Many people start dreaming about working in the sphere of game development as soon as they discover the joys of playing. They imagine coming up with exciting plots and then bringing them to life scene by scene, character by character. However, the reality of game development is much more complicated.
The entire game dev team has a ton of responsibilities, including writing code, creating assets, testing new builds, and using tools to synchronize communication and file sharing. In these conditions, it’s easy for virus infections to sneak in and endanger every little thing you’ve built. In this guide, we’ll be discussing the best practices for game dev teams to avoid such viruses: stick to them, and make safety one of your key assets.
Making Sure Each Involved Computer Is Safe
Using the Internet means endangering your device. Even Mac, which is considered the safest brand of computers for game developers, can be subjected to nasty infections if you allow yourself to be careless. Take a fuq virus as an example: it can hijack your browser and take over, and the best way to remove fuqcom virus Mac is by using an antivirus app. Sounds like a basic safety rule, but it works only in combination with others, so let’s take a look.
Keep All the Systems Updated
Software creators always introduce small safety updates to fix the identified security holes and take care of the problems before they actually occur. Unfortunately, game developers are often so focused on the final goals that they fail to take these standard protection mechanisms into account.
As a game developer, you are probably using Unreal Engine, Photoshop, Visual Studio, Illustrator, and other similar systems. To protect them, you need to:
- Activate automated system and browser updates, or at least check for them on a daily basis.
- Restart your device or tool when the system asks for it, and check it with the antivirus.
- In case of any issues, make sure the certificates for each system are up to date.
This basic approach will guarantee that your computer stays safe, which will extend automatic protection to all the SDKs, engines, plugins, asset packs, and Git commits you are working with to make your game happen.
Use Only Licensed Tools
Many game developers are tempted to use pirated tools and cracked paid scripts from GitHub, as it’s an easier, cheaper alternative to buying the official versions of whatever can help them create their game. That’s a serious mistake.
For one thing, by failing to buy licensed tools, you are compromising your reputation and working together with your own enemies. Among all pirated software content, games rank third at 27.36%: people who pirate them devalue your time and effort. Tool developers are in the same boat; they are your partners, so it’s only respectful to buy subscriptions instead of pirating them.
What matters even more is that by using pirated tools, you are endangering your product. Here is why:
- Cracked versions of professional tools contain malware more often than not.
- The virus might not be immediately visible, but it will start infecting your computer.
- Pirated tools come with frequent lags that can result in the destruction of your project.
- If something goes wrong, you’ll have no one to contact, as you were using tools illegally.
That’s why sticking to licensed tools should be one of the first safety practices for game developers.
Securing All the Game Files and Codes
Protecting your files and codes is another approach that should be your everyday practice.
Use a Reliable Version Control
Version control allows saving and backing up changes you are making to your game. Codes, animations, prefabs, blueprints — if even five minutes of your work are lost because of a virus, the results can be disastrous.
Choose industry-standard version control tools that can save your work. Here are the most common options for game developers:
- Git, including GitHub and GitLab, is a favorite option of indie and Unity teams.
- Perforce Helix Core is a standard for larger AAA or Unreal projects.
- PlasticSCM is another favorite of Unity teams looking for better merge handling.
Apart from doing the essentials of game development, these tools guarantee automatic backups, controlled permission access, and even logs that will warn you in case of any suspicious activity.
Check the Assets You Receive
As a game developer, you have to use external assets like textures, sound effects, plugins, animations, etc. Unfortunately, any of these files can have a virus, and that’s why you need to scan all assets separately as soon as you receive them.
Create a new folder, extract relevant assets there, and scan them individually. If everything seems fine, you can add them to your project.
Building Safe Conditions
The third major safety practice entails creating safe conditions for you, your team, and your game.
Test All the Builds and Devices
Every build and every device might contain a virus infection, even if you get it from a seemingly safe party. Game dev team can’t work without using Android and iOS test phones, test PCs, Xbox devkits, etc. — you need to know how your game will function across devices.
So, scan each build and device before distribution; use secure transfers only, such as Google Drive, internal file servers, and encrypted cloud storage. Do factory resets for all devices every several weeks, and never use them for personal purposes.
Maintain Email Safety
Fake plugin updates and forged marketplace receipts can pose a huge risk to game developers. These days, attackers use sophisticated methods that might be hard to spot, so you need to be extra vigilant.
Even if a colleague sends you something, verify that they actually did it. Don’t open .exe, .scr, .js, .cmd, and .apk files blindly. Use two-factor authentication, especially for your work email, and make sure your team does the same.
Team Effort: Ensure Game Development Safety Together
By now, you know what best practices can help you secure the process of game development. Make certain every member of your team works following the same principles.
Everything, from opening the wrong email to forgetting to test one single build, can lead to a disaster on a global scale, and it’s up to your team to prevent it from happening. If you all show equal dedication to safety, no virus infection will stand a chance against your effort.
