Quite the discussion going on Reddit... https://www.reddit.com/.../pirated_version_of_my_game/
Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with a pirated version of your game, if at all?
Quite the discussion going on Reddit... https://www.reddit.com/.../pirated_version_of_my_game/
Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with a pirated version of your game, if at all?
I believe keeping important content on server-side is the only way developers came up with so far. Making of hacked content delivery mechanism for each specific game can be boring thing to do, but still pretty possible.
As for piracy in general... Some classic games are in hearts of many players only because they've been distributed uncontrollably in post-USSR countries which I witnessed many times. Players, especially from less rich countries, do tend to either play full game first and pay later or support game in other ways, like record a video about it or tell friends. So 2nd option could be to ignore these cases, or make a free version with hint to tell about this game in exchange of it being free for player.
And 3rd option - maybe even put in-game ads for free version of the game? It sure would work much better if game was a browser game though, but then piracy could be a less of a problem too. I don't think I saw any games with ads on Steam so far.
Fighting piracy by making the game worse for actual fans (by moving crucial game logic server-side) is a very bad solution imo. I believe in the way of GoG.com
Because if people really like your content, they'll pay for it.
So I think the best solution for all is make it easier to get the game the legit way, and not the illegal way, by:
1. Make sure you're visible on the web. Search engines, SoMe, etc.
2. Make people emtionally invest in you and your work (by being sincere, and not by trickery).
3. Asking hosters of your pirated content to take it down, or if they refuse, make them include a link to where to by the content, if they like it (i've seen work before).
As of how I found your game, I saw it on youtube (the video below) and I wanted to search for your itch page, but the first result (on duckgogo) was a clearly illegal site: https://extrogames.com/game/star-explorers
But again, I've heard of artists saying they've got vastly more people to their patreon (for example) because people know they can go to the source, to get more of the same good stuff! Take it as forced advertisement 馃槄
I'd only fight piracy if it's absolutely 100% ruining your job.... and you're certain about it not giving you free PR!