I'm re-posting this here for clarity's sake.

A user had some concerns about our game since it "phones home" to our server.
In the interest of full disclosure, here's everything that's going on.

First of all, you can completely opt-out of data tracking and it won't send us a thing.

The game *will* still connect to our server after this, but only to poll for auto-updates. When this happens, all it does is see if the update file has a newer version than what you've got installed. If so, it asks you if you want to download the new version of the game. This is all it's doing when "phoning home" when you opt out of data tracking. We will include a choice to opt out of auto-updating as well in the next patch.

If you don't opt out of data tracking, it tracks some basic gameplay metrics, and it doesn't collect any personally identifying information.

Here's what we track:

BeatenDemo (for demo version, reached the end of Act II)
ExportedSave (whether you use the "export save file" feature)
-Tracked separately for Demo and Full version
-Tracks whether exported from demo over "upsell" screen

FinishedDemo (for demo version, finished all demo content)
ImportedSave (did you ever import a save)
QuitGame (did you quit the game)
ViewedOptions (did you use the options menu)
ViewedOptions_access (accessibility menu)
ViewedOptions_audio (audio menu)
ViewedOptions_controls (controls menu)
ViewedOptions_download (lets kongregate player download the full version)
ViewedOptions_gameplay (misc. menu)
ViewedOptions_video (video menu)

Level counters - tracks per level how many time something happens in a level
(Also, tracks each variable below separately for casual/normal/advanced/extreme)
-BattleFailures
-BattlePasses
-BattlePerfects
-BattleQuits
-BattleRestarts
-BattleStarts
-BattleWins

The game does use Adobe AIR, but if that's a problem for some people, we can compile a special version of the game that does not use AIR, and we'll provide GOG with a separate installer and also make it available via the auto-updater.

Thanks for the info.
This is totally harmless stuff and I actually would allow it... just can't easily PROVE to someone that you are telling the truth until you get the new version with the opt out of auto update :). Which you are making anyways so its all good...

Thank you for this awesome game BTW.

If you can provide a version that doesn't use Adobe AIR, why do you use it as a dependency anyway ?

Also: Yeah, go for it. Or do a poll ;)

It's still technically using Adobe AIR technology, the special compiler flag ("-bundle") just gets you those features without installing a global system-wide Adobe AIR runtime on your machine. All the Adobe AIR dependencies get reduced to isolated dll files that only the game itself uses. It's kind of like, for a Java game - imagine that instead of installing a full JAVA virtual machine, you just install a small JAVA "runner" and associated interpreter libraries that your game uses, without affecting the rest of your system.

I'm talking with GOG right now about providing multiple installer options, as soon as I have a response I'll provide them with the new build and hopefully you can pick which you want to download.

I just discovered this new compiling feature after I'd delivered the original binaries to GOG, or I would have been using it from the start.

As for why I'm using Adobe AIR at all, it's kind of a long story. The game was originally just supposed to be a 3-month flash game project that we wanted to sell for a sponsorship on flash portals. 2 years later, it became this huge project, and by then we had so much code written we were locked into flash, and the only way to target a desktop release without rewriting the game from scratch was to use Adobe AIR.

In the future, I'm very interested in using HaXe+NME, because this would still let us create a flash-based browser demo (very, very important), but also create a native C++ based release without any AIR headaches whatsoever for the desktop. Also the game would run faster in desktop mode, to boot.

I'm interested in adding a feature to the auto-updater where you can select which installer you want to download - it already does this on Linux, where you can choose from tar.gz/rpm/deb, so it'd be simple to do this for windows - pick from traditional AIR installer and AIR-less standalone package, but I figure it'd annoy people to have to download the AIR version in order to run the updater and download the non-AIR version, so I'm hoping GOG can just provide both builds directly from the start.

I'd prefer the stand-alone, doesn't require-separate-AIR version. Adobe products are TERRIBLE when it comes to both updates and vulnerabilities.

I would prefer the stand alone as well. Also if GoG could be persuaded to either post news of the release of said product so we knew when it was ready that would be awesome too.

Working on the new build now.

I'm thinking this will just be the new, standard version on GOG rather than having two builds, as honestly it's pretty much superior in every way to the regular crappy AIR installer. Like I said, I would have done it from the start if I hadn't discovered the technique only recently.

I'll keep you posted and coordinate with GOG on this. Also looking for a solution to clean up the auto-installer mess. In hindsight, it seems a bit redundant as you can just get the latest version from GOG, so I'm asking them if they can just post a web-accessible version number text file it can query and then say "Hey bro, GOG has a new version for you, go here". And again, we'll make it so you can turn that feature on and off and it'll probably be off by default.

Alright, got a new build ready.

In the new build, auto-updating is completely disabled as that's been a mess with the double-installer thingy and confusing version numbers. Now, the game just has some text in the save slot screen that says "Check GOG for updates!" with a link that takes you to the game's store page.

And metrics tracking will be disabled by default.

I'll deliver this build to GOG soon, it will be version 1.0.52, and it will be compiled in a standalone non-AIR-infectious package. You might have to uninstall the previous version manually to not wind up with two installations, but we'll see how it goes.

Rather than wrap the game in my own installer, it will just be a file folder with the executable at the top level and the dependent files sitting next to it. Hopefully when GOG wraps this in their own thingy it should work out.

New windows build is ready and being uploaded to the GOG servers. Mac build will follow.... soonish.

Ace, thanks for the support!

That is awesome, thank you for doing that.

Thank you for these updates. I appreciate them.

Quick note: Mac build is NOT updated yet. I will try to get this to GOG on Monday.

That page does not contain any version info and nor is it used for downloading. If you are logged in it will have a "redownload" link that will send you to the correct location.
the correct llink for checking gog for updates is:
https://secure.gog.com/account/games#open=defenders+quest

My bad, I'll double-check with the GOG team and post a patch in next week's update.