The Asset Flip (The Jimquisition)

Thanks but no thanks, I don't buy souls from anyone under 80 years of age. Go on and live your life until it's ripe ^-^

 

The only thing bad about using stock art I guess is you might be able to make your screenshots and promo video look good, but then when it came to the actual game it would look like a frankestin monster, you had set in different art styles etc. that stuff gets through steam you start seeing more games which of course means lower average number of sales. I asked my brother and his friend if they had heard of steam refund and they hadn't hopefully with more high profile failures more people will hear about the refund policy.

 

@Tomnnn

http://isthereanydeal.com/
https://www.steamprices.com/us/

 

Haha thanks. I wanted to spend it on toukiden... but it won't fill the void of monster hunter, it would merely salt the wound. Streamlining MH so it functions more like Dynasty warriors... blasphemy! Also, it requires an internet connection to be more than a 21GB pile of bits.

I like my games like I like my artificial organs. Offline with no wifi needed.

 

Hmm, maybe I should switch to asset flipping if it's as profitable as people make it sound

 

Okay, I'm not so much as a game developer (I'm in other areas of computing). But as a gamer I want to tell you about one particularly bad thing I've seen with asset flipping. I saw unitz asset flip uploaded as three different games under three different names all on a single developers account (as a paid app). I'm sure you can all agree at this level it is totally dishonest and disgraceful. Now I reported these particular games to the Google Play Store and it seems Google has agreed and removed them (others may have reported them too).

We are already starting to get a problem with market saturation with this behaviour, and it prevents one finding real gems in the mix, I've gotten a lot more wary recently due to the prevalence of this that I've stopped buying a lot of indie games on stores like steam as I don't know which ones I can trust to be at least playable now. Some of my favourite games are small indie titles that are absolute gems in the rough, however it is so difficult to find them now and one is likely to get pure garbage of an asset flipped or unplayable title.

Finally, I would actually question whether it is legal to sale these in some jurisdictions as one is advertising this as a playable game made by that developer and this could easily be illegal under false advertising laws in many jurisdictions.

 

Consumer protection laws still apply. In my country that means you are entitled for a refund on a product that is "defective, not fit for purpose or different from a sample shown you".

Unfortunately enforcement of consumer protection laws across multiple jurisdictions is difficult. International law has not yet caught up with the rise of international commerce in digital stuff.

Fortunately that is changing. Governments have caught on to the missing tax revenue, and are starting work on regulating the digital markets. One way of looking at Steams refund policy is as a preemptive measure. They would have soon found themselves banned in several significant markets without a refund policy.

 

There's a steep learning curve, can you handle it?

step 1 - buy unitz
step 2 - download unitz
step 3 - build an executable of unitz
step 4 - upload unitz to steam greenlight

If you can muster the focus to follow this path, you will surely turn a profit.

 

Steam has new refund policy. You can safely buy any game, and get refund for whatever reason. You need to request refund within two weeks, and shouldnt played more than two hours. Start buying indie games again just get refund if you didnt like it. Its pretty good message to developer.

 

Actually, I think it is a bit worse than that. Some people have posted games on Steam Greenlight based on that asset and used the videos that the asset author used to promote the asset instead of making their own videos. So some people are probably stealing/copying the video for the asset, posting the video to Steam Greenlight, and then purchasing the asset if their game gets greenlighted.

 

@ShilohGames that's... likely. The gameplay trailers and screenshots are already typically from the original author's site so far.

 

I didnt even think of that, imagine how cheap they are.

 

At least it hasn't yet reached the point where they're launching massive kickstarts so they can spend a little bit of the money on the asset and then the greenlight fee haha.

 

I saw a Kickstarter project a few months ago where the guy literally stole/copied the video from the Unity Asset Store for Manufactura K4's Medieval Environment Pack, and used that video as his Kickstarter project video. The guy was planning to buy assets and Unity Pro with the Kickstarter money, but the guy had not done anything yet. He had not even installed Unity Free at the time or bought the asset. All he did was steal a video and present it as his own work.

