Reskin a Game So It Passes Google Play and App Store Review

To reskin a game and get it through store review, you have to change more than the art. A new logo on a bought template is still the same game as every other copy, and both Google Play and Apple have written rules against publishing what is already there. What passes is a game where the rules, the levels, the theme and the screens show that someone made decisions.

This guide is for people who buy an HTML5 game template to publish it as an app, for themselves or for a client. We sell templates, so we have an interest here, and we say it once. Everything we say about store policy comes from the official Google Play Console Help and Apple App Review Guidelines pages, read on 30 October 2026. Everything we say about our licence comes from our own terms. It is not legal advice, and store policies change, so read the current versions before you submit.

What the licence lets you do with a reskin

Start with the licence, because a store can only reject your app, while a licence problem can take it down later. In the Polar Games Marketplace each purchase is a perpetual, non-exclusive licence for one end product, yours or one client's. A published app is an end product, so one licence covers one app. A second app built from the same template, even with a different theme, needs a second licence.

• You may change the code, the art and the audio inside your end product.
• White label is allowed: you may replace the Polar Games name and logo with yours or your client's.
• You may not resell, share or redistribute the template, its source code or its assets on their own, as a template, kit or asset pack, or inside another product meant for developers.
• Players may access your end product free of charge or through advertising.
• Third-party components such as fonts keep their own licences. Keep the notices in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES with your product.
• The licence does not expire when support ends.

Where you publish is up to you. One licence lets you put that game wherever you want, on Google Play and the App Store included. One case the terms do not spell out, so ask us before you build it: a paid app or an app with in-app purchases. We would rather answer an email than have you guess.

Read the licence, support and refund terms

App reskin rules on Google Play and the App Store

Neither store bans templates by name. What they reject is an app that adds nothing to what is already in the store.

Google Play: repetitive content

The Google Play spam policy has a section on repetitive content. It says Google does not allow apps that "merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play". The examples it lists include copying content from other apps without adding original content or value, and one developer publishing several apps with very similar functionality, content and user experience. The same policy also covers apps whose main purpose is to show a webview of a website without the owner's permission. A game you licensed and packaged with its files inside the app is a different case, but it should be a game, not a link.

Apple: guideline 4.3 Spam, plus 4.1 and 4.2

Apple's guideline 4.3(a) asks developers not to create several bundle IDs of the same app, and suggests one app with in-app variations instead. 4.3(b) says Apple does not want apps that cannot be told apart from what is already widely available, and warns that repeated submissions of that kind can lead to removal from the Apple Developer Program. Guideline 4.1 on copycats opens with a short instruction: "Come up with your own ideas." Guideline 4.2 asks for features, content and interface that go beyond a repackaged website.

Read together, the two stores ask one question: if a player installs your app next to the other copies of the same template, can they tell the difference within a minute of play? If the only answer is the colour of the buttons, expect trouble.

A reskin checklist that goes beyond art

These are the changes we would make if we were publishing one of our own templates as a new app. You do not need all of them. You need enough that the game plays differently, not only looks different.

Rules and modes

• Change a core number that players feel: time limits, speed, board size, scoring, the number of lives or moves.
• Add or remove a mode. A daily challenge, a timed mode or a relaxed mode with no fail state changes how a session feels.
• Change the win condition or add a goal per level, such as a target score or a limited number of moves.

Levels and content

• Write your own levels where the template allows it. In Ricopop, for example, the 50 levels are text maps in src/levels.js, and an included tool, node tools/validate.mjs, checks that each level can still be won after you edit it.
• Reorder the difficulty curve for your audience: younger players, commuters, older players.
• Replace word lists, puzzle sets or questions with content written for your market.

See Ricopop: 50 levels you can rewrite as text maps

Theme and story

• Pick a theme that changes the meaning of the game, not only its palette: a pool hall becomes a beach bar, a mining game becomes a space salvage job.
• Rename everything the player reads: the game, the modes, the power-ups, the achievements.
• Redraw characters, backgrounds, icons and effects so no screenshot matches the template's demo.

Interface

• Redesign the menus, the results screen and the settings, not only their colours. Layout is what reviewers and players see first.
• Check every screen on small phones and in both orientations if your app allows both.
• Remove anything that only made sense on a website, such as links back to a portal.

Languages

• Choose the languages of your market and have a native speaker check them.
• Find the file that holds the interface text. In Gridspark it is src/locales.js, and rule constants and the palette are in src/config.js.
• Translate the store listing too, with screenshots that show the translated game.

Monetisation

• Our editions do not include ad accounts or ad SDK integrations. Your ad placement, cadence and network are your decisions, which also makes the app different.
• Put ads at natural pauses, never in the middle of play.
• If you want a paid app or in-app purchases, ask us about the licence first, as said above.

The store listing is part of the review

A good game can still look like spam if its listing is generic. Reviewers and players read the name, the screenshots and the description before they open anything.

• Screenshots: Apple's guideline 2.3.3 says they should show the app in use, not only title art or a splash screen. Google's listing help recommends that games show the in-game experience. Capture your reskin, never the template's demo.
• Name: unique and your own. Other companies' trademarks belong only in comparisons, and not in your app name.
• Description: say what the player does and what is different about your version. Do not promise modes, levels or prizes the app does not have.
• Privacy: both stores ask for a privacy policy URL and a declaration of the data your app and its SDKs collect. Ad SDKs collect data even if your own code does not.

Pick a template that can carry a reskin

Some templates are easier to change than others, and it is cheaper to find out before you pay. Look for readable source, settings kept apart from the game logic, and a manual that says where things live.

• Readable source. Our editions ship the source in plain, formatted files. Velvet Pool's manual shows where the logo, the cloth and cue styles, the computer opponent and the physics are.
• Content in data, not hard-coded. Level maps, word lists and text files are the easiest parts of a reskin.
• Tests. Some of our templates ship automated tests, which tell you when a change broke a rule.
• Languages. Velvet Pool, Ricopop and Gridspark each come with 14 interface languages.

One honest limit: our template editions are browser games. Every edition page lists native app builds as not included. Wrapping the game as an app is a step you do yourself or order from us.

Browse the templates and read what each edition includes

When the change is bigger than you want to do

Support covers questions about installing and using the files we supplied and fixes for reproducible defects. It does not cover customisation. New modes, a new level set, a different interface, an SDK integration or packaging the game for Google Play and the App Store are custom work.

We take that work by quote. Send us the template, what you want changed and where you plan to publish, and we reply with scope, price and timing before anything starts. We do not publish a price list for custom work.

Ask for a quote for custom changes

FAQ

Is it legal to reskin a game I bought as a template?

Yes, if the licence allows it. Ours lets you change the code, art and audio and put your own brand on it, for one end product per licence. You may not resell the template or its code on their own.

Will Google Play or Apple reject a reskinned app?

They can, if it offers the same experience as apps already in the store. Google's repetitive content policy and Apple's guideline 4.3 both target that. Changing rules, levels, theme and interface is what makes the app distinct.

Can I publish several reskins of the same template?

Each one needs its own licence with us. Apple also suggests one app with variations inside it instead of many near-identical apps, and Google lists similar apps from one developer as an example of repetitive content.

Can I sell the app or add in-app purchases?

Our terms say players may access your end product free of charge or through advertising. For a paid app or in-app purchases, write to us before you build so we can answer for your case.

Does the template include an Android or iOS build?

No. Our editions are browser games ready to host. Packaging them as an app, with Capacitor or another wrapper, is your step or a custom job we can quote.