Protect paid plugins (and commissions) from been copied

[Pheonix KageDesu]

So, I don't care much about such stuff, but my friend asked me to make this tool for her and I decided to publish it, maybe someone else needs it.

If you spent money to paid plugins and commissions for your project and want protect them from copied (when you deploy and release your game on Steam) you can use Protector tool. It's not super protection but easy to use and made your plugins not able to be edited in the editor anymore (plugin parameters, help section, plugin commands are deleted)

Your compiled project still will be work fine (in 95%) and in your JS folder will looks like this.


How to use

1. Deploy your project to release (File -> Deployment…)
2. [FOR MZ] Put file PKD_Protector.exe in deployed project directory (where Game.exe and js folder)
3. [FOR MV] Put file PKD_Protector.exe in deployed project www folder (Where js folder)
4. Start PKD_Protector and wait until tool window will closed (and delete it)
5. Don't delete any plugins .js files, even 0 Kb ones

Detailed guide: here


Download from: here
(have MAC version too, but I don't tested it, so if you have some problems, tell me)

Terms of Use: Free for use in commercial and non commercial projects.
Use at your own risk. Use tool only on a compiled (deployed) game, not on a working project. The author is not responsible if you break your project. Take care of yourself and your loved ones.

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Video about this tool, not my video and not in English (but have good English subtitles)

Spoiler: YouTube video

 

[ATT_Turan]

I haven't gotten to that point in developing things yet, but how does this differ/what's the point compared to the deploy->encryption function built into RPG Maker? Doesn't that make the files non-readable and usable by others?

If this is different/better, that's awesome, I'd just like to know.

 

[Pheonix KageDesu]

but how does this differ/what's the point compared to the deploy->encryption function built into RPG Maker? Doesn't that make the files non-readable and usable by others?

Encryption works only for images and audio files. All plugin files still keeps raw after encryption.

 

[ramza]

I'm interested to know exactly what this is doing to make those plugins appear to be 0kb in size? Is it taking the data from them and encrypting it somewhere else and somehow telling the deployed project how to look up that encrypted data?

Obviously knowing how it works means reversing it more easily, so it'd make the tool much less effective, so I understand if you don't want to share what it's actually doing.

 

[LittlePIGGY]

If this is different/better, that's awesome, I'd just like to know.

I will try to record an English audio track for this video as soon as possible. Yes, there is a video WITH SUBTITLES. And it shows clearly the whole process. And that the purchased plugins remain defenseless against pirates after compilation. In addition, on the cryptographers (as Enigma) on the network, I easily found decoders, just googling.

 

[Pheonix KageDesu]

Obviously knowing how it works means reversing it more easily, so it'd make the tool much less effective, so I understand if you don't want to share what it's actually doing.

Everything is simple, the tool removes (permanently) all the definitions of the plugin parameters (plugin commands) and the help section. This stuff is not necessary for the game, but it is almost impossible to use such a plugin later in the RPG Maker Editor, especially if it is a complex plugin that has a lot of settings. So, you can not reverse the plugins after this tool done. You can't restore what was deleted. And this is why you should use tool only on deployed game.

 

[ShadowDragon]

there is a nice encryption tool, which make js also protected and it's really
hard to reverse it (unless you use the exact same version of that tool).

but if they dont know, its full encrypted and you cannot edit either
this one looks nice as well to protect your own js, combined with the other tool,
it would be compleetly useless and hard to reverse

 

[LittlePIGGY]

I'm interested to know exactly what this is doing to make those plugins appear to be 0kb in size?

THE main thing is not to do anything with them! Don't delete, don't move. NOTHING

 

[ramza]

THE main thing is not to do anything with them! Don't delete, don't move. NOTHING

I get that, the question is why are those plugins seemingly empty now? If all it was doing was removing the help info and plugin parameters, for some plugins that is a huge amount of data, sure, but it isn't the entire size of the file. Especially those VS plugins shown, they have huge help sections and tons of plugin parameters, but they're also very complex plugins with thousands of lines of code.

 

[LittlePIGGY]

I get that, the question is why are those plugins seemingly empty now?

1) to pay tribute to their creators. 2) in order for the compiled game to work correctly
This is a special street magic

 

[Marquise*]

Mmmmm ... I wish I was able to program!

 

[BCj]

Would this also be possible for VX Ace?

 

[Pheonix KageDesu]

Would this also be possible for VX Ace?

With this soft - no. VX Ace uses different way to store scripts.