Honestly, this is the real problem. Buying assets and using them in a game is perfectly fine, both legally and ethically. Stealing somebody else's videos and screenshots and using those items to promote a "game" that does not even exist is a real crime.

 

@ShilohGames ......

 

Or the first two hrs or so is polished but the rest is still S***

 

It's never easy trying to top adam west's batman.

 

Even if he hadn't ripped the videos,
the upshot here (and I would say also for greenlight) is that the social nature of these sites facilitates self-policing to a large extent. Didn't that KS tank because folks were calling him on it? I would guess that those unitz flips also tanked for those reasons.

 

Make an Asset Flip edition of Pond Wars

 

Yes. The social self-policing handled that situation. The reason I brought up this example was to point out that there is a real problem with some people stealing videos and not even creating a game, and that issue is completely different from people legally purchasing assets and using them in a game. People should crack down more on stolen videos, since the stolen videos mean a crime was actually committed.

I've noticed a lot of anti-asset comments by some users in Steam Greenlight since Jim Sterling started talking about what he calls "asset flipping". I can obviously understand why Jim attacked the multiple games that were an exact copy of the Unitz asset, but the "asset flipping" attack has extended to any game that contains an asset. If an indie includes any visually recognizable asset at this point, it is very likely there will be some anti-asset comments posted in their Steam Greenlight project.

Some people have jumped to the conclusion that all assets are bad, and anybody who uses any asset is an "asset flipper". For them, there is no distinction between the different types of asset usage.

 

Yeah, but these are the same kinds of people who have a friend trip over the cat and get hurt, so they want to ban all cats from homes for safety purposes. Some folks never bother to understand an issue; these folks just get a knee-jerk reaction and stick with it.

I'd love to argue against such reactions with good examples of asset usage, but considering that attempts I've seen to argue for Unity by showing great looking Unity games have been met with reactions ranging from assuming it's an exception to claiming it was actually made in Unreal or Photoshop, I'm mostly just resolved to rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

I do like that Jim Sterling (and hopefully others) are calling out both the asset flipping and the dumping some stock, often free, assets into Unity and calling it "a game". With such a plethora of games now available, we have to be aware of the garbage so that we can hone or skills for digging for the true gems.

 

@ShilohGames , @Socrates do those posts mean you're willing to join a community event in which we're all given the same generic free assets and have to make something good out of them?

 

@Tomnnn I've been thinking same thing: Asset flip challenge

 

Given we'll be able to use code written by ourselves, aside of whatever code comes from assets available, I don't see why not.

 

Of course! If you can repurpose a code asset that's fine, this challenge would be all about effort.

Good. It'll be easier to organize if the idea is already somewhat present in people's minds. Jim Sterling is picking up a lot of views on this forum, so it's plausible that other people have been thinking they can do better than the jokes in his videos.

There's currently another community coding challenge going on that's going to carry on up to another few months, so for now just brainstorm and advertise I'm sure a few people on that challenge would love to take on this one as well. It'd be epic for some of our games to reach the jimquisition lol

 

Indeed, and it is kinda sad. It is turning into a witch-hunt.

 

in case anyone has any more doubt

take just Kotach serial asset flipper for example whose stuff gets pass greenlight filter in few weeks cause it looks like steam greatly lowered the bar of what it takes to get on steam store.

The District is purely Decayed State asset flipped no other work
http://steamspy.com/search.php?s=The+District

price $2.99
based on steam stats estimated number of people who bought the game: 6,328 +- 1,885
using lowest number 4,443 they grossed 13,284.57 and netted $9,299.199

but he did not end there the same so called developer has also done
Uncrowded is purely UnitZ asset flipped no other work
http://steamspy.com/search.php?s=Uncrowded

price $1.99
based on steam stats estimated number of people who bought the game: 5,740 +- 1,795
using lowest number 3,945 they grossed 7,850.55 and netted $5,495.385

and the author tried to do one more until it was removed...

so its not pennies these scammers making and there are growing number of people trying to do the same thing.

i bet that they made more than the original developers who created the assets on it.

and inspite of almost 100% negative reviews on these games they continues to be sold by steam and continue to be bought by members who think they going to get a a real game when early access is over, which is like 0% chance of happening.

