Anyone Actually Releasing Games Using Assets Store Models?

Hello, as a lone-dev man, I'm going to pursue making an RPG games based only on Assets Store 3D models.

For 3D model like houses, props and environment, I think it will be a great advantage.
Why?
Because if you're happen to hire a 3D artist, it will cost 10x the price at the assets store.
But of course, uniqueness is an issue.
But again, houses, props and environment doesn't differs much in any games you play, hence for me this is not an issue at all. In fact, it's great because we can replicate the quality standard exists in most games nowadays.

Just look at this, isn't great already?

BUT, it's quite different case for characters 3D model.
Imagine you're looking at Ezio from the Assasins Creed in some unrelated games titled, The Land of Paradise (some adult games).
Or Captain Shepherd from Mass Effects in a almost identical games called Space Colonisation.
What will you think?

It have been on my mind, but Unity Assets Store games really good, I mean surprisingly good.
Just look at these,

What do you think?

Anyone actually use these in your released games?
This is some kind of motivational effort and to keep my morale as high as possible to finish this project.

 

You can get away with a lot more stock characters in a "grand overview" strategy game than most other types. An ARPG might be able to use some stock if you have a system for armour/clothes/head options. Retexturing may get you some of the way, even without being an artist. But there are times you just can't avoid hiring an artist for a few custom bits of art (advisor headshots for a strategy game, some custom materials for buildings, a signature weapon for your hero).

 

I've had similar thoughts, but there are some problems. The styles of characters are rarely going to match up with assets from different artists. Environments you pull down can severely limit your game design, though the modular packs are better in that regard.

I'd actually disagree with the statement "houses, props and environment doesn't differs much in any games you play." Games generally fall into the categories of modern, historic, fantasy, sci-fi, and abstract, but even within those, you are generally going for a particular style. Now if you're just going to do a simple zombie shoot-em-up, you could get away with some modern environments and characters. But a lot of times you do need specific elements to support what's unique about your gameplay and/or story.

I'm considering doing kind of a non-nonsensical game with a crazy premise (but no real story) that would support a mish-mash of assets.

 

But I'm not sure if re-texturing is even allowed for Assets store characters.
Why this decision is most of them support mecanim animation straight away.
If I were to procure an assets from other 3D marketplace, I might have trouble in this particular matter.
Though, maybe I can rig them automatically with maximo but I haven't tried that yet.

Though you are correct, out sourcing for a unique character is still crucial to make a good game and attachment from the player to the game.

If it's okay, what kind of realistic budget per character model will you willing to spend?

What I mean is, it won't surprise you much to see the Empire State building in GTA and then see that again in MAFIA 3. Because it make sense.

 

From the End-User agreement:

I think most 3D assets are provided with the expectation that the end-user is going to customize them to provide a consistent art style. Usually, you would want at least want to re-do the textures if not customize the model a bit. It's still a lot less work than modelling, UV mapping, and rigging everything from scratch.

 

I mean you your best bet would be to use the assets and either pay an artist or team up with one and get him to make it look unique and have a consistent look i guess. Though its going to look samesy and i guess it would be easy for someone to clone you

 

Actually, those are both good examples of what I'm talking about. GTA III and IV take place in Liberty City where things only resemble New York. The original Mafia took place in Lost Heaven, sort of cross between New York and Chicago. In both cases, not using off-the-shelf assets freed up the game design so that the games weren't so tied to a literal New York.

On a side note, Watch Dogs didn't do this and it hurt the game in my opinion. Plus it's weird to drive like a mile from downtown Chicago and arrive at an inland lake in the woods.

 

How so? I'm not seeing how the procurement or creation of buildings, street props, etc. would have an impact on the city design.

I agree with your point about not using real-world locations, I'm just not clear on how that ties into where assets in that world come from.

 

His first screenshot was of an entire environment, so I guess I was thinking more of that than individual props or something. I don't think GTA or Mafia would have benefited from off-the-shelf pre-built environments is all.

 

For characters you could use the Autodesk Character Generator, which has a free version. Combine it with Mixamo and you're good to go.
https://area.autodesk.com/products/features/charactergenerator

 

I was thinking an assets of some individual modular building block.
Even though the assets will have example scene of an actual city, I don't think I will follow any real city for the game.

My philosophy for my game is "Recreating something that can't be found on real life".

