What is App Reskinning?
To reskin means to replace, repair or rework the exterior, coating or general appearance of something mostly to make it appear different; like a new coat of paint on an old wall or a new a body for an old car model. It’s the same with app reskinning. You get a source code for an app and tweak its graphics, sound, and music (considered as “app assets”) to give the app a new feel. It takes away the hassle of building an app from scratch – a process that needs a certain level of expertise in programming and game design.
Just take it this way, app reskinning is like playing a good ole tapping game on your tablet. It’s easy to learn, you gain rewards fast without investing too much time and energy to progress. In comparison, creating apps from scratch is like playing competitive eSports. The learning curve is steep, the rewards are great but it would take a lot of time and energy achieve. So for the beginner to novice app developer, app reskinning can be a lifesaver that can one day lead you to success.
Early uses of the reskinning concept
Reskinning is actually a concept long developed even before the emergence of mobile gaming. It is quite popular even with serialized arcade and console games way back in the 80’s. One popular example is the hit game Super Mario Bros. 2 which is basically a reskin of a Fuji TV commissioned game called Doki Doki Panic.
There are many other games that were reskinned for the purpose of localization. Some games are just too Japanese and won’t fit the western market. Another example is Probotector, a reskin of the Contra franchise Contra 3: Hard Corps. This game’s distribution was only in Europe. Contra 3: Hard Corps cannot be distributed as is because of the German Federal Agency’s banning of media with content that is too violent for children. The robots replaced the human sprites and the plot line changed to accommodate this change.
Cloning a game was also commonplace in the early video game platform. The game Great Giana Sisters from 1987 was an obvious clone of Super Mario Bros. It came to the point that threats caused for it’s cancellation. Conversationally, Street Fighter II had many clones. Some of these alleged clones are Fatal Fury, Fighter’s History, Art of Fighting and even Mortal Kombat.
Reskins are very rare with console games these days but that is mostly because only a handful of game development companies control the market. So it seems that app reskinning is now in a new platform with a new dynamic market that isn’t technically under a monopoly. A great example of the emulation of this strategy is through the hit app Crossy Road. The developer, Hipster Whale admitted that he based the game on the popular arcade game, Frogger. So if this was the 80s or 90s, Crossy Road would be another release of the popular game in areas where conservation of frog species is a great issue (chickens can’t go extinct for sure).
Cloning, emulating, reskinning and flipping – what’s the difference?
You know the basics of what app reskinning is but as you branch out and search for more resources about this topic you would most probably hear the words “app cloning” and “app flipping”. These terms are often interchangeable with “app reskinning”. You can also hear some developers throwing out the defense that they are just “emulating” and not reskinning an app. Let’s dig deeper into these words and learn what they really mean (aside from the obvious).
App or game cloning can be the straightforward copying of app assets especially if it is a recognizable representation of a brand (app assets like characters, background, and popular tagline or unique word specific to the title). But some developers use the term “cloning” interchangeably with “reskinning” and “emulating” which can add to the confusion. Most of the time, though, cloning describes a reskin that appears and sounds close to the original and is almost immediately identifiable as a copy. But does this extend to copying game mechanics and design? I think so. This is a difficult topic though since a lot of the apps that are in the same niche almost have the same mechanics with little to no difference in game design.
In app reskinning, there is an aggreement wherein the purchase of the source code also involves the purchase of the right to either use the code for a single reskin (single license) or to do multiple reskins (unlimited license). In cloning and emulating you don’t really have the license to reskin the original source code, rather you are using a source code of the app’s clone or of an app that has similar design and mechanics. And in almost all instances, the app you cloned or emulated is still up and running in the app store and you are competing against its other clones to be the number two in the niche that the popular app had now created.
Emulating an app is like what they say with other works “that you take inspiration” from something or “emulate someone”. The same model is in use. There is no need for any permission from the owner since the original product isn’t in jeopardy. But emulation doesn’t mean that you have to or will copy everything about the app. Copy only the basic model. This means you copy the concept and design and build from there. Improve any weaknesses and errors you may find in order to create your own definitive app that can compete in the same market.
