How to time bomb a beta?

its time to release a beta version of my game into the big wide world.

while its still not complete, compared to the final version, it still needs to be time bombed.

What's the best way to do this?

a simple check_date, they can change the PC's clock.

counting number of runs?

storing date of last run?

multiple checks in different places with different unique code (anti-hack) ?

I have testers waiting, so I need a bullet-proof as possible solution quickly.

Perhaps you can password-encrypt the game and send it with a launcher with a password prompt, then you can publish the key via twitter or something once you're ready to release the beta.

A further note:

i'm not really interested in any type of "ET phone home" solution.

Then there's no solution you'll like.

Fortunately, you're looking for a solution based on a highly flawed assumption:

while its still not complete, compared to the final version, it still needs to be time bombed.

It doesn't need to be time bombed. It's not 2004. Literally no matter what you do, someone somewhere is going to figure out how to post a cracked version of your game on a torrent site. No DRM or access control system for an offline game is immune to being cracked by a 12-year-old with too much time on their hands.

Your only sane option is to work within the system, not against it; build models that work better for you when people are sharing and trading and previewing your game. Free-to-play is such a model, and its popularity is in no small part because it entirely sidesteps the question of piracy or illicit access (in a f2p model, you _want_ as many people as possible downloading your game with as absolutely few barriers as possible). In a free-to-play system, monetized betas are a way to make sure that it doesn't matter who is playing your beta so long as you have loose/weak controls over numbers just to be safe with initial ramp up of the player base (so your servers don't get overloaded before you've figured out what kinds of resources you need).

For betas, again just don't worry about it. Make sure the game is very clearly marked as a beta. Don't put in every last bit of content you want to keep secret until release. Go ahead and put a simple time check in it if you want, and just _don't care_ if someone is willing to muck around with their computer to change the local time to play it. What do you lose if they do? Is someone playing a clearly marked beta 3.25 months from now going to hurt your final release? If they were just going to pirate your game anyway, do you really care if they are illicitly playing the beta or full version?

If you want absolute control over who plays and when they play, you need to make your game online. Even an "ET phone home" feature by itself is worthless, since defeating those kinds of measures are trivial. Nothing short of a fully server-simulated online game engine is going to stop people from playing your game if they want, when they want, how they want.

i'm not really interested in any type of "ET phone home" solution.

Then you're well and truly SOL. Your players control their box, there's nothing you can do to change that. The only hope you have of something relatively secure is by making their box rely on a box that you control. Its as simple as that.

Imperfect security -- making it a hassle for them to break free, but not impossible -- is doable though. My suggestion is to either forget the whole thing (that's what I'd do), or do the minimal thing that will deter the 90% crowd and call it good.

You might also be inclined to other creative 'solutions' like the game whose name I forget, but basically if you didn't pay for the full version you could still play the game, but the characters became pirates, and I think there were gameplay consequences to such. Basically this shames/harasses pirates into paying up, but because the game is otherwise 'free' folks were less-inclined to crack the game proper.

Just plaster BETA all over it and write a date on in obnoxious text.

Then there's no solution you'll like.

yeah, i know... : (

It doesn't need to be time bombed.

have you ever been hacked?

so bad you lost the company?

Good idea. Apply a very subtle gaussian blur to some of the art assets you ship, and put a tiny "BETA" watermark on them.

actually, its got no audio yet <g>.

this will be a beta test version, not the demo version.

technically, there are 4 versions of the game:

developer (the full game + dev tools, testing controls, etc)

release (the full game)

beta (for beta testing, not complete, time bombed, features will vary depending on version DL'd.)

demo (small free to play trial version)

i'm thinking i'll actually end up selling the developer version, IE include all the modding tools and testing cheats.