What is the best practice for users downloading files for my C3 program?

I have a C3 program that uses audio (.mp3) and data (.json) files to drive a Bluetooth-enabled device.

I want to sell these files on my Shopify store. What is the best practice for something like that?

Would this work?

- I .zip the files together and change the extension to something uncommon (.daff?)

- Allow users to download and save the files locally

- My C3 program will then allow users to navigate to the appropriate folder(s)

- It will display all .daff files in the current folder

- When the user selects a .daff file my C3 program will unzip both files and play them

There are encryption plugins available that will let you encrypt data to save and read encrypted files iirc. That would be a more significant step you could take on top of simple obfuscation by changing the file extension.

But in my opinion there's not much point, as far as redistribution goes it doesn't really matter how many layers of protection you put on it since your program will be able to read it either way. Encryption might prevent someone from reusing your assets elsewhere, but from what I recall of your project your assets and format should be pretty unique to your program.

Thank you for the reply!

I'm not overly concerned about protecting my assets. If someone wants to share my files then there's probably not much I can (easily) do to stop them.

I'm *more* concerned about providing users with a simple experience. Here's what worries me:

- Users could download the files but then forget where they saved them

- A user might separate the audio and data file (not realizing they need both)

Also, I'm worried that a user might contact me because they don't know how to find their files. If they are using a Mac I would not be able to help them, as I don't own and have never used one.

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I have also considered offering a subscription and then allowing subscribers to stream the files. Unfortunately, the subscription is through Shopify and I don't know of an easy way to get subscriber info from there to my program. (Shopify has an API for this, but it looks pretty complicated. Not sure if I could get that to work in Construct or not.)