Using the Google Play Developer API, there seems to be plenty of ways to make edits to an existing app.
https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref
Looking through the API it seems all the API requests uses "packageName".
e.g.
POST https://www.googleapis.com/androidpublisher/v3/applications/packageName/edits
This indicates that you already need to have an app available, with at least 1 APK already uploaded.
This is fine for editing an existing app. However, how can I create a new app using the API, without an existing listing or APK added?