Hey everyone — just a quick heads-up to help you avoid the same headache I ran into.
My game Nymble 2 was recently pirated and reuploaded to other sites without my permission — and, of course, they're running ads on it to profit off my 100+ hours of work. 😤
If you're using a simple domain check at the start of your game to sitelock it, be aware: it's not enough. It's super easy to remove or bypass, especially in HTML5 builds. Unfortunately, the Newgrounds.io API doesn’t work with the latest version of GameMaker, so I had to cook up some hacky anti-piracy code to slow them down. I’m not sure how effective it’ll be long-term, but it should block newer versions of the game from being easily stolen.
If you're publishing to Newgrounds, please take some time to:
- Obfuscate your code if possible
- Avoid putting all your logic in one place
- Consider creative ways to check for unauthorized domains (and silently break functionality)
Let’s look out for each other — indie devs deserve better than this.
TinFoi
I would suggest putting hidden (and not obvious) code that would self destruct the game almost immediately if it isn't on Newgrounds, if this is put into every script of the game, they'll have to pave their way to find the problem and eventually give up.