itch.io Community » Game Development » General Development

Does a game need to be digitally signed?

A topic by Risenfield created Jun 07, 2017 Views: 2,829 Replies: 3

Viewing posts 1 to 2

I've recently finished developing a game and are looking to release it. I'm very much an amateur and have never released anything before. I had read somewhere about digitally signing so the game wouldn't be stopped from running from Windows smart screen, and I've since had allot of trouble finding information about it. Is this something that must be done to release on itch.io? If so, can someone explain how to go about doing it? I apologize if this seems like a really silly question, or if this isn't the right place to ask this. Thank you!

Like Reply

leafoAdmin7 years ago

If the game is installed through our app then no signing is necessary. If you plan to have people download the game directly from their browser, then it will get flagged for a warning, so you'll have to sign the executable to avoid it.

Like Reply

Risenfield7 years ago

Thank you for the quick response! So even if there is a warning is this something that is optional? Or is it an absolute must for direct browser downloads?

Like Reply

Amos7 years ago

Like leaf said, people who download directly from web will get a warning. Sometimes it's a pretty dissuasive warning - as in, the default option would be to *not* open the game, and the option to open the game would be somewhat hidden.

Note that even signed binaries will trigger a (less scary) warning in SmartScreen. Eventually, only having your game be downloaded hundreds+ of times will let it build a reputation that makes it go through SmartScreen, Google Chrome's "this might be malware" alert, etc.

Like Reply