I am new to all of this. I am going to have to reread this thread a few times to fully digest everything. Thanks.
@bentforktech yeah you are hearing lots of insights from many years experience between a lot of people here. Read many times. I'm reading many times too!
Though I have no launch experience to base insights on (yet), I have watched other launches, and I agree with the insights expressed in this thread. I also want to politely shove down everyone's eye sockets the idea that re-skinning another successful game, even in the form of obviously re-skinned multiple character options, is not the way to make a game good, no matter who you publish with. I really think that Apple is now considering re-skinned games (even obvious multiple character re-skins in a new game) as ineligible for features -- I cannot confirm this, but I speculate that this is a recent change. I do not know if Apple "blacklists" a company off of the list of feature eligibility, but I would personally want to avoid this. Time will tell what's going on. Of course, getting featured is not the only way to make it big with a game. However, it is clear that being featured helps. What's worse than not getting your re-skinned character game featured? There is something much worse: You get sued, or you end up having to remove the game from the app store. In the case of a suit, you pay a lot (or all) of what you made off of that re-skinned character game. If you end up having to remove the re-skinned character game, there goes that piece of the network you were planning to launch new games to... Losing that piece of the network does not mean losing those people in your customer base that play multiple titles you publish, but it would mean losing those customers that only play that re-skinned character game of yours that you (hypothetically) pull from the store. I think it is important to remember that @TreySmith 's model and improve game business approach emphasizes NOT to reskin -- NOT TO COPY. Don't make a character in your game look like a re-skinned marvel superhero. It is not worth whatever gain you might think you get from doing so. Honestly, it also looks sketchy, in a lack of creativity way.
I don't think that doing a Batman or Indiana Jones character is a bad thing. I actually think it's funny. It's a homage to the original character, nothing else. Check out the new game Tower Dash. Great and funny characters. And the appstore is full of reskins appwise. The new game from Ketchapp HopHopHop is a 100% reskin and it's having great success right now. I don't think anyone will sue because just by changing some small elements it can be argumented that it's not the same game. Also, watch out not to copy Candy Crash or other big players. This is a lot more difficult and can get you in legal issues you won't win. Not because of the argument but rather because of the money. But even then, this game has hundreds of reskins and all of them are only slightly improved or changed. One of them was an editors' choice a couple weeks back. Of course, it's sad for the original game and the original makers if the copy does better. But as said by some users in this same thread: it's not only the game but also the marketing. Sometimes I think Ketchapp is seeking great games that didn't do as well in the past and reskin/remake them. But actually this is what we all do in a certain way. The game I'm making has a lot of different elements from other games and I honestly think that nowadays everything is somehow a remake. The genres are already made; the elements, powerups, characters, physics, etc. are already made. It's funny to play with the elements and create this way something unique. I agree with the opinions made by some in this thread that making a game has to be fun. And obviously, if you make just a 100% copy of something it is plain boring. For a first game with the Buildbox trial it probably is the best you can do but if you are going for something more unique 30 days is not enough. Buildbox is a very good platform to make reskins/remakes of other games. There is even a preset called Flappy which obviously gives you a Flappy Bird game. As Trey says in the tutorials, add some new stuff and think outside the box. And this is where the fun starts. In this sense, I don't think Apple cares about reskins and copies. If the game looks great and has a great gameplay then a feature is appropriate. If it is the same again and again and there are other more unique games published the same week, obviously you won't make the cut. Thanks again for all the comments. It has been a very good read that motivates me with my work. It's always great when knowledged members share their opinion.
@Christoph I worry about game designers thinking it is ok to make a character variation that is a batman, an Indian Jones, or a marvel character, and so on. Homage or not, legally, it is infringement. Also "doing well" in terms of downloads and sales is not itself a guarantee against legal issues -- if anything, it is more of a reason for those who have their IP infringed to come after the publisher/developer. $$$ I have not played Tower Dash. Looks like it might be featured. If its character variation literally says "Indian Jones" or "Batman," they are asking for legal trouble. If the character variations look too much like Indiana Jones, that's an issue. However, if the character variation looks like an archetype--such as archeologist explorer--rather than an exact minimal replica of an existing character, then that is ok. Archetypes are a great source of multiple character variations. Using a flappy mechanic (like what the Buildbox preset allows) is not a re-skin. Using the flappy bird character itself is a re-skin, and even this is dangerously walking the border of a re-skin of a Nintendo character. At this point I am going to hope that an employee from Buildbox will expressly clarify again what they advise about re-skins (particularly of characters) and re-articulate what model and improvement really means.
I don't understand why some designers, developers, and publishers think that just because a game is on mobile, the rules of IP infringement don't apply -- as if the mobile app stores are some off-shore place of a lawless Western noir of re-skinning the same popular characters over and over -- as if the land of the mobile avoids the legal troubles to which a console game could suffer.
