Distributing your games (making a .love file)

[pgimeno]

In fact it's not the only application that uses such a trick. odf, jar, epub, and others are renamed zipfiles too.

[HaftSwimmingly]

When browsing through the forums, I've come come across some old exporter that exports .love files to Flash files. However, It seems development has since stopped and does not work with 0.10.0 (or 0.10.1).

Any chance of a resurgence?

[Positive07]

Why? Flash is dead, you should embrace HTML5. Or just simply deploy to all platforms

[HaftSwimmingly]

Those are really cool projects. I'm not against HTML5, but the converter I was talking about could convert .love files to .swf. That way, I would be able to post these games on other sites, or use them on my own.

Anything like that for LOVE currently?

[zorg]

Those are really cool projects. I'm not against HTML5, but the converter I was talking about could convert .love files to .swf. That way, I would be able to post these games on other sites, or use them on my own.

Anything like that for LOVE currently?

Technically, you're not using them on your own, you're relying on a flash player being installed (and not blocked) on websites and/or on your computer. It's no different from relying on the js port that LöveFiddle uses for net, or for löve proper, if you want them to run on any computer (or handheld), offline.

Positive07 meant this, probably, that not many people would be helped out with a flash version. Especially if they plan to download it and not play in the browser anyway.

You can post your .love files anywhere. Or check out the game distribution page on the wiki.

[Positive07]

My browser won't run Flash by default starting on September or maybe December... Edge doesn't either... If I had to download an installer or a Flash game I would choose the installer. Native LÖVE will always be faster (Note that if I release an .exe, an .app an .apk and a .love which I can generate with some of the existing executable generators here in the forums, most people wouldn't need to install LÖVE itself, just download and play).

If I had to choose between a Flash game which would be played in the browser or a JavaScript game which is player in the browser I would go with JavaScript. As I said above and in the links I posted, Flash won't be supported anymore sometime SOON, JS will always be available. Flash is not available in mobile, JS is...

The code I need to write would be the same, there is no added benefit if I had to compare Flash against native or the JS port, in fact there are those downsides I talked about.

[Mariscal]

So I did my first .exe today following the steps you mentioned in this thread, all working fine and good, but just realized I can simply open the .exe file in win rar and see all the files inside, code, data and everything. Does that mean anybody who gets the game can change the code?

[tio]

So I did my first .exe today following the steps you mentioned in this thread, all working fine and good, but just realized I can simply open the .exe file in win rar and see all the files inside, code, data and everything. Does that mean anybody who gets the game can change the code?

Well... Yes.

It's always possible to encrypt your game (despite initialization code should be decrypted so LÖVE can run it). You can also make LÖVE load encrypted files by changing its source code.

[Positive07]

Yes everyone can see inside of it, open it, change it or whatever... No one will probably ever will... Why?

• First because most likely no one knows that your game is packaged that way
• Second because probably no one cares enough to open it
• Third because if you intend to sell you need to protect yourself with a License file so that if someone opened and stole your code you could
• protect yourself with help of lawyers
• Fourth because even without opening the file they can still replicate your game by playing it and understanding the concept
• Fifth because most apps can be opened this way or a similar way but no one really does this because of the third statement here
• Six because if someone likes your game they will support you regardless

[tio]

Yes everyone can see inside of it, open it, change it or whatever... No one will probably ever will... Why?

• First because most likely no one knows that your game is packaged that way
• Second because probably no one cares enough to open it
• Third because if you intend to sell you need to protect yourself with a License file so that if someone opened and stole your code you could
• protect yourself with help of lawyers
• Fourth because even without opening the file they can still replicate your game by playing it and understanding the concept
• Fifth because most apps can be opened this way or a similar way but no one really does this because of the third statement here
• Six because if someone likes your game they will support you regardless

Last argument is too much optimistic IMO.
Anyway, any effort to hide your assets will (likely) be in vain because either:
[*]If people want to crack your game, people will find a way to do (no matter how).
[*]If people don't care enough to do this, you don't need this protection at all.