 

It's tricky though, if you want a consistent look. Like Mafia is actually a good example. Even something as simple as lightposts and mailboxes you'd want a certain look for a 1930's vibe. If you happen to have a game that takes place in modern times or has a certain specific sci-fi or medieval fantasy feel, there's plenty of stuff on the asset store. But if you want to deviate from that, it can be tough.

 

Good thing is those provided in Unity Assets Store is what I want.

Though, back to the question, I still can't identify a developer who actually use them in release build.

 

I've seen the space stations from 3drt (that are at their site and the asset store) in a published space game, if that counts. I recognized them, since they're the same ones I use. For a really cheesy example, I've seen one of the Unity samples from the asset store published as-is to PlayStation Mobile, but I don't think that's an ideal example, hehe. Then there's Wasteland 2, though that's a bit of an unusual case.

 

Yeah, I've used loads of assets in my first game and am using loads more in my second. I'm doing a turn-based RPG that's looking pretty good without any artist ... just the asset store. My first game, Gun Frenzy, has received very positive feedback on the graphics department.

This is a shot from my current game available on windows Phone:

Image2 by raj_dhillon, on Flickr

And this is a shot from my work in progress game (targeting high end mobile and PC):

Spider Scene 2 by raj_dhillon, on Flickr

With Asset Store items, you have to invest time in optimization and you have to flexible in your game design. However, I suspect the work of any artist would require a lot of optimization anyway. Not that I would know of course as I've never worked with a professional artist.

 

Looks nice. There is a bit of a "this fantasy game is suitable for everyday use" vibe, but if the game is fun, I doubt most players necessarily care.

Have you found that sticking with existing assets has hampered or directed your game design much? In some ways I guess that could be a positive - sometimes constraints can keep you focused.

 

Yeah, I think the constraints are very positive as they prevent me from going off on costly tangents. It's also sometimes gives me new ideas as I use assets from a varienty of artists and there are sometimes interesting animations or weapons that encourage me to update my game rules to accommodate. For example, a barbarian I got from one company had a shouting animation that I just had to use somehow in my game ... leading to me add a morale component.

 

define optimization
do you mean adjusting the textures too fit your art style?

 

No ... I meant performance optimization. Reducing polygon count, reducing texture size and such.

 

Rajmahal, you done it.
You proof it.
Ah, this is great.

So you actually re-edit all those assets too?
But without an artist, you did it yourself?

 

Most modellers should have an optimize mesh feature in some form. I know 3ds max has a modifier you can apply to a mesh to handle it with a few options (such as desired percentage, desired vertices, etc).

There is also a tool that hit the asset store back in July. Haven't tried it myself, but it can be used both in the editor and at runtime. There's a video in the second link showing it off.

http://u3d.as/content/ixion-software/decimator-rt/8fy
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/released-ixion-decimatorrt-editor-runtime-mesh-optimisation.257946/

 

I just use cruncher to create low polygon LOD'S and then use unit's LOD system. Also compress textures as much as possible within unity for mobile platforms.

 

I knew there had to be other tools but my search wasn't turning them up properly. Cruncher sounds really useful if a bit expensive and restricted to Unity Pro. I'll throw out the links though in case anyone is interested.

http://u3d.as/content/real-world-unity-com/cruncher/3j7
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/cruncher-polygon-reduction-plugin-for-unity-pro.149948/

 

I'm planning on using a few 3D models from the Store on release, Manufactura K4's packs are usually of excellent quality if you're targeting PC. I do also use Krabl (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/12079) to optimise some meshes, and Blender to tweak some stuff like collider meshes.

 

I could have swore it was OK to retexture a 3d model you purchase and use it in your game, but not resell itof course.

 

Yeah should be fine

 

Hm that was an awesome and interesting read. I've often wondered the same thing myself.

Another thing I wonder is how people use music and sounds in the Asset store. I'm guessing sounds are a bit more flexible, but I see a lot of people get music as well.

Are all the songs structured dynamically so that they can be more flexible or are most just simple wave files of a linear song that loops correctly?

And yeah I think just changing the texturse on some models can help it fit the scene better.

However, using the MAFIA 3 example with the buildings... I doubt you could get away with something like that in a fantasy setting where things are very specific to that world.

I highly doubt I'd see a structure from Acadamia (A city in Final Fantasy XIII-2) in any Mafia or GTA... but then again, it's all about setting. So I'd imagine that would come into play as well.

 

I use stuff from the asset store all the time now in my games. Models, music, code, sound effects.

It's like hiring someone to do it for you except that you get to see the final result before you spend a dime. I've hired people in the past to do things and aside from a very few, most of the time I've been left disappointed and had to do touch-ups and reworks on it all myself. With the Asset Store I don't have to worry about that. I can see exactly what I'm getting and decide it it works for me. If I need to do any extra work on the items, it's easier because I'm starting from a quality base-point.

And yeah, sure, other people might be using the same assets in their games, but I'm not out to be the most super original game developer in the world. Plus I make niche games anyway where there's barely any competition so the barriers to entry are lower (bear in mind that this doesn't mean that I "half-ass" the development. Not at all. I do the best job possible and my company brand is known for being one of, if not the most, quality-driven developers in my genre, ahem!) I just want to make games that I can get done and out there selling to customers in a reasonable amount of time. The more things I can get from the store that help me do that, the happier I am.

 

I don't think I would use any of the characters / level models from the asset store If I actually wanted to release my game. I think things like character models and environmental art are nice for prototyping thought. It helps to keep me dedicated to the continued development of my game when the world is more than cubes, and the main characters look nice and have animations. I always keep the idea in mind that most graphics can be replaced without too much extra work. So after my game gets to the point where it plays really nice and is almost done I can replace all the graphics to custom stuff. Of course I have never released a game to anybody but my friends, so this is just my two cents.

 

The studio that is giving away the free allosaurus makes great animated characters. I do like the idea of samples of work like that. the whole point of the asset store is to connect people. To give indie studios the same luxury as AAA studios.

 

Also you have to realize the consumer isn't going to know S*** about unity and the source of your assets.

 

True what you said, @radar089 .

I only getting more alert on the re-use of the Unity Assets Store assets in the apps after I play around in this game dev my self.
Before that, I thought all are hard work of one unique studio.

 

If you pay attention to allot of apps and games now a days you can spot things made with unity. I have seen fully published games use the standard terrain grass.

 

If you look at this link (not trying to market myself) and my latest video you can see that 90% of the models are from the asset store or purchased on sites like turbosquid. I have retextured many of them myself . Even small additional details to the textures makes a big difference and is quite easy. I have gotten fairly positive feedback so far and I don't think people care to much where the models came from. They are typically focused on your ideas and gameplay anyway. Also if you make any profit it isn't terribly hard to pay for and add unique models later on. This is a great idea if you have a limited budget such as myself.

The asset store is your one of your best assets as a solo indie dev.

 

Your game is very nice.
I actually, don't really "see" anything recognizeable from the Unity Assets Store.
You're my inspiration now!

Have you done your music yet?

 

No music yet. Most of my sound effects came with unity assets I purchased or were royalty free online. Yea basically everything that I'm using is from the asset store except a few items I purchased from Turbosquid. My plan is to get the framework more stable and release an alpha on steam. If that goes well I will use the money I make to hire a 3d artist and animator for better dinos etc.

 

This is year 2020. I have taken up this task to make a game using assets available on the unity asset store. As I am a solo developer, its my only option. Perhaps it would be a good test. Lets see if I can make my dream of making a game development studio bootstrapped with Unity Asset Store.

 

I tried this route. The best thing I got from it was learning game development. This was before I paid some money and became an artist. Now I focus only on art, and no games.

I tried taking the asset models and modding them to make them unique. The problem I had with this was finding out that all the models where made in 3dmax. There was fbx files but they would not load in blender. Unable to do any editing.

When I get better at art, I plan on making games with the new skills. Because of the modern game engines, programming should come after the art.

My advise on game development when your solo. The most important part of a solo game developer is learning the artwork. Unless you can outsource your models, but this cost around 1,000 to 2,000 per model. That was back in 2006.

 

Depending on the assets and how you use them, I think you can get pretty far. The trick is making them fit with your style.

The same goes for a music composer who uses loops and samples. When I use loops and samples, I am able to tweak them and use them as a good starting point. The trick is being able to tweak them and knowing how they work so that you don't just end up having a game that looks like just a bunch of assets. Another thing is having a good and polished gameplay loop. If you have that, users won't really care too much if you used assets or not because the game itself is still fun. It's only when the gameplay loop falls apart and there's a lack of cohesive polish that players start noticing things like that.

 

Please dont necro a 5 year old post to add basically nothing to the conversation.

Everyone else who then started posting, please dont feed obvious 5 year necros.

 

closed for unnecessary necro.