So my budget for making game is pretty low, around $300. What I thought to do is to find/buy source code for game that is similar to my idea and edit it so it fit perfectly for my game. Of course pros of doing that is saving money, what are cons - bad sides of that? Second question, when I put ads in my app and I use admob for example. Do I get paid for impression or when user click on ad? Third, how hard is to get google play dev. account? btw I have experience with php, c/c++ and a little of java. And aproximetly how much active installs I need to earn for example $100 a day with game that will have IAP? And what “reskin” actually is?
If your budget is so low, maybe you consider making another app and not game. Games, good ones, are usually expensive, and crappy ones, like puzzles, memory games that you can buy with $50 won’t have success. There are other apps too, like music ones, simple entertainment ones, even wallpapers that are cheap to buy and can get you $ faster than a game.
admob pays for clicks, other networks pay if the user after clicks on the ad, installs the app in the ad… this is called pay per install.
easy… just buy one with your debit card…
for $100 a day you need around 3000 new installs per day. Leave the IAP for later…
reskin (if I guess correctly) is when the person selling the source code for the app also changes the colors, logos, images, theme, app name etc. for a price or free, so you don’t have to. When I sell my apps (I sell apps too :D), I usually do it for 10-20% of the price of the app (sources) if it’s not very complicated.
Personally I won’t suggest buying source code. As you said you will have to edit it which needs some skills. Making blind changes and checking if it works is horrible way, you will get angry that nothing works. You should but source code only if you know something (more than little) of java and android SDK.
Buying source code also can make your app banned. Google can decompile the apk file and if someone put something against their policy to his app you can be banned as well because code is almost the same and they may think you are the same person. However noone knows this is true or not, maybe google doesn’t do it at all and these are only rumors. I think this point is not the most important one but be careful.
Another disadvantage of buying code is price. 300$ is enough, though. You can buy source code even for 100$ but remember that the bought application needs reskin (this is what you ask in last question). Your app can be the same like other app in play store so you’ll have to change all graphics and sounds. In most cases this is what developers have to pay for during the development. If you can do it by yourself it’s great but if you can’t you have to know that it costs. You can’t just download it without checking the license.
Of course you will save a lot of time if you buy source code but remember that you need to know how to configure the environment, you need to know how to edit the app, you have to change graphics and sounds and you’ll never know that the source code is good enough.
You don’t get paid for impressions, only clicks.
Getting google play dev account is not hard at all. You just have to register and pay 20$ (or smth like that).
Unforunately noone will tell you that. Not because they don’t want to but there are too many factors that makes your revenue high. Some of them are: ad network, ads placing, users country (you will get a lot for USA click but almost nothing for Chinese click for exampe), game session length, how addictive is your game and a lot of more factors. Installs doesn’t mean that player haven’t uninstalled your game already (active installs) it also doesn’t mean that he will play your game often. The question is even harder if you add IAP to it. It depends of if people will buy your stuff or not.
However to answer your question i would say that to make 100$ per day you will need about 20000-50000 active installs in average game which means about 2x more overall installs for young game. It can be 5k it can be 100k, noone can predict it. Note that number displayed on GP store are overall installs. Probably most of them have uninstalled the game already.
Now I realize how good decision was to register on this forum. I got problem then, you understund that $350 is not enough for hiring real dev.
My plan was to buy some source code for game similar to it and add unique features in it, it will be kinda mode of that game that have HUGE potential.
What you suggest me then?
I don’t know what are your java skills. I’ve started android development about 2 months ago so I am still beginner. However I knew java pretty well so it wasn’t so hard to adapt to something new. I’ve started with AndEngine (great game framework). I’ve done some tutorials (check matim dev tutorial (great one) and some youtube tutorials by RealMayo). The problem may be in your java skills. You don’t have to be an expert but you have to understand mechanics used in framework so if you are not good enough you should start with some java online courses or smth. My first game in AndEngine is on GP already (check Run Alien by APPtoGO) and now I am working on next game. This time I will use libgdx which looks better (but its harder to get into). Good idea would be to read whole makingmoneywithandroid forum. I did - it took me few days but it’s important to know other experiences, especially about marketing.
To be success on GP you have to know the market and mechanics, you also have to know how to develop and manage your apps. You shouldn’t count on miracles that you will buy source code without any knowledge and become milionaire.
Remember that potential is not everything. I can see it on myself. For example game called Panda Run was at the top of GP ranking which is also runner game so as Run Alien but panda run is crap. It’s true that Run Alien is much better, still small and simple game but much better than that. As you probably know I am not in top 10 games like panda run was.
You see? There are a lot of random factors, marketing and luck needed:)
