I wasn't sure if I was allowed to post my game on the Game Maker Creations Board because it alters the registry (not changing anything, just adding an area that would store your registration code, much like gamemaker and all.) I was wondering if the rules were just concerning changing (or damaging) people registries, and in that case I'd be alright.

It's OK to change the registry to store certain settings. Many games use the registry this way, commercial and amateur. However, if your game does things like messing around the ones in HKEY_ROOT... then it's not allowed.

why dont you try PMing smarty, he's the one who made the rules after all

Actually, rules are written in concensus with the staff members. But I get to take all the blame for pinning them down.

Each Game Maker game has it's own key within the registry of the current user. You're OK to use those, but any modifications outside the game's area we would consider at least polluting.

In short, we would not appreciate it if you use the registry functions ending in ext to store information.

Messing with HKEY_ROOT is very fun. very fun indeed!

You should do sufficient testing with these values though, becasue if you screw up somebody elses computer for lack of testing, you could be facing a sticky situation.


Edit: stupid keys are so close together...

Thanks... so my game game is allowed.... how can you tell if someone has changed your registry in a bad way? (How would I know if I've downloaded someone's game while its actually some evil prank?) I guess it doesn't matter all that much... as long as it doesn't happen. Thanks again for the O.K.

RegMon is a good start.
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Regmon.html

Whats HKEY_ROOT ??? and how do you mess with it?

Just DON'T MESS WITH IT, if you don't know what you are doing when you mess with the registry, chances are that you are going to screw up your computer.

Technically speaking... yes. But I think you are making a "tactical error" if you do anything to change the registry.

What's the point of it? Keeping track of a registration code? Wait until your game is a commercial success before you worry about that.

All you'll accomplish by changing the registry in this forum is to make people suspicious... and that will limit the number of downloads you get.

To avoid GM games messing with your system too badly, run the Game Maker editor and switch on secure mode. Keep it on while running. Any GM game that you start will cough up errors when it is trying to use functions that are not considered 'secure' (the extended registry functions for example).

Wait, Smarty, are you saying ANY GM game, or just editable games run from an instance of Game Maker running with secure settings on.

how do you use "secure mode"? i have never heard of it

Any game. The condition is that you leave the GM editor active while you run that game, but you don't need the game's source.

Finland Games, you start Game Maker itself, go to File -> Preferences, make sure Run games in secure mode is ticked on and minimise Game Maker.

Then you run any GM game made by someone else. If it tries to run any non-secure functions, it will tell you that (DLLs, file access outside the game's directory, running external applications or use extended registry functionality).

Not every game that tries the above is dangerous of course, and not all potentially insecure functionality is intercepted (multiplayer functions still fly for example, but you can intercept those with firewalls). But it's still a lot safer than nothing.

That is interesting Smarty, I thought that only worked with editable games loaded up via GM itself! Good to know!

why are the _ext functions there if we can't use them?

You can use them, you're just not allowed to. They're like drugs.