Kaspersky decided today to detect GameGuru-MapEditor.exe as containing a trojan and delete it in the middle of building a standalone along with several other core files. The only way to get them back was to verify my copy of Game Guru on Steam. That downloaded and overwrote a load of files I had edited included muzzleflashes and font files. I don't want to have to create all of these any from scratch, especially since I've got a standalone I built yesterday that contains all these files. Naturally though, they are all encrypted in a standalone.

This is a long shot, but is there some way to decrypt files from a standalone if I can prove it was my machine/my copy of Game Guru that encrypted them in the first place? I realise it kinda defeats the point of encryption, but also doesn't...if only I could verify I made those files!

Any help here would be much appreciated.

Also, why is Kaspersky now detecting Build Standalone as some kind of illegal operation?

AE

If it was possible I would delete and probably ban the user that told you how do it openly on the forums...
Like you say its for user protection … Best bet is to ask lee for help

thats why you always make a backup on an external hard drive
sorry for your loss man..
I would ask Lee too.

As stated, providing advice on how to break the standalone media encryption would be pretty unfair to artists and scripters who want to retain control of their work, and still allow users to incorporate them into games. It will have to remain a secret for the benefit of all. It is, however, a powerful game developers life lesson (and the first of many I am sure) that everyone should take back-ups seriously. I myself have GitHub, which it's common for me to check in several times during a coding day, then I have a daily SSD backup which snapshots the whole drive to an identical one, and then I have a file backup which scans for changes and backs that up on a larger HDD at the end of the day, and finally I have a monster back-up which happens every week or so and goes to a NAS system for long term storage. It's not that I like having lots of storage (as it's pretty much a nightmare lugging around 80% redundant files) it's just what I learned from losing everything from a line of complicated code to an entire month worth of game engine work. If there is anything good from losing your assets, is that when you create them again, they will usually be better

The 'Kaspersky ' issue is what is called a False Positive, which you can report to them and they will create a whitelist entry in their next update to allow GameGuru through, or you can exclude the GameGuru folder from your scan as a short-term measure. I personally use ESET as it's super fast and has 'never' mistook any of my tools and applications as viruses.

And also avoid those third party virus thingies - they are bugs in themselves. Windows provides all the protection you need

Hope you find a solution.

Reliquia....

I totally understand that as an artist in my own right, and it is absolutely necessary for the end user, but perhaps I didn't explain my clearly enough - I was after a way to decrypt only the files that I have created. Obviously I realise it was a bit of a long shot, but I felt I should at least ask in case a backdoor had been built in.

Not to worry, most of the modified files have now been restored as I was at least in the practice of saving both originals and modified version under different filenames that Steam left out of its verification.

AE

yeah... I totally agree on Lee. Of course things have to be secured.

But I am ALSO looking for a way to decript the files for 2 years now.
Since I released a game on steam, and I cant patch it anymore because of a broken HDD where all my files got lost.
If Lee won't share this info, I SOMEHOW gotta find it out myself.
I still have the steam upload files ( the standalone) - Acess to those (my own) files would mean the world to me.

Basically now I am forced to REMAKE the whole game of 14 levels and I dont want that. This would take months and I literally dont have any spare time thanks to my RL work.

Providing information or tools on how to decrypt would kind of defeat the entire purpose of the decryption to begin with. Even if it were for a select few, than everyone would want to know. So I can understand why support may not be found in this grey area of things.

I've recently (and only recently ) started doing complete backups of everything I do on my computer. I'm working with far too important of projects for me to even risk losing and its happened before in the past.

Its not a case of " Wont Share " He cannot without the risk of the information getting out.
However have you even Emailed him and asked for help explaining your situation ?
Perhaps he could reverse engineer the standalone for you .. If its hell to do then maybe not .. Either way its worth asking.

Being in the trade since the Vic 20 I even kept backups of my data on Cassette and right now I have about 4 external drives with backup data and even a Blu-ray writer which can back up nearly 30 gig on one disc which I use as hard copies ..
Seen it been there got all the Tshirts

It's awful losing old code and media you have made. It's happened to me several times. I have lost a couple of near finished games that took lots of work over the years, plus a couple of complete ones I do however agree that the encryption should be known only to the devs or is as said pretty useless. I have a couple of android titles I released years back and have also lost the source code due to hdd failure, its not great as I'd like to update them (online highscore no longer functions), but I realise it's just one of those things and I have to live with it.

If Lee can reverse engineer it for you and send you the files then great, even if he has to charge some fee. It would be worth it I imagine if you really need the files.

Absolutely ... Pretty sure i would pay to get myself out of a jam ..
Or
Make the sequel or enhanced edition if you do have to remake .. At least you wont have to remake the whole thing the same again ... Just like GG going DX11 the old version wont be updated