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Many people still think that if they want to make games, they have to make games from the scratch. As of my experience, making games from the scratch is very hard to do. You will have to brainstorm, write down your ideas and thoughts, give the ideas to developer and programmer... and yeah, the list will still go on. Plus, you still have to think about marketing part on top of it. It will be a very long process and long shoot. 

What if there exist an easier method to actually make games? Yeah, it is called re-skinning technique. Let me explain what re-skinning is.

What is app re-skinning?

Re-skinning an app is a process wherein you would simply switch or change the graphics of a certain app, but retain the code or the programming side. It works well with almost any app, from games to some simple productivity apps.

For example, you get to buy an app source code. You then proceed to modify its graphics, the background, edit the sound effects and the music, without needing to change its nature, i.e. you retain how people actually play it. The only thing that you change is really the ‘skin’ of the app.

Why would I want to simply re-skin an app?

1. Saving Money. We have to admit that publishers and developers want one thing from their apps: profits and revenue. By re-skinning an app, you don’t have to actually go through all the hassle of programming everything. So in that sense, you get to save money because you don’t have to hire people to code for you, or to design an interface for you. You simply have to change the graphics using image editing tools. Hence, the biggest advantage of re-skinning an app would be to save costs.

2. Saving Time. Since you already have a working code, you just need to technically put on all the graphics that you made, plus the sounds that you acquired, whether paid or royalty-free. You also need to put in your own advertising code or ID so that profits would go straight to you instead.

3. Saving Energy. You don't have to be in trouble with bugs that could occur along the way, or having a problem when the game that was developed out from what you had imagined!

Without the need to start from base up, you really save time. You can easily release your own app within a month, and even in a week if you really work hard for it.

Won’t people get tired of seeing the same game all over again?

Not really. You are going to re-skin the graphics, making it actually ‘different’ from the other apps out there. There is still a big chance of users actually downloading your apps. Just try to take a look in the App Store now and compare the number of apps with the same gameplay or same content, save for a few tweaks. There are actually quite a number of them. In fact, flipping apps is already an emerging trend in various app stores because it allows developers to really get their revenues up.

What about the costs? Isn’t it expensive to buy a code and reskin it?

A source code can probably be bought for around $250 - $350 at normal rate. For the great one, it could sell from $1000 to $1500. For reskinning cost, at normal rate it will cost you around $500 - $750. For the great app with extensive reskin, you will need to spend about $1000 to $1500. It might sound like a lot of money to others, but this is extremely reasonable for publishers and developers who easily spend $6,000 on a new app built from scratch. And if you have the opportunity to actually turn that $1,000 to $200,000 with app flipping, then it becomes a very worthwhile investment, after all.

Conclusion

It is really worthwhile to make games by reskinning existing source code compared to making the games from the scratch. As a lot of games developer out there, most of the time the idea that you have will be similar to the existing games out there. Instead of making games from the scratch for something that is similar out there, why don't you just use the source code of the similar game that you want to build and modify it to fit with your taste? Time, Energy, and Money can be saved a lot using this technique.

Let me know what your thoughts and comments. Feel free to write here