App competition - how to protect my app pre-release

Hello guys!

I'm planning to submit an Android app I have worked on for about 3 months to an app competition. The app is not released, yet. It will be ready for release in June I guess. The submission dead line ends before I will be able to release my application but a solid beta build will be ready which will be sufficient for this competition.
Now what would you suggest on how to protect my app the best way? It might seem a bit paranoid but I am worried that somehow after my submission the app might fall into the wrong hands, gets repackaged and distributed on the play store before I even released it myself ... :?

What are your suggestions to protect my application? Should I submit the app to the competition signed with the developer key or a private key?
I considered the possibility to sign the app with a private key that has an expiration date of about 1 year. But this of course would not prevent repackaging.
Do you think this is a realistic risk?

Also I will set-up a homepage prior to my submission to claim authorship of the app.

Anything more I can do?

 

Welcome to the world of android development, where every successful idea was stolen from someone else's idea lol.

How are you submitted your app to the competition? Just providing the APK? Or a link to the App on the play store?

Call me paranoid, but I would never submit just the APK to someone unless I absolutely know the source is trust worthy. An APK CAN be reverse engineered (though not really "easily" or "reliably"). By the sounds of your post, being paranoid, then you dont exactly trust the people you are submitting to, correct? That should be your answer right there.

That being said, I think you are looking a little too hard into it. It doesnt matter if you submit your app to a competition, or on the play store itself, if its a good idea, expect THOUSANDS of clones that you will not be able to stop (*AHEM* candy crush, flappy bird, 2048, etc. etc.)

 

Maybe you could watermark all the art assets somehow? So they're more like placeholder. Or are you more worried about the game mechanic/code behind the visual?

 

For protecting the APK as a whole (from simple copying and renaming) a HUD watermark can be a good way to go. Something in the corner with some alpha (like a TV station) helps make it clear that where the app really came from. You can even include the event name if you want to track down the source of leaks in the future. You can try something similar like that on image assets as well, but it can be labor intensive and produce strange visual results.

 

Thank you, good suggestions!
I will go with the watermark solution. I will probably also implement a hidden credits menu which contains my information.