App flipping, on the other hand, is just like the real world “flipping houses” scheme. You purchase an existing property, mostly under the market value and then renovate it, raising its market value and then selling it for a profit. App flipping is, therefore, the business scheme of selling source code licenses to app reskinners. Most of the time, especially with individual sellers, the source code are their own isn’t from another party. The confusion with app flipping come from sources that mostly use “app flipping”, “app cloning” and “app reskinning interchangeably”.
It can be confusing when you can’t say if an app is a reskin or a clone. And of course, the nagging question: are all clones app reskins? And is app flipping and app reskinning synonymous? Most of the time, “app reskinning” is just an umbrella term or the general term for the dynamic industry of app source code repurposing.
Is app reskinning legal?
App reskinning may seem downright backhanded but nothing about app reskinning is actually illegal. Gameplay is often subject to copyright, so as other brandable elements. Copyrighting gameplay highly frowned upon in the gaming industry, though. Many believe that innovation in gameplay keeps the industry dynamic – copyrights limit such innovations. Games since the arcade days in the 80s borrowed elements from other games, improving on it and exploring new possibilities. This would be difficult for some developers if they have to pay rights every step of the way.
So basically, no one is cheated in the process of app reskinning. The gameplay is not an exclusive property of developers. Other developers can create similar gameplays and tweak the code to make it better, thus the allegations of cloning. Also, most source codes are from reputable sellers or marketplaces with a clear license agreement. Something that needs consideration though is that app assets like graphics, sound, music, characters, names, and other distinguishable features are under copyright laws. This is why these assets need “reskinning”, in order to appear original work instead of a copy.
Even most of the allegations of cloning won’t go anywhere. A lot of people say that Candy Crush Saga is just a clone of Bejeweled and Papa Pear Saga of Peggle. They could be and since it’s not illegal, they can actually make more. Take Zynga for example, for every game it releases, there’s an accusation of cloning. The most notable of these accusations being the three-person company Nimblebit’s Tiny Tower clone, Dream Heights.
Scenes a Faire (French, meaning “scenes that must be done”) basically protects the clones from litigation. There are aspects of a game genre that are not subject to copyrights. These aspects (mostly graphic and storyline elements) are often intuitive and necessary in the execution of the gameplay. More often, cloning is more obvious if a game is a pioneer in its genre or if it creates its own niche within that genre. So it’s not surprising that other developers would want a share of the demographic of that niche especially if it is successful.
Reskinned apps and quality: Great examples of app reskinning
Aside from the lack of originality, the second most common complaint about reskinned apps is the quality especially of the graphics. App reskinning received bad raps because of this. But most of the apps cited as examples are actually came from “app reskinning factories”. These “factories” mass produce reskinned apps in just a short period of time. But there are actually examples of app reskinning that are of good quality.
Prolific source codes
- Flappy Crocodile
The moment Flappy Bird disappeared from the App Store, hordes of knock-offs started to appear. These were actually reskinning of the Flappy Crocodile source code.
- Flappy Miley Wrecking Ball Pro
This one came out just two days after the Flappy Bird disappeared from the Apple App Store. The developer, Gregory Storm only heard about Flappy Bird a week before he bought the source code.
- Bluebird in Hell: Flappy Wings of the Damned
Reskins need not be generic. This one was the handiwork of Shane Kittleson of appbattleground.com
- Tiny Flying Drizzy
Vojtech Svarc, the developer of Flappy Crocodile himself, admitted that his engine was the basis fo the game. Just like with Flappy Miley, Drake’s head is used instead of the bird much to the American rapper’s consternation. As of the first quarter of 2014, Svarc had sold the source code for Flappy Crocodile to about 100 developers for $100. He is surely earning a considerable amount since the source code was available in Chupamobile for a while (though the price went down to $99).
App Reskinning series
Some developers use one source code over and over with just little tweaks in the assets and content. They can do this since they own the original source code and because the reskinned apps are sequels to the original. Aside from changing themes to target another demographic, creating sequels is another excellent strategy for reskins.
Deer Hunter Galore
- Deer Hunter 3D (2009)
Images source- Deer Hunter African Safari (2010)
- Deer Hunter Challenge (2010)
- Deer Hunter Reloaded (2012)
- Deer Hunter 2014
This works well for Glu Game since the premise of the game isn’t that dynamic in hindsight. There is too little that you can add to a straightforward shooting game. Most of these features are assets that need little to no work on the present code.
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