I''ve recently signed a contract with a very successful publisher of budget games. It''s thrilling to think that in just a couple months I''ll be making money from what used to be a "hobby". As much as I''d like to make announcements here and brag about my accomplishments, I fear that it may be a pretty stupid thing to do. My game is being marketed to the 30+ age demographic mostly. Casual computer users interested in simple high quality games. If I mention it here, its seems like I''m just begging for hundreds of programmers to try and crack my game, and put it on warez sites or whatever those evil hacker people do. Perhaps by posting here, I could get a few sales from folks who want to support indie development, but would I lose more sales when one person hacks it and many people download the hack? Probably those who download the hack would be warez commoners who would have never been exposed to it or bought it in the first place, sure, but still I wonder. Anyone have any ideas or better yet, experience with this issue? In general, would it be a benefit to post an announcement at gamedev.net (the "Your Announcements" forum I suppose)

I''m not sure what you were getting at in your post (its a little rambled), but if you are asking whether to announce the games in the Your Announcements forum, I say go for it. I might be wrong, but I dont think there are a whole lot of crackers here. I think its just a lot more of people who love games and like to see what others are making. If it makes you feel any better, I posted an announcement about Miko & Molly there today. Don''t worry too much about hiding your game from crackers. I think the only way to keep cracks from appearing is to keep you game one giant secret, but that''s not going to help you sell too many copies, is it.

Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Taking Puzzle Games to A Whole New Dimension