Unite 2016 - One Year In: My Experience Publishing on the Unity Asset Store

[@MagicPigGames]

I like this guy too. He's pretty cool. He's also me, so I may be biased :)

[@katylloydart9185]

Hah, nice :)

[@DoubleBob]

Would you say it is easy to sell on the asset store, if the product is good? e.g. How long does it take to communicate with the asset review people? When do they refuse an entry?

[@MagicPigGames]

I think the current wait period is 5-15 days or so, but is often more depending on holidays/conventions.

[@chino01animation]

I looked at the assets and they mostly use .js I guess? wouldn't it sell more if you had c# scripts. Just a perspective. Thanks for the insights, and talk.

[@MagicPigGames]

Well, for the editor scripts, it really doesn't matter what they're written in -- they do their job and that's that. For in-game scripts...there really aren't any that are so complicated. Anyone who *needs* it to be in C# is likely qualified to simply change the syntax around, or better yet, re-do it entirely to fit their project. It's likely a bad idea to accept any asset store script as is and just throw it into your game -- the overhead and potential for conflict is likely somewhat high. I've always gotten the impression that those (Very few) who complain about Javascript vs C# are usually those who don't really understand too much, but really enjoy similar conversations about Mac vs PC, Coke vs Pepsi etc :)

[@randywoodard9701]

The Infinity assets are top notch. The dragon,devil and barbarian packs are amazing.

[@Teabone3]

I think if i was like Andrew, I'd make more sales with Unity too. As I'd be putting a team together to fill in the gaps (textures, rigging and mesh). However I'm a solo content creator and indie developer. I have made a few sales on Unity but only a few. What I find is you must stay relevant and watch the trends of in general what is in demand in gaming. 100% of the time the people searching for assets on the store are video game players themselves. So dont go out thinking "i wonder what kind of games people are trying to make"... make assets related to what games are current that people are interest in. "what kind of games do people want to play these days" is the better question and go from there. If you are looking to maximize sales. I personally like to stay unique. I will say this video is quite educational and there is a lot to be taken from his advise. Especially about selling within the Unity store and locally on his own site. There are two-side benefits.

[@kira7683]

I have some experience too. The experience of resubmitting the same package 4 times because each admin had his own issues with it. The last time I didn't even change anything and they approved it

[@INeatFreak]

Can you link the asset you submitted? I am curious about why they didn't approved. And what kind of assets gets denied.

[@jarnokk]

Awesome presentation! Thank you.

[@N00bicidal]

This seems to be much more about the experience of an asset store middleman than asset store developer. Which is much less helpful to most developers out there.

[@MagicPigGames]

How so?

[@NerdSIayer]

I think he is saying that because you hire people to do the modelling and animations. Not sure that he realizes that the texture and material work that you do is one of the main selling points of your characters.

[@MagicPigGames]

Ah. :)

[@jamesbrady1930]

yeah he does the texturing via substance painter. the artists responsibility is to model, UV, then bake out the maps via high to low poly baking. and then he takes those given models and maps and works his magic. All transferable via smart materials. Pretty snazzy set up actually. I am working with him right now. its a bit of a challenge as I haven't worked with a client in this form, but I can understand the need to have more control via his end as he has a clear vision on what he wants. it is a bit rare to have a client with that much involvement in the development process. But then again its his store, so its nice he gets his hands dirty.

[@EgoEssex]

I was also confused on what he actually did when he said he hires modelers and animators and then decided to do his own texturing because it cost too much or he doesn't like the textures, so it seems like he just resells. Which, no wonder people want more because he isn't putting anything into it. But I agree they should probably just partner with a animator/modeler or whatever their skill isn't and just do that and cut him out.

[@pianzhenguang]

Thank you for the information !!

[@PeterSedesse]

just a great developer with awesome products. I have the dragon, gargoyle and one of the packs ( elemental, wyrm, mushroom and plant)... and I guess now I have the bomber bug :) The serpent-guy and devil are next up. But just the quality and continuing additions are amazing. Things like the addition of particle effects and concept art after purchase was a huge deal. Nice presentation but honestly it was a bit disappointing. I had hoped your sales would allow you to ramp up production.

[@mizzysparrots4874]

This is all interesting info, but how exactly did you lose $15,000 right off the bat? Unity doesn't cost anything, neither does some 3D modeling software like Blender for example. I am just curious how you came up with a loss of that much.

[@prometheus7275]

He mentioned that he hires other artists

[@MichaelGGarry]

Um, its not weird to take the tax from the seller instead of the buyer - thats how most countries outside of the USA do it ;)

[@poseeley]

Is it normal to "just" texture. In my job hunting experience a 3D artist needs to know modeling, texturing, rendering, and at least some animating. Forgive my ignorance, but isn't texturing essential coloring? Like you take a picture of a brick wall, edit it in photoshop, and use it as a dragon scale texture or something?

[@MagicPigGames]

Nope, that's not what modern texturing is, not even close :)

[@KayGeeCee]

In his talk, he mentioned using Substance - that allows him to provide procedural materials/textures that the user can customize via parameters to generate many variations of said material. That workflow is a way to prepare an asset (in this case a material/texture) for procedural use, and will allow you to "cut out" an artist for that asset after it has been produced.

[@KayGeeCee]

I guess to "re-use the asset" would be a better wording than to "cut out an artist" XD

[@MagicPigGames]

KayGeeCee Yes, although an artist is still absolutely required to start the ball rolling. Sometimes my molder does it, and often I'll do the base texturing in Substance Painter. But Designer without a base texture is not a proper workflow, really. The results would be very very bad.

[@poseeley]

Would a better business model be to get a small team together? So get 2 modellers, 1 texturer, and 1 finisher, and pump out high quality assets?

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

Not sure about something... that Slater guy... he's only a reseller?

[@NevRS32]

This is the most "in your face" presentation about the Asset Store...

[@blackcreepycat]

I see you Andrew! I see you! ;)

[@ethik2933]

This guy is under the influence of some sort of stimulant that isn't coffee

[@herbf2700]

Selling shovels to prospectors is a good way to make money-- Or so I thought. Now I'm not so sure when it comes to Unity. If some of the top 10 3d-category sellers in the store are making a whole 300 bucks per month, where is Unity getting all the money to hire evangelists and put on conventions and expand their business? Because sheesh! I was hoping this guy was making more money.

[@allldin]

This guy sounds like an awful, awful employer, exhausting his modelers and animators, while putting all of the blame on them for his lousy sales.

[@INeatFreak]

So you watched with you ass?

[@INeatFreak]

Use your eyes and ears they're pretty useful

[@Pandan3D]

We're getting to the point where more money is to be made on the asset store than actually finishing fucking Unity Games. That's when i think it's gone too far.