Licence Key & Expansion Packs

[matthewpull]

Hi,

I'm making a game for a charity fundraiser, and have 2 questions:

1) Is it possible (and can someone explain how) to make the user enter a license key when they register, which I will give to them when the purchase the game?

2) Is it also possible (and can someone again explain how) to make expansion packs that require purchasing to activate more content, either with in game currency or credit card / PayPal?

If you can answer either of these questions, please help me!!!

[blkcrow]

It is possible you just have to find a coder capable of doing all that

[Stein]

Possible, very easy to do as well. But just to burst your bubble; It's highly unlikely you'll make anything worth selling even if you take four people that're pretty good at using this engine, and spend a year or two developing your game.

[matthewpull]

I'm not even considering making lots of money, but I will be selling it at school (to raise money for the school's charity) and I need a way to stop people from being able to register for free.

[Guest]

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[matthewpull]

> How to dress is every girl every day headache things. Especially in the summer, how to dress up both fashion and cool may be one of each girl's question, now give women recommend Women Leggings, as long as your clothes match in the leggings everything is so simple, because Tight Leggings can and match with different clothes.
>
> [http://www.ms-leggings.com](http://www.ms-leggings.com)

How is this relevant to my post?

[Mal]

I'm sure there's more than one technique associated with registering products, but the process that I would use would take a significant amount of time.

Step 1: Generate 100 unique registration codes.

Step 2: Create a constant in each client that matches 1 of those generated registration codes, compile it, and burn the installer package to a cd.

Step 3: Package the matching client and registration code together.

Step 4: Upon first installation, ask for the valid and matching registration number before any other operation is done.

Step 5: If the registration number and client matches, set a registry entry that tells the client whether or not the product has been registered on each concurrent run.

Few issues associated with this type of handling:

1\. If the customer loses their registration number, you'll need to have a fail-safe else you are both screwed.

2\. Re-selling and redistribution could lead to potential losses in revenue.

[Sealbreaker]

I would attempt it like this:

1\. Make a .ini file server-side with all the valid registration-codes in it.

1.2 The server should read that ini-file and store it into an array/vector/list on server-start

2\. Make the client ask for such a code in the registration form (just a textbox more)

3\. Make the client send the entered key with all the other registration data (just look for the method used when the registration-button is clicked)

4\. Let the server check for the entered key's validity before creating the account data, so if the key is wrong the account isn't created (and maybe an error-message for the client, saying that the entered key was wrong)

5\. IF the key was right, just let the server create the account as usual and then delete the key from the array/vector/whatever, so it isn't re-usable. On shutdown, the server should write all the usable keys back to the .ini so it still knows what keys are valid on the next start.

This may sound like a lot of work, but it actually isn't magic.

Good luck with your fund-raising,

-seal

[Mal]

Yeah, I missed the part where it was an Eclipse game where networking, file streams, and credentials were already being used. Sealbreaker has a good idea. I'll improve on it to further "lock it down":

1\. Add a property to the structure and file used to store client information; name it reg_code.

2\. When the client registers, remove the used code from the stored list of all valid registration codes and store it in the clients file in case re-installation is required by the end-user; simply place an option to "Retrieve Registration Code" on the title screen of the game, check the credentials of the account and send the registration code back.

[Stein]

The key will be used on account level with his method, not installation level.

[Mal]

> The key will be used on account level with his method, not installation level.

It can be used at registration as well. Every credential is stored at registration anyway, so why not add the registration code to the list of credentials stored?

[matthewpull]

> Yeah, I missed the part where it was an Eclipse game where networking, file streams, and credentials were already being used. Sealbreaker has a good idea. I'll improve on it to further "lock it down":
>
> 1\. Add a property to the structure and file used to store client information; name it reg_code.
>
> 2\. When the client registers, remove the used code from the stored list of all valid registration codes and store it in the clients file in case re-installation is required by the end-user; simply place an option to "Retrieve Registration Code" on the title screen of the game, check the credentials of the account and send the registration code back.

I only want one account created for most licenses.

However, this could be useful for the family license (4 accounts).

[matthewpull]

Can this be moved into the programming section as it would be really useful to get some example code on this, I'm not very good at coding myself.

[Mal]

> I only want one account created for most licenses.
>
> However, this could be useful for the family license (4 accounts).

The concept explained above was for single accounts. Each additional account would need to purchase a registration code. This allows for your client to be freely distributed, but to play the game they would need to purchase a registration code to use to activate their unique account.

[blkcrow]

The walk around easy way: disable registrations and give account when someone pays you for the game