Nobody was suggesting rebuilding the binary. The point was that the save file is encrypted. Looking at the decompiled source would have made reverse engineering that trivial. But since he’s using code obfuscation, it’s much more difficult. (Most people aren’t, though, since it doesn’t come built into VC# Express.)

You don’t have to mess around with the game’s source code to hack the leaderboards anyway, just mess with the save file on the PC. Not only that, distribution and code compatibility issues pretty much slap the face of any hardcore hacker who wants to share the pain online with the 360 using your game’s source, so you don’t have to worry about XBLIG mods running around.

I’m just gonna make a HUGE data file though, to purposefully mess with the hackers. 🙂 Opening and browsing large files is easy on the 360, but on the PC it can be a HUGE pain the ass, depending on your operating system.

In regards to the difficulty with no continues, I’m feeling the pain for anyone who has to master the game to complete it in one sitting. That’s a major fuck up for the developer. If a game’s gonna have 0 continues in any way, the game should be somewhat easy to complete.

No, they have a copy of the object code. You can decompile that, but understanding complex algorithms in obfuscated .NET bytecode is really quite hard.

I agree with the general point though, in that it’s pathetic that MS doesn’t allow leaderboards or achievements, but also blocks Internet access and prevents XBLIG devs from making their own versions (properly).

Every single developer who tested/peer reviewed your game has a copy of the source code, just sitting around.

The reason no one is bothering to corrupt your leaderboard is because no one is playing, not because it’s super difficult. If there were several hundred thousand on there, some asshat would cheat.

I actually think all devs should stop including these poor substitutes leaderboards, and make huge stink about why it’s only available in the PC version. (Making a big stink is the only way anything has ever been obtained from Microsoft for XBLIG devs.)

Kairi, I agree with you about the continue situation. That’s twice in one week. End of the world?

This is why I use a layer of custom encryption on my save data. You’d have to decompile and reverse engineer the C# to hack it, and I don’t think crackers of that calibre mess about with XBLIGs.

Anyway, I don’t know why (some) XBLIG devs do the no-continues thing either. On all major games ‘survival mode’ is a bonus extra-hard difficulty mode, because pretty much all game designers now admitt that the player should be allowed to choose how much repetition they want. I think making it mandatory is a symptom of the dev making a game for themselves rather than for the player.