How much we've made selling game assets

After we canceled Songs of Everjade, we figured we would try and recoup some of our costs and dip our feet into the asset store. Results have been... mixed. Here's how the process has been for us.
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Timestamps:
00:00 No clickbait intro
00:13 The assets we made
03:32 Unity vs Itch analytics
05:04 Major Unity issues
07:31 Marnix really doesn't like Unity
08:38 How to make your own assets
10:39 Is it worth it
11:07 Closing
---
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[@bitemegames]

NOTES: 1) Turns out Unity doesn't want to scam me, but my European mind just can't comprehind that they add the VAT on top of the price that I configure already. I configured the price of our assets, assuming the 30% cut and then another cut for the VAT. This isn't the case however, with countries such as the US reporting the correct rate of $7.99. I would still prefer being able to configure a single price for all countries, and then have VAT go out of that, but that may just be personal preference from being from Europe. 2)Throughout editing this video I realized that I have different pricing configured for our Asian Garden Tileset, $6.99 on itch vs $7.99 on Unity. However, I don't think that this has had any impact on sales numbers or driven people to buy on itch vs. Unity, as neither store page refers to the other. Changing the Unity price to be aligned with itch.io at $6.99 would require me to submit a change and wait another 6 weeks on approval.

[@lawrence9713]

Wait, unity price change takes 6 weeks. Oh shit. I was thinking going from sketchfab to unity. Guess I'll not do this at all. I discovered the different pricing as well already, just by switching organizations the assets had different prices

[@mandisaw]

It's the VAT, another commenter already spotted it, but can-confirm that it's 7.99 and 4.99 in the States

[@danthomas994]

They show the "correct" US price here in Australia but that is weird as they actually shouldn't. I think US is only country where prices are pre tax prices. (Try renting a car or staying in a hotel and you typically pay double the "quoted price" due to so many additional taxes.) I'm originally from the UK and there they have to show price inclusive of VAT. Here in Australia is the same as I never see prices without GST (our sales tax which is 10%) included yet Unity does. If I was to buy an asset from store when I get to the checkout page it will then add the additional 10%. So why for us is the price on asset page exclusive of tax yet in other countries it is automatically included? The Unity Asset store is sadly very poor. If it offerred some of the features of Steam that help both buyers and sellers it probably could fund Unity. Why can't creators create a bundle of assets and we only pay the price for the ones we are missing. Why can't you buy asset store priducts as gifts for a fellow developer or to allow people to buy for you whan asked what gift they can get you? But that same person evaluating all the assets probably has to also devlop the site as well :D

[@Marc-gj9vx]

Its not possible because each country has different VAT rate, so that would mean some country would give you more money and some less, which doesn't make sense. Also in USA/ Canada, VAT is always added on top of displayed price.

[@mandisaw]

@@danthomas994 Unity does allow creators to gift, bundle, do partial credits, etc. Lots of asset creators do it as a matter of course, but if not, you can reach out to them and ask. Gifting from one dev to another would just be a gift card, no?

[@tykeno]

I love it when tubers answer the question in the title straight of. I'll listen to the break down but don't drag out the answer

[@3Wizards]

Agreed. I have just found the channel and watched only 2 videos yet, but this seems to be a no nonsense, no unnecessary fillers and all about the information approach. I really appreciate that.

[@beidero]

I love how you always answer the title right away, rather than having to skip through half the video to find it.

[@rmt3589]

I didn't know Itch had assets. This will be massively useful as a gamedev, enginedev, and soon-to-be artist. Also, a lot of Unity assets aren't Unity-only. Check the license of each asset, and you may be surprised.

[@honaleri]

I think selling assets is just...a hard market in general. You have to hit the most desirable niche and simultaneously be above the competition while being unique enough to out perform the popular ones. Like for example, you probably couldn't compete with Synty if you wanted to sell low poly 3d models, it would just be too hard to do what they do but better and differently. But getting a specific niche could be useful? I dont know, looking at the number of sales on most asset packs I think the ones that actually make money are like... code and system functionality stuff. Like terrain editors and stuff that's productive. Simple because gamers typical aim for an unique look and the people buying assets typically do what you did if they are serious, hire someone for custom stuff, or make it themselves. So the people buying packs are almost always less serious and thus... less funded, so their are fewer buyers. And these things exist for a small market, just game devs. So, it's like a small sunset of a small market that buy this stuff already. It's simply not the most lucrative market. Especially with how much people can get for free already. But it's easily a mini income stream. For the right person. Thanks for the coverage.

