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| Adressing some issues... |
Hi everyone! We're... speechless!
The Open Beta has just begun, and we already have over 100 players who explored Gardenia, made friends, played, and tested with us. A big, huge thank you!
But that’s not all:
On July 22nd, 2025, we reached our all-time record of users online and on the website, at the same time! That moment was magical, and it wouldn’t have happened without you.
We’re aware that a few messages have been circulating suggesting that the game or website may not be safe to use. First and foremost, we want to be 100% transparent with all of you:
1. About those messages...
A couple of users have publicly expressed concerns about security, and while we welcome feedback, we also want to be honest:
Two out of three three accounts making these claims were either the same person or clearly created together, and appeared just to spread this type of misinformation.
This doesn’t mean we’re ignoring what was said, quite the opposite. We’re going to explain exactly how things work, so you can make informed decisions.
2. Why Windows shows a warning when installing the game?
When you first install the game, your computer might say that it’s “from an unknown publisher.” This happens because the game isn’t digitally signed with a certificate.
Why? Because a verified code-signing certificate costs over €50 (or more, as you need to renew it), and right now, we’ve just been focused on improving your actual in-game experience. The game is fanmade, everything that I've been doing and creating here is free and done for free and by free tools, I've been avoiding wasting money just as much as I'm avoiding ever asking you to help me out. It's a PASSION project.
This doesn’t mean the game is unsafe. It just means Windows doesn’t recognize the creator (yet). You can safely run the game by confirming that you trust the source — which is us.
3. How the website and accounts are managed
Our website uses phpBB, a popular and trusted open-source forum platform. It’s the same platform used by the official Winx Club website, and countless others as either forums or plain database creation. Some of the things they do are done by default and changing them would be a very lengthy proccess.
One of those things is when you register or reset your password, phpBB sends you your password in the email as plain text. But this is how phpBB is designed to work, and it’s not a vulnerability. It’s simply to remind you what you typed in when you created your account the first time, it's not even checking the database but instead memorizing what you typed in on the "confirm your password" field.
Many well-known platforms used to AND still do this — Club Penguin, Star Stable, and even the official Winx Club site.
That said, we still encourage you to use a unique password (as with any site), and you can change it at any time.
4. Your data is safe
We use:
A MySQL database to store user accounts (a common, robust solution used worldwide)
A Linux Ubuntu server
Passwords are hashed (even we can’t see them), and there are multiple security layers to protect accounts.
Even if someone accessed the server, they wouldn’t be able to just “read” your password — they’re encrypted properly.
5. How the game connects to the server
The game is built in Unity, and it connects to the website’s backend through secure PHP scripts. These are hosted on our own server, and they validate every request before doing anything.
In short:
Your account login, player creation, movement, chat, decoration, purchases and everything else is handled through a system designed for control and stability that is linked to your main account.
We take your security seriously, and we also believe in clear communication. If you ever have questions, please reach out via the forum. We’re here, listening, and improving — together with you.
6. Mac and Linux support are on the horizon! But it may take some time!
We know that many of you have been asking about versions for Mac (and Linux), and we want to reassure you:
Yes, we fully intend to support both platforms eventually!
Right now, our focus is on stabilising the core experience on Windows and ensuring everything runs smoothly. But Unity allows for multi-platform deployment, and once we’ve locked things down, we’ll be looking into builds for other systems as soon as possible (and as soon as I get my paycheck especially, for mac :lol: ) |
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