My game demo is done but theres a ton of custom sprites so i want to molebox my demo. But no matter what i try i can't get it to work. i keep getting error messages when i try to start the executable. could someone please tell me if rm2k3 and molebox are compatible and if they are how would one go about using the two together?

darn. does anyone know of another way of locking a rm2k project? I want to at least make the game so that it cannot be opened and cheated. (i don't want the player to have the hard to resist option of opening up the editor and cheating). i want it to be played like it was meant to be played.

Yes it is compatible with Rm2k3, as games like Monopolo and Mikkoku used Molebox to compress their games. One thing I must stress, however, is to make sure that there are ABSOLUTELY NO BUGS in your game before releasing it, and to make sure to balance it out enough to allow for an enjoyable experience. I have run across this problem a few times when game are released but have a simple error like "below hero" when it should be "same level as hero", which I have to go back into their game and fix to allow me to proceed ("The Most Stupidest Game Ever Redux" had this problem). There are also times when the game is so unbalanced (or that the maker didn't think test his game outside of lv 99), that you essentially have to start at lvl 20-30 for the first area.

Just a few things to think about before compressing your game and releasing it.

I wouldn't use molebox to begin with. Apart from the fact, that the performance can go down the drain it seems to randomly cause errors, as seen in some german rpg-maker games which used it.
Sure you don't want others to use your custom sprites, but then you should mention it in the readme or something like that. Of course this won't stop everyone, but it can drastrically reduce the number of people stealing from you.

One thing I must stress, however, is to make sure that there are ABSOLUTELY NO BUGS in your game before releasing it, and to make sure to balance it out enough to allow for an enjoyable experience.

Yes. This. I always play games through the editor so I can: a) shift-read through slowly displaying text (or text that I've already read, say because I lost a fight or something) b) ctrl+walk over/around buggy areas.

Doesn't using Rm2k3's self-executable do what you want anyways? I thought it was specifically made to. And are you really that worried about other people using your sprites? If they're custom and you ask people not to use them, most people won't use them without permission. If they do, just call them out for it. I've seen it happen before and the community's reaction to theft is pretty strong. It's stupid to make your game even 1% less fun (by removing shift+ctrl abilities) to protect IP which people who are determined can get anyways.

Ah yes, I remember that topic. I believe I started it when I wanted to look at coding just for the sake of seeing how much was put into it...

I realize now that if people want to lock up their game, that's their choice, but something deep down just seems to kill the game for me when it is locked. It's almost as if I want to see their work, not just the game. I could play games left and right, but to see the work would give a deeper appreciation for such.

The problem with this, is that people spend hours upon hours on these systems and graphics that they were so concerned over that it brought them to lock the game, and due to the fact that there are people out there that use others work and claim it as their own (curse you plagiarism), there is really no use in trying to convince them that you're an honest person.

You know, I don't really see how code can be plagiarized (outside of direct copy-pasting, I guess) because code is designed to be re-usable, and it's not like you can copyright code (can you?). Graphics, music, story, all that can be plagiarized but I do not see code as being plagiarizable.


edit: "What the heck...I recognize this for loop... This is MY for loop! This bastard stole my freaking for loop!'

edit2: Although I will agree that code as an entire project can be plagiarizable, but if someone opened up your project because they wanted to see how to make your rad CMS or whatever, I don't believe that's plagiarizing them.