how can i make a game in 2k/2k3 so that when others download it they cannot view the project rpg maker?

[uuui]

something i noticed some games have but not sure how they do it

 

[estriole]

if i remember correctly there's some program that can pack it to exe files... it's actually creating a 'virtual environment' for the program to run... if i remember correctly one of them called spoon virtual application studio or something...

i don't know the game you have seen use that too or other program though...
hope this help.

 

[ShadowDragon]

Enigma VirtualBox is the one most uses and it's free,

 

[Cherry]

My personal opinion is that you shouldn't do it. See this conversation I recently had as an explanation about why:

Hello Cherry,

For my game I've been using 'Map Tree Corrupt' as a protection for my game. I know there are ways to get around it, but it was not so easy until now. Your recent 'RMunscramble' makes it so. Most likely, the person asking for it wanted to copy the scripting.

My game: [...]

What can I do to protect my game and get around that? I tried looking into compilers a while ago but couldn't find/do one that allowed the game to work correctly afterwards. Suggestions? Encryption?

Hey,

look, we may not agree on this on a philosophical level, but I just don't think there is any point in those "protections". Especially in the RPG Maker - you can't just "copy the scripting" anyway, it's too interweaved with the game itself, and it wouldn't be useful. If it would be so simple, then it wouldn't be anything protection-worthy anyway, and otherwise what is bad about having someone learn how to do advanced things by example? Security through obscurity isn't and never was actual security anyway, it's pretty pointless, and RMUnscramble doesn't do anything super-advanced, it just changes the first few bytes of the files back to how they should normally be - I whipped it up in literally 5 minutes.

When you said compiler, I guess you meant something like Molebox (some other RM games used that in the past), but it can cause performance issues and I don't think it'll play nicely with DynRPG, plus there are unpackers for that as well (I myself wrote one too, many years ago).

I see those "protectors" as obstacles in accessibility, both of the game itself and of knowledge. For example, with EasyRPG as alternative engine you can play RM games on Mac, phones, etc. (well with your game there is also the DynRPG problem, but even for popular DynRPG plugins they started to build support functionality), but then a non-standard game format like this comes around - they probably built workarounds for this, but it's a shame they had to do that in the first place. People not adhering to standards is what makes writing compatibility programs so annoying.

In my opinion you shouldn't attempt to "protect your game" at all. I just don't see what there is to protect from. What financial loss would you incur if someone learns with your help how to use certain logic features of the RPG Maker...? Maybe your graphics or music, but if you sell the game, the license you put on it will protect it (and it would probably be pretty obvious if another person would start using your original content anyway), and in any other case it doesn't make sense.

These are my two cents though. I'm not going to recommend anything to you because I believe it's the wrong path to go down in the first place, and if there were a stronger "protection" for RM2k(3) games that wouldn't already have an easy way to bypass it, I would probably create such a way myself next time I come across it, so it doesn't make sense to give you any recommendation...

By the way, that doesn't mean that I don't value your game or the work you put into it. It looks like a great game (I didn't play it though).

All the best, and stay safe & healthy,

Cherry

 

[Aldu]

I agree with Cherry. Back in the old days, everyone opened each others' projects. I think that really helped the RM2k3 community thrive because we could inspire each other and learn from them.

I've used molebox and enigma virtual box in the past and I personally don't like it. Many anti-virus programs flag your game as a virus. If you're a nobody and someone who's not familiar with the RPG Maker scene downloads your game and sees that it's a virus, there's a possibility that they won't play your game (yes, there are people like that).

If your only issue is to prevent people from reading your code, then I suggest creating a copy of your project, open it, then delete all of the Switch/Variable/Common Event names so it's inconvenient for someone to understand what you did.