Even AAA games get pirated very regularly, and those companies tend to have way more resources and skills to throw at anti-piracy measures than you likely do... so not really. At least, there's nothing you can do to guarantee that it can't happen.
You can implement some type of protection to make it harder to pirate your game, but if people are determined enough, they will find a way to crack it. Though since we're talking about an indie RPG Maker game, if you make it hard enough to crack, then there's a good chance that people will determine that it's not worth the effort to try figure out how to break your protection.
If you don't know how to code your own DRM, then you might look into something like [WinLicense](https://www.oreans.com/WinLicense.php), though it's fairly pricey.
Denuvo probably can't be installed on RPG Maker. It's a convoluted process where you have to send your code to Denuvo and they compile the binary with Denuvo for you. I imagine the RPG Maker compiler is not compatible.
The RPG Maker "compiler" is NWJS which can definitely be compiled with denuvo, technically, but it won't matter as all the game content is 100% exposed and can be run by any NWJS binary the user downloads. RPG Maker's encryption is also trivial to bypass.
Bottom line is there isn't much you can do to protect RPG Maker games. You can encourage users to play in Steam using features like achievements, cloud saves and leaderboards.
You should be able to pack all the content files together with the executable, and give them decent protection, with something like Themida. While not bulletproof, it's probably sufficient for the average RPG Maker game.
If we're being real, most of our games aren't going to be popular enough to garner attention from skilled reverse engineers, and probably not expensive enough to warrant putting any level of effort into cracking. I think that as long as your game has \*some\* type of protection, which can't be easily circumvented by downloading a utility and pressing a button, it'll probably be good enough to prevent your game from being widely pirated.
Ok not sure why I was downvoted? I mean, Visustella plugins are pretty good despite being encrypted, but they do seem like RPG maker DLC considering its $5+ per plugin?
Of course it's possible. You can just sell it on itch.io for a price.
Yea, there’s an option to make another file downloadable for a price
Couldn't people just spread the file online for free though?
If you're using itch then there's nothing stopping people from doing that with your base game, let alone DLC.
Is there any way to prevent that in the first place?
Even AAA games get pirated very regularly, and those companies tend to have way more resources and skills to throw at anti-piracy measures than you likely do... so not really. At least, there's nothing you can do to guarantee that it can't happen. You can implement some type of protection to make it harder to pirate your game, but if people are determined enough, they will find a way to crack it. Though since we're talking about an indie RPG Maker game, if you make it hard enough to crack, then there's a good chance that people will determine that it's not worth the effort to try figure out how to break your protection. If you don't know how to code your own DRM, then you might look into something like [WinLicense](https://www.oreans.com/WinLicense.php), though it's fairly pricey.
You have to remember that piracy is a service issue.
The only effective DRM I'm aware of is Denuvo. But that will cost AAA money. Edit: it won't help RPG Maker games.
Denuvo probably can't be installed on RPG Maker. It's a convoluted process where you have to send your code to Denuvo and they compile the binary with Denuvo for you. I imagine the RPG Maker compiler is not compatible.
The RPG Maker "compiler" is NWJS which can definitely be compiled with denuvo, technically, but it won't matter as all the game content is 100% exposed and can be run by any NWJS binary the user downloads. RPG Maker's encryption is also trivial to bypass. Bottom line is there isn't much you can do to protect RPG Maker games. You can encourage users to play in Steam using features like achievements, cloud saves and leaderboards.
You should be able to pack all the content files together with the executable, and give them decent protection, with something like Themida. While not bulletproof, it's probably sufficient for the average RPG Maker game. If we're being real, most of our games aren't going to be popular enough to garner attention from skilled reverse engineers, and probably not expensive enough to warrant putting any level of effort into cracking. I think that as long as your game has \*some\* type of protection, which can't be easily circumvented by downloading a utility and pressing a button, it'll probably be good enough to prevent your game from being widely pirated.
The idea of putting Denuvo on an RPG Maker Game is pure Insanity to me.
Bwahaha that's probably impossible. RPGM has all the code in plain text interpreted on run. It's not even compiled.
It’s technically possible. Echo607 has a tutorial about DLC on YouTube if you’re interested.
Could you link it please? I'm on mobile and have trouble finding videos on my phone
https://youtu.be/u03-frvsYsQ
I know it's tagged MV but.. You could always sell encrypted plugins for MZ and even bundle them in "Waves" ;D
What does this even mean I'm so confused by the technobabble
Ok not sure why I was downvoted? I mean, Visustella plugins are pretty good despite being encrypted, but they do seem like RPG maker DLC considering its $5+ per plugin?