[casual_games] Encrypting text files

[James Terry]

Only thing to keep in mind about zlib is that is doesn't support
encryption. For save files this is fine, the casual user won't be able
to go in and modify the save file to get to the last level, but if you
are putting DRM recognition in there, or if you are trying to keep
source files secret, you want to use some encryption in there. Blowfish
and other similar encryption/compression methods are simple to use,
especially if you set up an abstraction layer between your game and the
file system. Pull all the data through a save/load file method.

 

James R. Terry
Game Developer
Yatec Games 
(225) 274-1550 Ext. 104
jterry at yatecgames.com <mailto:jterry at yatecgames.com> 
www.yatecgames.com <http://www.yatecgames.com/>  

________________________________

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of James C. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:45 AM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Encrypting text files

 

I would also recommend using ZLib.  All the games I have worked on
including Ricochet and Big Kahuna use ZLib to compress the save game
files and many of the source assets such as level definitions.  The
space savings is a nice side effect, but the real reason we use ZLib is
to just obscure the file contents so they cannot be casually edited.
The ZLib API is very simple to use. We integrated into our file system
abstraction layer so that any file can be transparently (to the game
code) compressed on load and/or save.  

 

James C. Smith

Producer / Lead Programmer

Reflexive Entertainment

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