[@burnheart2965]

Respect for immediately answering the title question

[@RealCoachMustafa]

This video was very insightful. I see so many good assets on the Unity store and they only have like 5 reviews and it makes me wonder how well they sell on there.

[@alignedgames]

Its quite a wide range but I've sold assets that have had over 100 sales that have 2 reviews, people just dont review...

[@ananths1122]

yeah. thnx for keeping it direct. have a like. and a comment too. gotta go now though (tutorial madness)

[@javiercolinacatalurda9644]

I believe that if the pixel art were well-executed, they would sell more. Pixel art follows drawing rules that are not applied in your assets

[@_MG_01]

I liked because you asked for in your no clickbait intro :D

[@skate1]

Great video straight to the point

[@PeterSedesse]

The problem with really unique art is that you have to sell enough that people can make a game out of it. you buy the tilesets, you buy the icons....then what? You need to hire someone to do the other stuff that matches that unique art. It is why syntry is so successful, they have an art style, but there is so much available that you can build a whole game out if it.

[@alignedgames]

Exactly, and it takes a long time to get there.

[@Trupen]

I look at the very first number and think 61k of gross revenue sounds pretty good. then I hear it's 61 dollars, not 61k 💀

[@bitemegames]

One can dream... -M

[@thomaswang]

Chad intro

[@GGFTV]

The lack of sales from Unity is actually really crazy.

[@mythrando]

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your journey.

[@SharyGameDev]

Tip: Make the wooden bridge planks little bit shorter. Vertical part looks too long and that's why it is not a cosy bridge 😁 PS. Great video btw.👍

[@vast634]

Music: you can charge also for a single track. If that track exactly fits the project, the buyer might be willing to spend quite a buck for it. Music has not direct alternatives, just similar compositions. An example: the Empyrion main-menu track is great. A single track I would spend some money on.

[@holacabeza]

Fountains

[@Dailyfiver]

I appreciate your videos

[@bitemegames]

I appreciate you watching! -T

[@AdroitConceptions]

they show as 7_99 and 4_99 for me (non-VAT location) on the unity asset store.

[@mandisaw]

Yeah, that's probably the difference, they come up just fine in the States

[@grindalfgames]

I have two gamedev tools and a game on itch and the tools sell ok(the game very rarely sells) But Itch is so easy to use, its so user friendly, Its amazing in every way. I wish steam was more like it(because lets face it steam is a pain behind the scenes)

[@astromonkey1757]

let's work on that algo, since my prev comment had a link, here's the same comment without the link, i was thinking the difference in sales could be attributed to the asset being more of a 2d pixel art thing suited for itch rather than a 3d asset for unity, perhaps there isn't much demand for sprite assets on unity

[@bogoid]

itch-i-oh? I always called it itshiow

[@alignedgames]

Well I guess its itch IO (input output)?

[@freshedpotato]

I waited like two months and unity still declined me because of quality control reasons, which I understand, but the reasons were still vague. It all lacks proper and clear documentation. One of the QC reasons i can remember was "obvious seam markings" which is A. subjective (I thought they looked fine and the seams really weren't that noticeable) and B. I had like 30 models included in that package, so which objects specifically had seam issues? I would have had no idea.

[@mandisaw]

Generally with models you either want to release them solo, or once you have the hang of things, you can bundle a few related ones together. 30 models all together is not good, especially for a new creator - few people will invest that much in a new "brand".

[@whilefree]

First one to comment! Thanks for sharing the info.

[@Tertion]

The sooner you realise Unity is dying, the better it is for you and your studio.

[@BarelyTryingStudio]

Are you allowed to sell your commissions ?

[@bitemegames]

Yes, we bought it with full commercial rights (which we paid extra for). -M

[@MiniatureGiantsGameDev]

your assets are also quite niche. If you made more generalised assets that could be used in a variety of genres, I bet you would see a lot more traction.

[@tjspeirs75]

Unity just throwin upcharges on shit with no notice to the buyer OR the seller, eh? The scumminess just don't stop from them

[@luckyboy5nu]

i don't understand, Isn't there multiple employees in your studio? How did you convince them all to work for free for the past 2 years? if not for free what are they getting paid and how are you guys getting the money to pay them? especially in belgium where the average salary is a couple of grand a month X all biteme games employees?

