they gave copies away?
Thats a good point...also i would not like a clone appearing somewhere..i think a bit of time invested into this might be worthwhile...crypto c++ is what i will probably use.
You can pack config-files and scripts into singe pak-file, with (some) compression.
This kinda solves problem of encryption -- it's not so easy to change any of game config/scripts without knowing the binary format of pak-file and compression algorithm.
Dont worry about it, once you go down that path "worrying about piracy, etc, etc" it will drive you mad. Spend your time working on new projects.
In the end crypto++ was not that hard to implement, so i have encrypted level files and the save game. I did worry for a while though. its not worth it in the end. Thanks all.
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