Hi all, I see a number of app developers make a lot of money reskinning apps. I was wondering what the Buzztouch community thinks about it. I can't find any post on the forum about it. Reading blogs from app developer Elaine Heney and Carter Thomas, I understand it can be very profitable. What does anyone think? Anyone else had firsthand experience? Thank you!

Hey! I think its not a bad idea at all. I do think however, with each app/game that you skin you should be bringing something new to the table, you know? I've heard Trey Smith talk about this last year alongside his release of the App System. It makes tons of since honestly, but if I were to do this, and I do this with a few websites that I own but they are all unique and offer something different. I don't mean swapping out a red car for a purple car, in terms of games.. the game play would have to vary for me to justify in my mind skinning/cloning. For earning income I'm sure its awesome but rather see more quality than quantity depending on the app. Rovio sort of skins their games but they all have a unique game play which makes them a powerhouse :) my 2 cents

David mentions re-skinning in another context, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRgWn4BLVk As for Carter Thomas, he has several interesting articles on his blog and he owns his success mostly to re-skinning. (His success consists of selling all his apps for 200.000 dollars within less than two years. The fact that he sold them all makes me think that he thinks that re-skinning cannot last, though.) I have also read Elaine's book and it is excellent in a sense that it is good to know what has worked for her then and there. But what I see that is common between the two of them is that both were able to produce a large number of apps in a very short time, mostly thanks to outsourcing. Amish Shah tells almost the exact same story -- produce dozens and hundreds of apps, fast, see what sticks and work from there. If that is the key, then we here at Buzztouch should be in a unique position to produce apps, fast. You may compare two of may apps, such as Ambient Music New https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ambientmusicnew and Opera Music https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.operamusic and see that they identical options that I called - Download our other apps (so that they may discover more of my apps, always a good thing) - App Policies (this calls a PHP page and only one parameter is changed in the buzztouch control panel for Custom URL) - Share this app (only have to change the email address to which they could send the email if they wanted to) and others, which were produced literaly with two or three clicks, because I used the JSON Snippet Keeper plugin to move them from one app to all others. This is similar to re-skinning, but most people won't care. If you like opera music and like my app because it contains the best arias from YouTube, it is not very likely that you will also download an app for Ambient Music at the same time, and it is even less likely that if you do, that you will start hating the Opera Music app only because it has similar menus. I think re-skinning will last for a year or two more, but if everybody starts re-skinning the same original game, then those who come last will be sorely disappointed because there is only so much space to show icons in the apps stores. Once it is over-crowded, it stays over-crowded.

For me "reskinning" is like buzztouch... education into a new career. For me I have to break stuff...examine it ...see how it works before I implement it. To have it as a main source of income I don't think even the major players depend on that. Having multiple tools is not "wrong" in any profession. I say go for it. I have seen your design work. You go the extra mile to perfect your apps. It's a great way to learn some new code tricks and who knows maybe a buzztouch plugin will come out of it. Great topic!

Hey thanks folks, as always. I thought maybe since the topic wasn't covered on the forum that somehow it was frowned upon - that's obviously not the case. Thanks for your views on the subject. I think you're right Sheri - reskinning could be a good way to improve your knowledge of code. Did you folks listen to Elaine's recent interview? Check out her website chocolateladapps. It's worth a listen. As @Dusko points out, her business model does seem to be based, at least in part, on getting a large number of apps on the app store. Her first horsie app earned her $12,000... nice! @mysps - interesting to hear Rovio does re-skinning too. Did you know Angry Birds was their 51st app? So only another 40+ apps to go before I hit gold??!! ;-)

To correct a URL, Elaine's web site is http://TheChocolateLabsApps.com She gives good tips on her blog. At a local meetup, a soon-to-be-retired couple is making enough money by re-skinning games such that they can retire. They outsource the coding aspects and invest less than $500 for each re-skin. -- Niraj

Good story! Outsourcing can be a great way to help get the job done. I realise now why I thought David said he didn't like skinning. At the Buzzcon lecture on making money building apps he actually said he didn't like scheming not skinning!! lol!! :-)

Hi Guys... I think the main test here is asking yourself where the innovation is. In many ways an argument could be made that EVERY app is a re-skinned version of something else. Right? Naturally this is a silly stretch but isn't Angry Birds (dragging things around and letting go to see what happens) a re-skinned version of 5000 other games where you drag things around, let go, then see what happens? Music...play some chords (the same chords everyone else has been playing for years), arrange them in a cool way, end up with a cool tune - your tune. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew that there isn't anything wrong with expanding on somebody elses ideas and re-creating an existing software with a different angle, feature, twist, etc. This is a very normal approach. If you can find some success with it, stay true to your values (we all have different boundaries in this regard), and get through the technical hurdles (re-creating apps can sometimes be more work than it appears) then you'll be well served by trying.

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on the topic David - much appreciated! Learning all the time here at BT!!

Just in the headlines today - the not-so-pretty face of skinning I guess you could say. Developer Markus "Notch" Persson, who created the hit online video game Minecraft, says he has shelved plans for a follow up. "I was streaming code and someone copied all the code and made their own version of it," he said of the new game during a live web stream. "That was kind of the start of the decline of 0x10c. I realised the community was more powerful than I had the energy for." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23754311

Shame really...