Hi again,
This is a question I get asked often. Where do you buy decent source code to get into the reskinning games business.
The answer is, it depends.
I am going to be a bit controversial here and suggest you do not necessarily go out and buy the most popular reskin source code (by popular I mean best selling).
Why?
Because that means most likely a ton of reskins have been made using that source code, and you have to then ask yourself…
“What can your reskin give to players, than has not been seen already hundreds of time with that source code”.
Worse, Apple can and does start rejecting reskins if they see they are the same underlying source code. For the record, its quite easy to programmatically determine the origins of a reskinned game, especially if you have made no changes to it, other than graphics and sound.
Don’t believe me? Well, I can tell you first hand I have had games rejected because they are reskins! (read the section towards the bottom with the title “Does Apple want Reskins”).
In that case, after I pointed out the differences with my version of the code, they subsequently approved it. The bottom line here is they are checking uploads, and for the best selling reskinned source code you can bet that sooner or later they will start noticing and eventually start rejecting all “standard” reskins for that source code.
So what does this mean to you? Time to give up reskinning?
No, absolutely not! It just means you have to be smarter in your choice of source code, and to try and differentiate your reskinned game from others in some fashion.
For example, what about fixing the ads up, so you don’t get hit with two or three ads at once appearing on the screen (a most annoying player experience).
Adding some new levels? What about changing the ads out to new services?
Some of these things will cost more than others, and in many cases one of the best things you can do is “get in early” with new source code, so your reskin is not going into the app store as reskin #1000 of that game.
Also, when looking for source code, consider who is selling it to you.
Are they experienced source code developers (or do they have staff on hand who are) ? Are they marketers? Do they have solid apps experience?
The reality is for a lot of source code being sold, the seller has no particular expertise (they have outsourced the game development) and if anything goes wrong, or the code needs updating, it can be days or weeks, before an update can be made because they have to find a new programmer to it for them.
I can tell you first hand, some of the most successful reskin source code is very buggy. First hand because I have seen the source code and reskinned the game!
One game has a huge bug where if the player shells out money to buy 1500 coins, they instead get 6,500 coins! (Good for the player, bad for you!) 🙂
But worse, if the player attempts to purchase 5,000 coins the game accepts the in game app purchase but gives them no coins!
Other games can have more subtle bugs like crashing on IOS 7 when it used to work in a previous version.
Or it uses technology since banned by Apple. For example there is a very popular racing code game that will get an instant rejection by Apple 100% of the time when you go to upload it to the app store!
Why? Because it uses an now obsolete technology called udid to identify player devices.
So good luck with that one, unless you are a programmer who knows how to remove that, and to add a replacement, you could have the best looking reskin ever and still get automatically rejected by Apple.
Note: “Automatic” here means Apple has scanned the code in the game for use of this technology and the game will be rejected in minutes after the game is uploaded to iTunes connect!
That is further evidence that the Apple review process has multiple parts. An automatic “machine driven” check, and then the manual review performed by a human.
Now, just to be clear here, I am not suggesting that source code that used the “udid” technology is bad code, after all it used to be valid and allowed by Apple.
But this is a case of the source code not being supported by the seller. This is why you must find source code that is well supported. It future proofs your purchase.
How do you find the good sellers?
Firstly, take the time to read all the comments about the game from buyers – you will find this to be a goldmine of information.
The comments section is usually available on the page where you purchase the source code. Sometimes its a little hidden so be sure to check the page thoroughly.
The “comments” section is a place where buyers or prospective buyers get to have their questions answered. By reading the comments, you can get a feel for the support the seller is offering, how stable the source code is, whether it works with the current version of IOS, etc.
Its usually quite simple to find out if the seller is supporting their own code or not.
Look for posts by the seller like “I’ll get back to you in 24 hours” or “I have to ask my developer”. Thats a sign they are not supporting it themselves. May not be an issue but you do want to be aware of it.
Also look for unhappy people, discussions about game bugs, and generally read through to find out how responsive the seller is.
If you are finding the seller is not responding to people, being rude, or if you have any other doubts, steer clear of that source code, and/or seller altogether. Unless you are a developer yourself you will regret it.
And even if you are a developer, time is money. Do you really want to buy broken source code and have to fix it yourself when you could have bought decent and well supported source code yourself, instead?
In my case, as a developer I can and do fix these issues (in many cases when I do a reskin and find a bug I let the original programmer know and send them the fix). But if you are not a developer, you are going to be in trouble.
What sites to buy from?
Here is a list in no particular order.
www.apptopia.com
www.bluecloudsolutions.com/source-codes/
www.chupamobile.com
And for really cheap source code (usually need fix ups like adding advertisements, etc in the game)
codecanyon.net
In the next few days, I will also post links to three source codes I have have available. More on that soon!
Until then good luck with your source code purchases!
Cheers
Tim Buchalka
