how can i setup a bot?

[GreezyJeezy]

so me and some friends are working on a game and when were finished were going to need a way to sell it, i have a webhost so ill use that for a website but the thing is we want it so when you pay via paypal it will automatically email you a download link for it, but then im concerned on how i would make it so its one link per person so that person cant just give out the link and anyone can download it from that.

 

 

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Welcome to DRM and piracy concerns 101  

[GreezyJeezy]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Welcome to DRM and piracy concerns 101  

well its not so much priate concern, if it gets cracked then thats whatever (people must really like it to want to crack it), its the whole being my fault for having one perma link that eveyone can use.

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1 minute ago, GreezyJeezy said:

well its not so much priate concern, if it gets cracked then thats whatever (people must really like it to want to crack it), its the whole being my fault for having one perma link that eveyone can use.

So you want to just email each person a unique key rather than 1 link.  I guess that is one step better.  What kind of volumes are you expecting?  I have a feeling that manually typing out a key and emailing each customer might be easier than writing a "bot" for this.

[GreezyJeezy]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

So you want to just email each person a unique key rather than 1 link.  I guess that is one step better.  What kind of volumes are you expecting?  I have a feeling that manually typing out a key and emailing each customer might be easier than writing a "bot" for this.

im exception 0 really, but how would you get a key and what would you redeem it on? 

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3 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

im exception 0 really, but how would you get a key and what would you redeem it on? 

Well I assume you have some rudimentary DRM set up or otherwise it's going to be rather hard to do this... I assume your program contacts your server to see if the key entered is on a list that you've authorized.  Every time you make a sale, make up a key, email them that, and add that to the text file of sold keys so the game will run.  Sure that's super easy to break if someone tried but you said you're not concerned about piracy.

 

The other solution would be to just have a fully "open" installer like GOG does.  When you make a sale, use a URL shortener or something to generate a link to the download page that you can revoke after one use... idk.  

[2FA]

4 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

im exception 0 really, but how would you get a key and what would you redeem it on? 

Welcome to setting up databases. You would create a database of keys that would keep track of whether or not a key has been registered and what account it is registered to there by only allowing that account to use that key to download. Also what @Ryan_Vickers said.

[GreezyJeezy]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well I assume you have some rudimentary DRM set up or otherwise it's going to be rather hard to do this... I assume your program contacts your server to see if the key entered is on a list that you've authorized.  Every time you make a sale, make up a key, email them that, and add that to the text file of sold keys so the game will run.  Sure that's super easy to break if someone tried but you said you're not concerned about piracy.

 

The other solution would be to just have a fully "open" installer like GOG does.  When you make a sale, use a URL shortener or something to generate a link to the download page that you can revoke after one use... idk.  

i have no DRM, right now we just have the game and my webhost, how would i set up DRM, or is there some shit i can pay for that will do this for me, 

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1 minute ago, GreezyJeezy said:

i have no DRM, right now we just have the game and my webhost, how would i set up DRM, or is there some shit i can pay for that will do this for me, 

Sounds like you want a "web-side" solution (basically restricting how you give out installers).  That leaves you vulnerable to people just copying the installer to their friend, but it can be slightly better than nothing. I mean, it's basically GOG's business model.  How big is the game?  Maybe just email them the installer when they buy, that way there is no download link for people to bypass your purchasing system.

[GreezyJeezy]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Sounds like you want a "web-side" solution (basically restricting how you give out installers).  That leaves you vulnerable to people just copying the installer to their friend, but it can be slightly better than nothing. I mean, it's basically GOG's business model.  How big is the game?  Maybe just email them the installer when they buy, that way there is no download link for people to bypass your purchasing system.

its not very big, its just a heavily story based RPG, like a to the moon type of deal, 2d and all that,

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2 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

its not very big, its just a heavily story based RPG, like a to the moon type of deal, 2d and all that,

well if it's under 20 MB it should work.  Only minor nuisance is you would most likely have to send it without a file extension or things like gmail and outlook would block it.  You'd send them the file and tell them to rename it from "mygame" to "mygame.exe" and then run it  

[GreezyJeezy]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

well if it's under 20 MB it should work.  Only minor nuisance is you would most likely have to send it without a file extension or things like gmail and outlook would block it.  You'd send them the file and tell them to rename it from "mygame" to "mygame.exe" and then run it  

this is why i wanted to make it free then maybe get the dev group a following but they insist to make it paid 

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2 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

this is why i wanted to make it free then maybe get the dev group a following but they insist to make it paid 

Have you considered putting it on Steam?  The barrier to entry seems to be pretty much nothing these days...

[GreezyJeezy]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Have you considered putting it on Steam?  The barrier to entry seems to be pretty much nothing these days...

i thought that took forever

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1 minute ago, GreezyJeezy said:

i thought that took forever

I don't know honestly.  I just know it seems to be a lot easier than it used to be

[GreezyJeezy]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I don't know honestly.  I just know it seems to be a lot easier than it used to be

maybe ill get that hacker kid to find another way to bypass greenlight  

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2 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

maybe ill get that hacker kid to find another way to bypass greenlight  

Remember all the tricks - bribe your voters with free copies of the game, DMCA bad reviews, etc. etc.  You'll be rich and hated in no time!  

[GreezyJeezy]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Remember all the tricks - bribe your voters with free copies of the game, DMCA bad reviews, etc. etc.  You'll be rich and hated in no time!  

well i got that first part down, as for the hated i guess im on the way to that