All previous games I sold were strictly sold on cdrom and mailed to customer (because all my previous games were over 600megs) -Im about to launch my first small demo with time limit and registration key required to unlock. A few newbie questions... - Where is the safest place to store the evaluation time limit variable (in the registry or on a secret file on the customers harddrive?) If stored in the registry cant the customer simply make a backup of the registry before installing game and then simply restore registry to restore time limit. - Do most people use thirdparty registration/key gen that simply plugs into any existing code to unlock. Or do most handle this themselves? - When submitting to portals - Im assumming your program must be setup to link to "their" website for the "buy now" button to make them money, correct? Thanks Bill
I think most people do use some kind of third party registration system. Armadillo is very popular ( and pretty expensive now ) but there are a number of reasonably priced alternatives as well. I personally think they're well worth the expenditure, considering how much time it would take to write your own system that was similarly secure. Armadillo, for instance, is pretty resiliant to casual piracy. When submitting to portals, you normally need to give them a completely unprotected version of the game with no links ( either written or clickable buttons ) and no nags, reminders, registration, etc. They do all the rest themselves, which usually amounts to wrapping it with their protection systems ( Armadillo or whatever. )
You're absolutely correct; or they could use a registry activity monitor to see what keys do you read. But the problem you'll face is usally the opposite - your customers will have trouble figuring out how to download the game and how to install it, so they probably have no idea about what's that registry thing, let alone how to back it up or monitor it. And I think a lot of people who do know, just won't waste their time for $20. It's easier to buy. Portals usually ask you for an unrestricted FULL version with no links at all, which they then wrap, time-limit and such things. You can convince most of them to let you do your own feature and time limitation and integrate with their wrappers, to know whether to behave as DEMO or FULL. Some of them even have extremely cool technology, such as Reflexive Arcade, which actually lets you run their sales process inside your own game. Download Betty's Beer Bar or Wild West Wendy from Reflexive to see that in action.