[@MiniatureGiantsGameDev]

this is just typical of the Unity experience unfortunately. Their ability to communicate how something is working is an absolute disaster. My example is their change to how they handle ad payments at the start of this year. A ticket logged in late February has STILL not been responded to. There are so, so, so many examples of things that just dont work the way you would expect them to, and there is never a good reason for it. Its crazy. So much focus on releasing the next version of the engine, but literally no focus on back-end support for developers outside of the engine.

[@_nickthered]

For me the item assets looked good, yet those tilesets and shading in your game, personally to me they look bad. They could be fixed pretty easily I think, though the more I look at them the worse they get to me. Just my opinion of course

[@alexandremiyagi245]

Why not release the game on a smaller scope instead of canceling? You've already paid the fee for the Steam game page. With nearly a thousand wishlists, I don't see any reason to cancel, considering you've already completed a good portion of the game anyway.

[@bitemegames]

Except we didn't complete a big portion of the game yet, maybe like 30%. The game also has big fundamental issues, such as not being fun. We'd have to completely remake the game at that point, and we've learned a lot about how pixel art also isn't a great move for either our team or marketing our game. -M

[@DeadStawker]

I don't remember if you mentioned this in one of your previous videos but what about releasing it for free, or even selling the source code as an asset? ​@@bitemegames

[@bitemegames]

Selling/giving away the source code isn't an option, as we are using a bunch of Unity assets in our game as well, which we can't redistribute. Ripping them out would break the game, so it doesn't make much sense their either. -M

[@DeadStawker]

​@@bitemegamesthat would make sense haha.

[@alexandremiyagi245]

@@bitemegames In my opinion, the critical issue is that you failed to make the game fun. The problem isn't that you only completed 30% of the game. Now I understand the decision. However, the game prototype should already be fun. Continuing without fixing this was the biggest mistake.

[@bleyk_267]

answering the title of the right up front and telling people is okay to stop the video is very noble, but the youtube's algorithm will not think that way. With so many people watching just 10 seconds of a 11 minute video, this will really affect its engament and might even affect the channel as a whole. I would avoid doing big videos like that if you want to reach more people.

[@bitemegames]

You'd think so, but our KZbin dashboard is actually telling me that we have normal average view duration. Am I shooting myself in the foot algorithmically? Absolutely, but that's not just this video, but the entire approach of this KZbin channel. If I wanted an army of 15 year olds watching, with 100k+ subs, this is the wrong approach indeed. I know my titles aren't clickbaity, my thumbnails aren't A/B tested. But I don't want to be a KZbinr first. I want to be a gamedev first, KZbinr second, where people will come (and stay) for the value I deliver. I could definitely have made this title 10x more dramatic and clickable, but I don't think it will pay off in the long run. Could just be noble (and stupid) like you say, we'll see down the line I guess... -M

[@timgriesbach1056]

TL;DR $61.91 😉

[@Dashmaster305]

Most necessary comment on KZbin

[@flamart9703]

That's the food for about 1 month in my country, if you cook by yourself and aren't too greedy. :)

[@marcomoutinho7611]

WTF u sell something that you buy... I don't think that's very ethical.... Or I didn't understand correctly

[@getchicken5279]

They commisioned their art, so they probably own the rigths to sell and distribute them

[@bitemegames]

We got all of these things made custom for us by a artist, including all the rights. There's no difference whether we would have had an artist on payroll inside our studio, vs contract work like this. -M

[@ardinherbst3887]

Very common, not something I would give anyone a hard time about. No different from museums owning the rights to sell prints of famous paintings they have purchased. ...maybe a little different but something that is completely excepted by artists otherwise their work would be valued even lower.

[@mandisaw]

Dude, several of the top asset-brands on the Store are actually a front for contract-work they commissioned from others. Can't recall if it was InfinityPBR, Protofactor, or both, but whichever one is a regular on Jason Weimann's podcast was saying they use it as a means to fund their own game. Just commissions art from places with low CoL and then resells it on the Store at premium US prices. I don't like the colonialist/exploitation angle myself, but it is what it is.

[@alignedgames]

lol, this is how all the big guys do it, how do you think Synty pumps out so much stuff?