Hi, I just finished my game and now I want a few of my friends to play and test the game. Are there any “protection” things I should make sure of before I start handing out my packaged game to some people? While I trust that they wouldn’t do anything with it, is there still any way that I can make sure that they are the only ones who have access to my game? Any common practices to what I should do when sending a game to friends for “testing” and to play it in general that I should keep note of?
It’s probably best to just hand it out. There’s basically nothing you can do about piracy, in fact there are some arguments that it’s free publicity.
Some people encrypt the PAK file, but this is easy to undo.
The only real way to stop people stealing your game is to make all the parts that matter downloadable modules, which change over time. Think: Fortnite.
Hi thank you for your response! I guess as a follow up to that, and I’m just wondering this in general, if somebody had the packaged game files, would they be able to pass it off as their own or is there a way I can prove that it’s mine?
If someone is persistent, they can change just about anything.
You could put something in the game which is a little more fiddly to change. For instance, a widget on begin play with your name and a copyright notice.
Also, ironically, the more you get it out there, the easier it is to prove it’s yours. If you keep it under wraps and then the ‘hacker’ publishes it, you don’t have a lot of proof. If you put it on Steam, and they steal it ( which they will ), well, you had it on Steam first.