Protecting a game

Hello.

I have put my website URL in my game in order to protect it from people who can just copy the .js file and put it on their website, but I saw that this text URL is very easy to change to any other website and my credit is gone.

How I can protect my game in this case and make this text unchangeable or anything else that will help me protect my game?

Once you make the game, it is your game. You have the original files from when the game is made. All the credits are yours.

If people want to steal your game, see it as a compliment, for people wouldn't steal it if it sucked.

As long as you have the original files and all the other stuff related to your game you should be able to prove the game is yours if and when other people are trying to profit from it.

In this age it's almost impossible to protect anything completely, so why hide behind a fictional feeling of security. If and when your work is being (ab)used by others without your permission there are many ways to set things right.

One way that could work (I have not tried, just came up with it, so I'm not sure) is to use the Browser plugin to check the domain name on which the game runs. Supposing you know where you're going to host it, you can have an array which contains a list of allowed domains. On layout start, check if the current domain belongs to that list. If it does not, that means the game is stolen, you can do what you feel like: prevent the game from continuing, display a warning message, redirect to your original host, force the browser to close the tab...

The downside is that you have to plan ahead where it will be hosted. If you want to host it on a new site, you'd have to update the list of domain and recompile.

Edit: You could have the list of domains in a separate xml file that you'd import with an ajax request, that would be easier to update, but it would defy the purpose, since you would have to host it with your game (no cross domain ajax!), so anyone who grabs your game, will grab this list too and can edit it.

Good idea —, thanks.

theunreal did you use the 'minify script' option? If you did, it should make it very hard for people to change the actual js of the game.

I think what he meant is he is more worried about people just copy/pasting his whole game and host it as is on their own server, making ad revenues with his game, without his consent, not actually stealing parts of the assets/code. Just like some sites do with images (9gags and such).

One way that could work (I have not tried, just came up with it, so I'm not sure) is to use the Browser plugin to check the domain name on which the game runs. Supposing you know where you're going to host it, you can have an array which contains a list of allowed domains. On layout start, check if the current domain belongs to that list. If it does not, that means the game is stolen, you can do what you feel like: prevent the game from continuing, display a warning message, redirect to your original host, force the browser to close the tab...

The downside is that you have to plan ahead where it will be hosted. If you want to host it on a new site, you'd have to update the list of domain and recompile.

Edit: You could have the list of domains in a separate xml file that you'd import with an ajax request, that would be easier to update, but it would defy the purpose, since you would have to host it with your game (no cross domain ajax!), so anyone who grabs your game, will grab this list too and can edit it.

Thank you very much. It wont be a disadvantage as soon as I already know and i'm hosting my game already.

My worry is about changing the TEXT url in the .js file from my URL to different site URL. (it easys to CTRL+F and replace).

This is what I'm trying to prevent..