Hello,

First of all, I would like to apologize if there are any mistakes, I am French and I am translating this message with Google Translate.

I want to create a psychological horror game that breaks the fourth wall (like Doki Doki Literature Club for example), and in the title screen of my game, I would like to make it so that the player is forced to use the "QUIT" button on the title screen, preventing them from closing the game in any other way (there will still be some emergency solutions, but little known to most users).

I know that I can legally remove the cross at the top of the window since it is directly an element that belongs to my program, and also that I can close the command prompt since it does not require administrator rights.

But the remaining problem is the task manager. To close it, you need administrator rights, and after doing some research, although it's not illegal in France, I learned that it is illegal in some countries like the United States, and that game sharing sites like itch.io prohibit it.

So I was wondering: what exactly is illegal about this? Is it closing a system-protected application, or preventing the use of the task manager, regardless of whether it's closed with administrator rights or otherwise?

Because if it's only closing a Windows-protected application that's prohibited, I planned to just make the window move to the task manager in "always on top" mode, which shouldn't require administrator rights, the problem with that is just that the user could open a second window further away from the first.

Also, I don't know if it's important to mention, but the program only blocks the use of the task manager on the title screen; nothing will be blocked during the rest of the game, so the effect is only temporary and does NOTHING (normally) damage the computer.

ok, the thing is: even if you want to make a psychological horror game, making another program stopping working, or limiting what tasks the task manager can manage or not is a bit too much.

Just think about it: you're talking about making a game where one of the features is to make the task manager don't work on the main menu of your game. Other person could make a similar game, except the task manager is always locked, even inside the game. This person could also make it's game purposefully laggy, destroying the computer resources. And i also think that making your game load on initialization is easier than breaking the task manager. There could also be the possiblity of a "pay to remove this game from your computer", and an expensive IAP in the game. Now that game is more of a ransomware than a game, even if someone could argue it has the same features as your game :>

Also, there is the topic "why should your game stop the task manager". Do you don't want players to kill the task of your game? but realistically, why? people only kill unresponsive tasks, any normal player would go to the quit of the menu to leave the game. Or at most use alt + f4.

The idea of stopping the task manager, even if just for your game, will always be too hard to do, too uneeded, and too risky, as your game could be a virus or something.

Sorry for the slightly delayed response.

First of all, thank you for your answers.

"Other person could make a similar game, except the task manager is always locked, even inside the game.", okay, but in itself, my game would be legitimate, it's the other person's game that will be the virus. I don't really see the connection that has with my own game.

You also say that a virus could infect my game and use this game function to break the computer, but I don't really see how that would work. Now, I'm not exactly a virus expert, but how could a virus infect my game and cause the task manager blocking to work at any point during gameplay? If what you mean is that someone could, for example, create some kind of mod for my game, which the player would then put in the game's folders to modify the code and make the task manager permanently blocked, then I understand that it could be a problem. But then, the mod would quickly be flagged as a virus and banned by itch.io or any other platform that shares mods. And if the mod is on a site that doesn't moderate what's posted, then the site itself is breaking the law. Furthermore, if the mod becomes even slightly well-known, I'm likely to hear about it, and in that case, I would take it upon myself to remove the mod.

As I said, I'm not a virus expert, so I could be wrong. I should definitely look into this further.

Otherwise, if the functionality is truly problematic (and from what you're telling me, it seems to be), I'm trying to implement an alternative system (especially since closing the task manager in Windows is quite complicated).

Instead of the game blocking the task manager, it simply creates a separate program at launch whose sole purpose is to constantly monitor whether the game is open. If the game is closed, the second program will relaunch it. Similarly, if this second program is closed, the game will relaunch it. Technically, this doesn't require administrator privileges, doesn't block or modify anything on the PC, and furthermore, the player can always close the game by selecting both programs simultaneously in the task manager.

So, to answer the question of "why do I want to do this when most players (probably 99%) won't bother trying to use the task manager", it's for two reasons.

The first reason is so that the game has precisely this "virus" effect (even if it won't really be one) by giving the impression that the game cannot be closed and that it has control over the player's computer, a bit like what KinitoPet does.

The second reason is that I want to put in a sort of "semi-jumpscare" that's a bit hidden, basically a kind of easter egg where the game character slowly leaves the game window and slowly approaches the player's screen and does something like point at the task manager window with his finger and shake his head no, as if to tell the player that it's pointless trying to close it and that the game has total control over his computer (he doesn't jump on him either, that's why I say "semi-jumpscare"), in itself it's not something necessarily useful and surely very few players will notice it, but I think it can still be something really scary in the moment.