how complicated would it be to write a script that prevents the game from closing?

[schmoopy 1]

I'm making a troll game designed to make players mad because I wanna watch the world burn. don't worry. it's gonna be a free game, so all they lose is their time.

 

I wanna have an event run for ten minutes, and I want the game to only be able to be closed via task manager until the event is done. should the game crash or be closed via task manager, I want the game to remember this and dunk on the player. how much scripting are we talking, and is such a script even possible? bonus points if I can take a leaf out of Oneshot's book and change their desktop background (to something benign, of course. like shrek and mike wazowski tenderly making out)

[Holder 333]

That just sounds troublesome and something that could be manipulated for malicious intensions. 

Please no one make this.  

[Kayzee 4,032]

I actually looked into stuff like this quite a bit for my game. Since my game is a roguelike I tried to get the game to autosave when closed. Unfortunately the way the program is set up it automatically closes all processes right away when the window is closed no matter what. It's possible to use Win32Api stuff to change this, but it would require a custom .dll and I tend not to like using much Win32Api stuff anyway for portability reasons. I do use some Win32Api stuff to disable the window's close button though, just to prevent people accidentally clicking it.

 

You could in theory write a file somewhere when the event starts and have it check if the file exists as the game's loading, maybe making a character rant at the player like a particular mole.  I thought about doing this myself, but I found it would be hard or impossible to really tell the difference between a legit crash and forcing the game to close (or exploiting a bug to purposely crash) and I didn't really want to punish the player when the game crashed. After all game crashes are probably my fault! I might still do it someday though, just as a short message. One thing I do kinda rant at the player for though is messing around with the savefiles. I keep track of all the savefile checksums to make sure they aren't tampered with. If they are though I still let you load them, I just tease the player about it a little. Even keeps track of how many times the file was messed around with. Hehe...

 

The desktop thing might be possible with a Win32api call but I really don't know how to do it.

 

Also:

 

1 hour ago, Holder said:

That just sounds troublesome and something that could be manipulated for malicious intensions. 

Please no one make this. 

 

There are tons of ways in which RPG Maker/Ruby could be manipulated for malicious intentions you know. Some might not even need scripting, like sending a RPG Maker game that has lots of flashing images to someone with epilepsy, or maybe one filled with hate and harsh bullying. Every artistic medium could if exploited the right way be used to do harm. I however don't believe we should necessarily refuse to explore art just because of a 'what if'. And yes, 'trolling the player' is a form of art.  My definition of art is "anything presented to an audience in order to invoke emotions/thoughts/a response". Doesn't mean it's any good or that it won't be harmful, but we can judge that when the time comes.

[PhoenixSoul 1,404]

11 hours ago, schmoopy said:

bonus points if I can take a leaf out of Oneshot's book and change their desktop background (to something benign, of course. like shrek and mike wazowski tenderly making out)

It would either have to exist on the user's local storage or be downloaded; both require external coding...

 

11 hours ago, schmoopy said:

should the game crash or be closed via task manager, I want the game to remember this and dunk on the player.

I get the feeling that you don't care about your playerbase...
 

7 hours ago, Holder said:

That just sounds troublesome and something that could be manipulated for malicious intensions. 

I think that's the whole point...

 

4 hours ago, Kayzee said:

One thing I do kinda rant at the player for though is messing around with the savefiles. I keep track of all the savefile checksums to make sure they aren't tampered with. If they are though I still let you load them, I just tease the player about it a little. Even keeps track of how many times the file was messed around with. Hehe...

Oh, you're a tease, alright...

[Rikifive 3,411]

Hmm.. I happen to have something a bit... interesting... 

 

It was made for lols years ago. It's not really what you're asking for, but I was thinking you may have some fun with it either way. What this script does is to freeze the game leaving players at fullscreened blackscreen. You call a scene with a script call or something and... the next thing you'll see is void. 

 

Features (might differ depending on OS / its version)
LARGE AREA OF EFFECT: Forces fullscreen  all your screen belongs to us

CRITICAL STRIKE: gets you stuck at blackscreen  all you need to see is your pain

HIGH DEFENSE: The game cannot be easily closed  you can't control it

DOOM IMMUNITY: ALT+F4 won't save you either  no cheat codes

INFLICTS BLINDNESS: Cannot be minimized  fight for a chance to see your desktop again
INFINITE DURATION: It's ded, the only way out is to kill the task  patience doesn't deal damage

THIS BOSS FIGHT CAN BE ESCAPED: Restart your PC if it's too much for you!  i hope you saved your progress lmao

 

The game can be killed via the task manager although be warned, that you'll have to navigate the task manager mostly blindly!

Inexperienced at system stuff players might mess up few things by pressing random keys (such as running/killing various tasks etc.) and/or end up having to restart their computer.

 

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I DON'T TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR POTENTIAL DAMAGE DONE TO UNAWARE PLAYERS AND EVERYONE ELSE, BUT YOU DO. Just to make it clear lmao
The script itself doesn't do anything, but users panicking and pressing random keys kinda can cause some mess.
By downloading the script below you acknowledge this warning and declare being aware of potential consequences.

 RPG MAKER SCREEN OF DEATH V1.1.1 by Rikifive.txt

 

 

 

Also moved this thread to Game Dev > Programming.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Rikifive