If you've read some of my earlier posts you'll know that I've been quite taken with the idea of app producers people who take the code for a game (often-times outsourcing it's development, often just buying stock source code), reskin it a few times with different graphics and sounds (outsourcing that too) and then release the multiple versions for maximized profit. These people are great at what they do, making money, but they approach game creation from a totally different perspective to how your run-of-the-mill indie dev does. If a game design will likely make money for an app producer on paper then it's going to get made. In essence they produce games that the market wants, that are engineered specifically for the purpose of making money, rather than making games based on creativity and artistic merit on the producer's part.
The more I learn about this style of working the larger a chasm opens up between it and myself. If working on a GDD for my first game has taught me anything, it's that I'm a perfectionist, and painfully so. I want every last facet of my games to be well thought out and everything has to be included for a reason. I've always taken pride in my work, and when I release my first game I want to know that it's the best I could have made it, not that sacrifices had to be made. The trouble with this is that it puts me at odds with the workflow of your average app producer.
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To condense the problem down I admire the methods used by app producers outsource as much as possible, release games that are likely to be moderately popular, rinse and repeat as this is a great business-minded way to bring in some income but I also personally want to create games that are brilliant, artistic and creative. That's what all true indies want to do. However I do also need to make some money to keep my business afloat. I've studied lots about reskinning and app producing and I've checked out all of the big markets where app producers go to buy their source code. It's clearly a big money game, when compared to my current situation at least. Source code can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, and then often just as much is spent again on outsourcing artwork, as well as any extra development time that's needed to implement ads, etc.
I've thought long and hard about the idea of buying some source code and reskinning it myself as a way to release quick games alongside my own major games, speeding up the revenue-making process, but I have a couple of issues with this that are holding me back. Firstly it would be a big gamble if I spend a few hundred dollars on some source code and then find out afterwards that it needs some development time on it to fix a bug, or implement an update to an advertising provider, etc. I'm screwed. Without knowing Xcode/Cocos2d-x myself I'd have to pay for a developer to assist me. I'm starting on a budget of nothing right now so something like that could be a real disaster. The other issue is that as I said before, I take real pride in my work. I want to build a strong and recognisable brand, so that each time I release a new game people will download it purely on the strength of my previous games. I want my own character and personality to shine through in everything I produce. I don't think that's going to happen when players click thorough to my other games to see a mismatched catalogue of games from various developers, all differing in style, many being the same games reskinned; it's just not the image I want to convey about my brand. I'd struggle to let myself release something from another developer that could negatively affect player's perceptions of my own games.
So where exactly am I going with this rambling stream of conciousness? Well I'm taking a step back from reskinning, for now at least, to work solely on my own original games. I may well look to reskinning again in the future, it's certainly not ruled out. I've learned that the big app producers often have multiple accounts within the app stores, as I think this helps them release multiple very similar apps without anyone raising an eyebrow. I think this could be a useful potential strategy for me later on. I'll release only my own carefully crafted games under my developer account/brand for the time being, and when I start making some real profit I'll perhaps look again at app producing as a potential sideline, a possible way of rolling my profits in to even larger profits by creating a whole range of games that are completely outsourced, artwork and all. If I do go down that route I'll be doing it under a completely separate developer account/name from my own brand. This will allow me to tinker in the app producer business (which really does seem profitable, I'd be crazy not to at least consider it) whilst keeping my own brand, and importantly creative integrity, intact.
In the meantime I think it's been a really useful time studying how the app producers work if nothing else I'm now much more clued up on how they go about monetising their games to the max, and I've learned a few useful tricks about things like ad placement and user engagement which I can implement in my own games. The primary takeaway from all of this however is that for the foreseeable future I'll be focusing solely on my own games, and will strive to make each one the best it can be, rather than building it with reskinning in mind.
In honesty I sometimes drive myself mad with this whole reskinning/app producing debate it's like my left brain is fighting with my right brain over it. Most people I speak to about this stuff have a pretty clear opinion, they know their own feelings on the subject. A lot of indies make games for the love and the passion, and making money from their games can be something of an afterthought, a 'make it and they will come' mentality. Many producer types however are all about the money, building revenue streams and maximising return on investment, but not putting anything really personal or creative in to their games. I think perhaps I'm a bit of an anomaly (or freak) in that I seem to have both of these traits equally in me, and they're fighting over precedence all the time. I'm very creative but I'm also very business-minded. I want to create works of art but I also want to build a successful business that churns out profits for me day-in-day-out. On paper I know that app producing/reskinning is a great way to build an income but in reality I'd find it difficult to release somebody else's work as my own. It's a balancing act, but I guess ultimately having both sides of your brain firing equally is more a blessing than a curse, I've just got to learn to rein them in and get them in sync with one another to turn my procrastination in to epic productivity.
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Posted in Software Post Date 10/26/2024
