Any good anti cheat systems?

[GameSmashDash]

I've been working on my own anti cheat system for some parts of the code. That mostly for the kill count. However I want to know how to create a good anti cheat system without having to use external software of course and program my own. Whether that be programming logic I need to look up or not.

Any good anti cheat coding or anti cheat logic I can use would be great. So far I made trash anti cheat but I'm getting there.

[Blind]

I'd be curious about this as well.

When it comes to save files, basic encryption is easy - but when it comes to the game files, well, there's plenty of Studio decompilers out there to just read all your code.

[◢ k r i s ◤]

If it's multiplayer or online-scoreboard, handle anti-cheating with authority at server level. Although it's not recommended to tie an online component to a single-player experience where the game becomes unavailable when your server eventually goes offline.

If it's an offline or single player game, embrace cheaters as a fact of life and find ways to make their amusement your own amusement - or just leave simple easter-egg messages lying around for when people eventually do show that much interest in your game and explore beyond the intended parameters.

Sometimes indicating that you expected someone would eventually break your game beyond your means of defending it is the best defense you're allowed. It's not like anyone elsewhere in the industry actually has a working anti-cheat strategy - they've all sucked at best and backfired at worst.

Do encrypt your assets though - that can be a liability-thing, even if it's easy enough for someone to decrypt once they have your game's decryption key. You might want to protect your save-files and such and that's great and all, but if you're using commercial licensed resources like graphics or sound effects or music which license demands obfuscation or some other means of protection, that's a potential lawsuit and much more serious than someone cheating for a high-score. Being impossible to break/cheat can be less important than proving that someone had to intentionally break apart your game to access resources they shouldn't.

[GameSmashDash]

Originally posted by ◢ k r i s ◤:

If it's multiplayer or online-scoreboard, handle anti-cheating with authority at server level. Although it's not recommended to tie an online component to a single-player experience where the game becomes unavailable when your server eventually goes offline.

If it's an offline or single player game, embrace cheaters as a fact of life and find ways to make their amusement your own amusement - or just leave simple easter-egg messages lying around for when people eventually do show that much interest in your game and explore beyond the intended parameters.

Sometimes indicating that you expected someone would eventually break your game beyond your means of defending it is the best defense you're allowed. It's not like anyone elsewhere in the industry actually has a working anti-cheat strategy - they've all sucked at best and backfired at worst.

Do encrypt your assets though - that can be a liability-thing, even if it's easy enough for someone to decrypt once they have your game's decryption key. You might want to protect your save-files and such and that's great and all, but if you're using commercial licensed resources like graphics or sound effects or music which license demands obfuscation or some other means of protection, that's a potential lawsuit and much more serious than someone cheating for a high-score. Being impossible to break/cheat can be less important than proving that someone had to intentionally break apart your game to access resources they shouldn't.

It's not about creating the best or a better anti cheat system; it's about getting better at creating an anti cheat system and getting better at programming.