How to add piracy protection in Node-webkit?

Hi guys

I'm just wondering about Node-webkit may add piracy portection but actually C2 version doesn't have access to Node-webkit API could compare data, version, etc.

According to this idea

http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/

Isn't possible to implement piracy protection for Node-webkit using C2?

Yo its possible

use something like Onlineactivation System

To be honest, don't bother.

If they want to crack your game, they will and you can do nothing about that. Instead of spending hours/days and money trying to protect your game, better spend this time on bug fixing and polishing.

Look at the past, at some games who had "uniqe and impossible to crack" protections from big companies who spend milions of dollars inventing them. They all got cracked within couple of weeks.

shinkan You're right, but I'm not looking for DRM protection, just saying I'm wondering if C2 has possibility of implementing protection against piracy for fun or something, I thought one method to receive a valid copy via AJAX and saved to your computer, but I find it somewhat uncomfortable. Got some ideas?

Unfortunately I never thought about securing games made in C2 (or even CC and any other soft I used) but I was always a big fan of good old days copy protection

<img src="http://www.thehouseofgames.net/docs/p/prince_of_persia2_copy_protection.gif" border="0" />

which can be a bit difficult in era of digital madness ;)

shinkan Wow, it's so painful. Anyways the minimum copy protection technique is enough after all. It would make the customers happier. Online HTML5 game, its copy protection was comparing original domain name, it may work but modifying runtime js file can be hacked, but there a best way to make protection was annoy to crackers like multi variables, encrypted messages, etc.

I'm not sure about node-webkit...

I like to bump this thread, we may get more good practices, i'm not interesed to add DRM protection because it would waste the time and ruin the users.

Only it's for fun to alternate the game (not blocking the game, just giving the messages which is not part of canon) to someone pirates the game.

Lucasfilm & Sierra Games: hours of fun copying codes!

<img src="http://community.fortunecity.ws/millenium/lincoln/98/page2.jpg" border="0" />

(scanners were awfully expensive)

But photocopiers weren't

But some were... colour coded!

<img src="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/493576-gobliiins-atari-st-screenshot-copy-protections.png" border="0" />

<img src="http://magisterrex.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/blogstealthaffaircopyprotectionscreen.png" border="0" />

Quite imaginative

<img src="http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/Grugle/Retro%20Gaming/Old%20Copy%20Protection/CopyProtectionLoom.jpg" border="0" />

very hard to scan

<img src="http://magisterrex.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/humansdiskprotection.jpg" border="0" />

Or just plain fun!

<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Secret_of_Monkey_Island_Manual_%26_Dial-a-Pirate.jpg" border="0" />

Damn, I miss manuals.

sved It seems you really miss these manuals, actually it's sad they don't use it anymore due to waste of time.

I was looking to implement using node fs (file system) to detect if is not pirated, i'm not going to use this method because it would waste more money for material instead of digital downloading.

Be Aware, Game Dev Tycoon is a HTML5 app, compiled with node-webkit, it features piracy protection mode that it makes you impossible to win the game.

Joannesalfa : spending money in antipiracy measure isn't very wise, but you need to have a "minimum of antipiracy" baked in, to aovid losing all customers.

The thing is that people always go for the route that is less costly. If you use a simple technique that needs an hour of online search to crack, "regular" customer are going to buy your game instead of losing one hour, and typical crackers are going to crack it anyway.

Think about the 80/20 rule : 80% of the money comes from 20% of the customers. So make it hard for those 20% of customer to have a cracked version. And only for them, no more, because what is invested on top of those 20% is lost money.

that means very simple trick like : CRC check of the binary file size, serial key (meaning having a server to check that, or a keycheck injected inside the binary), or demo/complete versions of the game. Nothing fancy, everything already invented, but that's sufficient to dether piracy from the "mom's and dad's" (what a clich� ! ;)) playing your game (and after all, they have the money anyway to pay, not the youngsters).

Joannesalfa

Didn't the dev of GDT just release a slightly different version of his game on the pirate bay, on release, on his own accord?

That's how it got pirated so much..

It's important to know that a pirated copy does not equate to a lost sale.. statistics like 90% of copies were pirated does not mean that all, if not any of those copies would have been an actual sale if the option to pirate was not there.

In fact, if he hadn't put this modified version on tbp, and then made the article on piracy.. relatively much fewer people would have even heard of his game. The whole thing was to get publicity from other articles, which would lead to more actual sales.

Yeah it's a tough call. Some indies have deliberately released unprotected versions of their games on pirate bay, and claimed it actually increased sales from word of mouth. Some had bad experiences. I'd agree that nothing will stop a dedicated pirate/cracker, better to just focus on good gameplay and profit from the word of mouth.

The "joking" piracy protection might be an even worse idea (despite how amusing it is to read about) because if it's at all buggy, you're going to have a lot of legitimate customers who won't necessarily be laughing. Nor will you if they want a refund.     <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />