Community Poll/Discussion - What do you think about the Asset Store prices?

Hello Developers,

Recently we released our Toon Airplane Pack v2. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of awesome assets out there, we've been forced to lower our price tag from $45 to $35. This is a little bit sad on our end, as we want to keep the highest quality while earning some money to pay off for our efforts. Sometimes this happens after a few weeks, but mostly it takes a few months.

We'd love to hear some of the developer's opinions in the community concerning Asset Store's price tags, both content creators as well as consumers. We thought about posting a few questions and would love to hear back from you! I hope this benefits everyone and enlighten us all about what is happening in the Asset Store!

1) [For content buyers] How much would you be willing to spend on an average size art pack?
2) [For content creators] On an average, how much time do you have to wait until your efforts are payed off?

If anyone has any more ideas/questions for the community, feel free to use this thread!

 

First of all, your asset pack looks adorable and if I were in need of such a pack, I would not hesitate to pay $45 for it, especially since you have other assets with good reviews. You also seem to provide quick support. I have spent so much money on things that didn't turn out so well, that I hesitate to buy anything anymore without reviews and indications that the developer will be around for a while.

However, your asset and many on the store will appeal to a niche group of gamers. Most folks want zombies and guns and fantasy weapons. I don't think your issue is the high volume of assets, but just the low demand for a toon airplane set.

Again, it really is adorable and like others said on your other thread, I can see a really awesome game made from this. My guess is that when that person comes along, they will pay whatever price you have set for the asset.

 

@Teila Yes you are right, supply and demand. Although the asset store is already filled with zombies and guns! Doing the same as all the rest, I don't know if that would make much sense either. But yes, point proven. Thanks for your comment!

 

Oh, I absolutely agree. Just wanted to let you know that your stuff is great and that if it isn't selling, it has more to do with the "needs" of the majority here, not your assets or even your price.

I am not fond of zombies or guns.

 

Well, at the risk of derailing this topic and sounding sexist I don't get the zombie thing. Skeletons and graveyards also seem to be in over-abundance... I don't get all the medieval stuff either... I assume I am not in the majority.

I only noticed your adorable toon airport the otherday because of a post in the forums... And I *do* search for "toon" on the asset store (kind of often actually).... I think visibility in the store is a problem, but I don't pretend to have a solution. I don't want to encourage it, but the items I see again and again are the ones constantly updating (so their asset hits the "new releases" rss, and the ones that spam the forums. (it doesn't make me buy them, but when I see something again and again it does make it more likely I'd consider buying it....)

I am much more likely to buy scripts or shaders than specific objects/props/vehicles.... That's just me. In your set I wishlisted for the blimp and the biplane because I have previously looked for those items in a toon look.... I'm an individual, not a studio. And I'm still learning so I can't really justify amassing a "collection" of assets.... The whole airport is very cute, but it would be more likely (for me) that I would buy just the blimp or just the plane if they were available alone.

 

I agree with @Teila: (1) your models look great, and (2) it's a niche product. If I needed your pack for a project, I wouldn't hesitate to pay $45. I prefer packs because the models all have a consistent art style.

You can cut your price ridiculously low and hope to make it up in volume sales to impulse buyers, or accept that it's a niche product and keep the price in line with its high quality -- and also hope that a hit toon airplane game comes out and starts a gold rush on toon airplane assets.

 

Hello boys n' girls!

@Teila

Yes you're totally right. If a studio wants to survive as an asset provider, we basically have to go with the flow of the market, and as you mentioned, this pack might not be in 'that particular flow' at the moment.

@wetcircuit True enough about the 'constantly updating' packs being on the top of the list. It is a cleaver way of being always visible, although takes a lot of time and resources (from creating new content, to testing, to re-submission). Spam on the forums regarding advertisement is something that I do not agree on, as it will make the forums totally obsolete. The sad thing is that as there is such a huge volume of new assets, any asset (unless highly expected or valued) will definitely end up at the bottom of the forum.

@TonyLi Thanks for your reply. I definitely agree with the fact that when a game gets popular in the App Store, everyone will want to clone it and thus, if a cartoony airplane game will get to the top 10, then developers will probably want to join the momentum and buy similar assets to make their own variation.

All in all, the Asset Store for a small developer studio like mine starts to feel more like a 'gambling race' or something like that. Grabbing attention of developers is tough and staying on top is even harder. Just like the App Store.

 

The Asset store can feel hit or miss sometimes, especially when you have a visual product. The same characteristics that make your asset very appealing and enable you to stand out from the crowd will also limit your potential customer base, unfortunately. It can be frustrating to determine what's going to be successful in advance.

It may help to start a thread in the work-in-progress forum when you have developed enough to show off to people. You can somewhat gauge customer demand this way (though, not always), and it sometimes help to get people on board before your product even hits the store.

