Any one got any thougts on encryption? name,serial number that sort of thing??

I mean in a finished game, some form of protection!!
F.

The rule on encryption is: DON'T implement it yourself.
Even if you know how the algorithm works, there are so many pitfalls, that you will most likely stumble over all of them. Use an existing crypto library that has been audited by more than 10 people and has already been used in a few projects.

If you want to protect your game from being pirated, forget it now. Its not worth the effort beside that it is a great way to get free advertisement. When my App got pirated, my sales went up by 200% (50 sales/day), so better use this. Beside that the people who really don't want to pay for your program (for whatever reason) aren't going to pay anything, no matter how much protection you put on top of it. And like encryption, you will do it wrong anyway.

Well its not really to protect against piracy, I totally agree that is a pretty lost cause, no I was thinking more of releasing the game for digital DL, with a name and serial number, that was all really.

What is the crypto library? and how would I implement it?

Thanks for you insight.

F.

Do you know the Name of the user before you issue a serial? Because in this case the most straightforward way would be to generate a salted hash out of the user name and issue this as serial. In your program you just generate the hash too and check it against the inserted serial.
Not really secure (and there are a lot of factors that can make it really insecure), but it works and is easy to implement. I would go with a long hash like SHA2 256 or even longer to avoid collisions and brute forcing a valid key.


There is no such thing as THE crypto library, but many crypto libraries that implement different algorithms. Depending on what you want, you would pick one. Your best bet would be an BSD or MIT licensed library, its open source but no copy left bullshit like the GPL.
The FreeBSD project includes a good crypto library that can generate hashes, OS X implements the excellent commoncrypto library which is also Open Source and can be found here http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/CommonCrypto/CommonCrypto-36064/

Another thing about crypto: If you use encryption and you live in the USA or want to deploy your game from a server in the USA, you need a CCATS. This means that you must send all relevant crypto sources to a sub division of the NSA and let them review the code. Even if you use an already reviewed crypto library!
This process can take up to two months so better let them review before your game is finished so you don't have to wait up to two months to release the game (without the CCATS, you violate U.S. export rules and this can get VERY expensive!)

You don't need a CCATS if you use encryption for authentication or anti piracy, you also don't need it if your algorithm uses < 64 bit (symmetric) or < 1024 (asymmetric) bit keys. If your program uses encryption for any other purpose or if you use a larger key, you need this CCATS.

Of course, if you aren't an U.S. citizen and use a eg. an european server, you don't need a CCATS.

Hell, never thought it would be quite so complex and confusing... need time to study this a bit I think....

F.

Sorry, but encryption is always complex. Or weak. But if you have questions, feel free to ask.

Well its a bit toooooo complex for me really... Thought there may be a bit of code I could "Slot in" as it were.... seems not to be the case.

Hmmmmm.!!!