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Hi Nelson,
I appreciate the support and hope you get a lot out of it. Note that I will be discussed a lot about App store optimization here on my blog in the coming weeks and months to help you do things like designing the right icon to help people’s eyes gravitate towards you icon instead of others, and the “standard” things like keywords, titles, app name, and the link.
Its my mission in life to get as many people up to speed in what is required to succeed online.
By the way I checked out your site and the game looks good. Don’t give up yet! I know its probably not the start you were hoping for, but there are things you can still do to help boost downloads, etc.
Cheers
Tim
ReplyNelson, good on you thats the spirit, and is how you will ultimately succeed (by not giving up). Keep up the good work and I wish you every success!
On another note, you might want to have a chat to me sometime. $700 for artwork seems mighty expensive. To be fair it depends on the game.
What game are you reskinning?
Cheers
Tim
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ReplyHi Tim,
I’ve read your ebook, I’m interested in chatting with you, but my spoken english is not so good
About the game I’m reskinning, it is the same as the first one with different theme. I agreed the cost of artwork is quite expensive as I ordered service from kind of company. After reading your book, I understood how to find outsource and I’ll try to find some outsource contractors with reasonable cost.
Thanks.
Nelson
ReplyHey Nelson, thats ok if your spoken english is not so good, we can go slow
You can do a helpout if you like?
https://helpouts.google.com/102714189198500786819/ls/9407daa873ec9852
There is most definitely a lot of difference it pricing between contractors with graphics, and paying a lot does not guarantee a good job either. Its all about the person doing the work, so make sure you carefully check their previous work experience, etc to see if they can do the job.
If at all possible, check they actually have reskinning apps experience as this will help a lot with the graphics side of things.
Good luck!
ReplyYou are the scum of the earth, game cloning is asshole business and you’re enabling people to do it ._.
ReplyHey thanks for dropping by,
I agree, game cloning is a terrible thing to do. Reskinning does not involve cloning, they are two separate things completely.
Or, should I say the proper way to do reskinning does not involve cloning. Of course, like any industry there will be some who do the wrong thing.
In a nutshell it involves purchasing source code from a developer, and targeting a different demographic of user than the original game.
In addition, all graphics and sound are either created from scratch or purchased. All above board. Nothing is stolen, people get paid, etc.
Does some of the source code get based on original games in the app store sometimes? Absolutely yes, take a look for yourself at any game in the app store, chances are some of it is a copy or part of a copy from another game.
The other thing I would point out is if you do a blatant rip off of a popular game, with the exact same graphics and sound, guess what? Apple does not approve the app anyway.
Done ethically and properly, reskinning can actually add value because it brings new people into a game who probably never played the original.
e.g. Think of a game like Space Invaders – Now think of a reskin with a unicorn shooting love hearts to a group of humans, who “explode with happiness” if hit by the love hearts.
Completely different target audience, and the game source code was purchased and 100% new artwork created for the game.
Probably a game a young girl would like to play. By targeting a new demographic of user with the reskin you have found a new audience for that game (the young girl probably, would never have played Space invaders in its original form).
See how it can work?
Now if you are just creating a game called Space Attackers and are outright copying the Space invaders graphics and sound, I totally agree thats cloning, and a bad thing to do. I never support that.
Hope you can see the difference between both methods – They are very much different.
I am a software developer myself with three published games to my credit that I designed from scratch while managing a team of artists and developers – I totally get the build it from scratch mentality and in fact will soon be building more from scratch myself.
Reskinning really does give people who do not have technical experience the ability to participate in the games industry (and of course the same applies to developers and artists).
ReplyI just purchased your book and it has been a huge help for me to learn more about re-skinning. I just heard of re-skinning yesterday and have not been able to stop researching it. I am only 16 and have never created anything even close to an app so hopefully I can figure everything out. I’m just wondering how you go about marketing and advertising your app in order to get people to download it. Also I’m a little confused with how you can make a profit re-skinning apps. If you could answer these questions that would be a great help.
Thanks.
Hi Jake, nice to hear from you! Glad you got some great value out of it. Reskinning is a lot easier than creating an app from scratch as you will find.
Marketing and advertising is a whole new ball game. Some great ideas are ASO (App store optimisation).
Check out my review of sensor tower here. Its a great tool to start checking out what apps are getting lots of download and the keywords they rank well for. Plus the basic version of the tool is free.
http://www.reskinningapps.com/app-store-optimization/sensor-tower-review-of-this-aso-tool/
And you can do things like a youtube video promoting your game.
Here is one I did to give you an idea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnjR8jATwNs
Some other ways to market your app are in this video below – Take a look and take notes, lots of gold in there.
As for making a profit – This ads within the game, or in app purchases (buying more coins, unlocking new characters, that type of thing). Or you can just charge for your app. Although most reskins are free with advertising above.
Hope this gives you some pointers. And from someone who wrote their first game at 16 many years ago, I say what you are doing is awesome and keep up the good work!!
Cheers
Tim
ReplyHi Tim ,
I want a copy of your Ebook on Reskinning apps but I can’t find it in amazon , neither on your website which you mentioned would be free. I would really like a copy of your Ebook to start my journey to Reskin apps!
ReplyHi Kim,
Stay tuned! It will be available here in 24 hours or less (hopefully a lot less than 24 hours).
If you visit this page again you should find how to access it.
Sorry for the delay…
ReplyHello Mr Tim, it’s an honor the write to you,
i have some questions need to be asked and you are the best for this task
i know where to buy source code for apple games, i did actually find some interesting examples but plz what are the tools to use to re skin them ( soft and hard ) ?
the second question is : do you have some info about android games and how to re skin them because as you mentioned in your book, people speak about re skinning superficially and it hard to find that kind of answers
thanks in advance Mr Tim
Hi there,
You will answers to most of this stuff on this blog. I’ve now reskinned some android games and have to report that right now they are still not performing as well as my IOS games, but that they are performing better than when i tested it last. So thats good!
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