I also find that product discoverability is an issue, in fact the discoverability is more of an issue than the price, but eventually the quality assets on the store do float to the top. You just need to be patient. It's easy when you first release an asset to think to yourself "ohmygawd did I overprice this?"... especially when the store doesn't explode in sales the first few days after your release. You just need to put it in perspective a bit and realize that despite you knowing it's up on the store and is burning a red-hot hole in your mind, doesn't mean your potential customers even know it's there!

I recommend setting your initial price and letting it be for a couple months if you can (though I know, it's painful not getting those expected sales! Especially when you have a top-notch product!). This will give you a more balanced view on what price the market will support. I do think that the store will support fair prices for good work, at least for now. There is an increasing "sales culture" on the store that concerns me as a developer, but I don't think it's reached a point yet where it's completely affected store buying culture.

Ultimately, you know better than anyone the quality of the work you do and what it's worth to you. As long as that quality comes across to buyers, you will have customers. Just give it some time for them to find you.

 

@chingwa Having a work-in-progress thread for a plugin or script might benefit a lot, but I'm not sure how much it would on a visual asset. It's not as asking for a feature which you can implement. Well... maybe. I might try it for our next asset. But I got my doubts

Concerning product discoverability: yes... indeed it's a big issue and something that just like with apps and games in the app store, if you don't invest in marketing (either time or money) then you won't get too far. My feeling is that the Asset Store has gotten so big that we now have to invest a big portion of our efforts just to reach the 'right developer'. It would be nice to have something like a 'category newsletter' (which just as I'm writing this, found out does exist - RSS feed on categories). I think that, just as you suggested, time will tell if our asset gets noticed and somehow manages to get to the 'top' list of the asset store (or it's category).

 

I would love to see more categories in the asset store, a way to weed out things you don't want or need. My current game is not cartoon style but when I search, I have to go through lots of styles I don't want. Sometimes I have to open the pictures to see what it really looks like because I can't tell from the thumbnail. I miss a lot of stuff that I sometimes see months later.

 

Making a living for asset providers has become more difficult over the last few years simply because of the current development environment. Just make sure you sell your assets everywhere, envato, turbosquid, Unreal asset store, Daz, reallusion and everywhere else possible. Do what others do, offer first week discounts at your own storefront, get people to sign up to your own newsletter and sell direct. Make the models unique in some way e.g. making a furniture pack - put in a couple of models that have secret compartments in them that increases their usefulness to some developers, made a cartoon plane pack - have one model with all interior modelled as well, that could even be done as a seperate scene as camera switching is relatively easy. Pricing doesn't matter so much, developers will pay for something that will be useful and that appeals to them.

 

@sicga123 Thanks so much for those extra links/stores. We did consider a while ago to publish in Torque 3D, but the learning curve to get the assets game-ready was too steep and we failed at it. Hopefully the Unreal engine and it's market place are more friendly/intuitive.
I also agree on having our 'own store', although redirecting traffic to our own website (unless you are already pretty well known) can be very hard (just like asking for a 'like' on FB). Still, it's something to be done down in the marketing pipeline if we want to survive as asset providers.
Thank you for those suggestions on asset creation, we will surely focus a bit more on that.
@Teila Yes, I couldn't agree more. Filtering all the assets to find the right stuff for you can take a lot of time and many times goes by unnoticed. I'd love to see a second option to the Unity Asset store, with official unity assets. I did saw a website trying to do this, but I think they failed in their mission and I've seen them no more.

 

I sell my assets on my own website as well as the asset store... but my website is only about 1% of all my sales, while the asset store is 99%.

 

I am sure Unreal's store will be more "friendly" because it is new and probably not as many assets. Last time I checked, their store prices were about the same. Eventually, I doubt it will be any different. I could be wrong, but it seems those folks are more into a realistic style since the game's graphics support that sort of thing.

I do not make assets but I can't say that the asset store and the buyers are "not friendly" to asset store providers. For the most part, I prefer to buy through the asset store. I know they will be there while I also know that many asset providers will disappear. But I will always have access to the items I purchase, even if the creator disappears. I have purchased things off websites where that isn't always true.

Also, there are a LOT of Unity users. So pure volume is going to make your asset more available to more people. I imagine you will sell more in the long run on the Unity store than on the Unreal store, at least for now. That may change since it seems a lot of outside money is about to be dumped on the UE4 developers.

If you really want to sell at a higher price, go to Turbosquid. I check there if I can't find something I need on the asset store. One problem there is the lack of reviews, lack of forum space to advertise and support your product, and less information on the website about the asset.

BTW, did you start a forum post? Do you post in WIP to see what sort of thing the users want? Again, I love what you made but it seems you posted it up for a really short time and now are blaming the store and the users for it not selling. I think maybe you need to be a salesman for a while!

 

I had a quick look at Unreal's marketplace, and just as @Teila mentioned, it's somewhat new. I wouldn't be so worried about whether the style tends to be more realistic or not, because there will always be someone who wants to do a "Super Mario" game in Unreal, and thus a cartoon style would fit in. Question is, will it be worth the effort?

And concerning the WIP post, no... I did not do one, and it might be just the right moment to start one So thank you all for your advices! Great tips as always ;-)

 

IF i was looking for a pack like this i would have paid without any problem $45. Very nice.

 

I think the asset store is oversaturated right now. What you want to do is get people to your own site, you would need to constantly have new products to get traffic there.

 

@Aiursrage2k Getting the traffic to your own store I think is the toughest part. I think it works for some providers out there as they are huge and have a bunch of content, but for 'the little guys' like us, it would be very very hard. Still, worth trying.
@ZJP Thanks ;-) I appreciate that!

 

This is true anywhere. You can't just dump something and wait for it to be noticed. Whether you put it on a website, a lesser used store front, or the asset store for Unity, you will need to promote your own products.

I am willing to bet that there is more traffic through Unity than many other places. It all balances out. You can choose a model that has less traffic but where you are not surrounded by lots of other choices or one where you are one of many but with more visitors. I imagine it all evens out.

 

Right you could have sales, coupons other things they couldnt do in unity, pay what you want, etc etc. For example buy a combo unity, unreal asset rather than just a unity one (so if the devs want to switch engines later he can). Now your pulling from both websites posting in both places and your offering something that the store cant. If they visit your website then they are only looking at your products (not a few among tens of thousands), but even still its probably hard to get constant traffic.

 

It used to work until now But you are totally right. If our studio intends to survive the volume of additional sellers in the store, we have to do what everyone does and promote ourselves.

@Aiursrage2k Yes I agree, covering more websites and portals will improve our chances of selling. However, I'd love to hear some success stories of smaller studios, or at least some other experiences.

 

I would also love to hear experiences selling through portals other than the asset store, whether the additional income and "eyeballs" are worth the effort.

There has been sporadic talk from Unity of creating some kind of "asset store exclusive" program that would reward sellers for only selling on the asset store. But I haven't heard any news on this in a while and honestly, there's no reason for them to do this if other stores aren't offering realistic sales volume.

 

Now that Unreal Engine is free I think it will attract a lot of content providers to the unreal marketplace and maybe it will 'ease' a bit the competition on the Unity Asset store. I don't know. But as @chingwa said, hearing some experiences from other developers setting their own stores would be really great and beneficial for everyone I guess.

 

If the quality is good, I don't mind spending $50 or even $100. I'd rather have a few expensive packs that are high quality, versatile, support Unity 5 (physically based shading with all its bells and whistles) and have a consistent look than having to deal with a huge list of small low-quality package that I bought cheap.

I believe art is quite different from editor extensions in that respect ... but ... so far, after about almost 3 years, I've only covered about 1/4 of the costs for ScoreFlash. In other words: Currently, ScoreFlash generates just about €15 per hour I spend. However, this has significantly increased (I started out with €2 or €4 after the first few months which was really shocking). And ScoreFlash has been in the Top Grossing Ten of Editor Extensions / GUI for long periods of time and has almost only positive reviews.

The good news: It's starting to generate a steady income stream and while there are a few support requests here and there, most of my time spent on the project these days is really improving the product. And some customers actually offered paying for support (which I think is reasonable given the low prices you have on the Asset Store).

One thing that really bugs me is UT's pricing politics and I really hope they change it. If you apply for a sale, you need to go at least 50% off. So they basically only let you into the sales when you are ready to say "my product is really worth less than half of what I'm usually charging for it". I really hope they'll stop this practice because it basically makes the Asset Store kind of a "sales shop" which educates people to wait for the sales instead of buying products at their original price.

 

@jashan Thank you for sharing this! I also agree that art assets vs extension editors might not be the same case scenario. I'm not much of a programmer and I don't really know how many man-hours you invest in such editors, but I guess that if your tools are worthy, you can charge quite a lot. I don't see it happening the same way for art. I don't think there's many art packs out there charging more than $100, unless it's almost a complete game-art-project.

Concerning UT 50% off policy: I also agree with you. I myself haven't taken part of it as of yet, but seeing my sales volume having decreased so much in the last 3 months makes me wonder if I should also become part of the 'sales shop herd'. For the time being, since Unreal Engine is now free, I'm gonna invest my efforts into a new market.

 

Unity 5 is now free as well, things may be heating up 'round here