 

witch hunt, things are like that. now anyone using a single asset that anyone recognized going to be hit with label.

still JS is on a roll, found the perfect job

steam store becoming joke and it not just asset flipping that is issue

now so called developers relasing into production unfinished games, not even early access

this game can be completed in just 2.5 minutes and that was released, not even in early access and well not even near finished.

or this one

or this one

at least they are not asset flipping and did some work, but releasing unifinished buggy game, but i guess they just following aaa developers who do same

enjoy (this is better than television)

 

To be fair, the completion time is caused by a bug where you can take 1 fuel can and drop it multiple times in your truck. The game ends when you have 9, so... let's see....

If a can spawned next to me (because the position is random), I could pick it up and then use my >10 clicks per second useless ability to finish the game in about 2 seconds. That's half a second to turn and grab the can, half a second to turn back, and a low estimate of clicking / hitting "T" 9 times in 1 second to complete the objective with a bug.

It's not a great game so I'm fine with the review, but there was more content to see. He could have at least tried to use an automatic weapon or something to show off that they exist He's probably frustrated by the lack of improvement the game has made since he last tried it.

 

I played Disillusions Manga Horror. It was the worst game i ever played. And it still sold 14k units on steam at $1.
http://steamspy.com/app/343270

 

@Tomnnn

Even with them fixed the bug it can be completely finished in like 10 min max. its single lever, basically 1 monster that keeps attacking you in waves while u get gas 9 cans that are needed to complete the single tiny level... It is little more than a demo for a game that you will never get for your $15. The developer fooled everyone into voting for it in Greenlight cause it did look good, but then when finally released you find there is nothing more and that they didn't even bother fixing the bugs. So they did like proof of concept and released it as a final game. Hopefully few, if any bought it and those that do ask for a refund.

 

$15? That's pathetic for what it is lol. It has less content than a demo would.

Sounds like something we on the forums would joke about doing. And there these people are... doing it. And usually with very little of their own work. This industry sometimes...

 

Jim actually did play the initial trailer and he made the game look not that bad so thats probably why it got greenlight.

THE ALIEN WASTELAND - I Kind Of Want To Play This One

 

I've been thinking of making one of my assets into a full game of my own since it never really sold all that well. In my head, there are people accusing me of asset flipping my own work because that can't be bothered to realize that the publisher name is the same for both. People engaged in witch hunts very rarely have logic and reason on their side. Of course, that doesn't deter me too much. Still, it would be nice if these asset flippers weren't giving such a bad name to all usage of assets.

 

Another way to look at it is in all walks of life there are people who are very good at working hard and creating things and then there are people who are very good at making money with the least amount of effort. This thread is basically focusing on the latter group. I am sure it is frustrating for people who spent a lot of time and effort making a game and hardly made any money from it to see these other people doing the bare minimum and actually making $5k or more. There is probably a lesson to be learned here someplace.

 

Especially when it's done by selling that person's work

 

Kind of reminds me of an old thread where I complained about a certian studios tendency to reskinning resell there own games. Sort of asset flipping there own work.

A developer from that studio pointed out that it's a business. They make an insane amount of money from reusing stuff, with minimal effort.

Sure we can treat game development like art, and complain about the lack of original work. Or we can treat it like a business, and look for the most efficient way to make money. Generate the most revenue with the least amount of work.

 

Kotach puts flipped assets on sale 90% off (suckers eating it up, you have to read the posts in the forums where buyers are complaining)

the District $0.29 (really Decayed State)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/357770/

Uncrowded $0.19 (really UnitZ)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/370100/

time to buy a copy so that you can do a bad review and then ask steam for a refund

 

With the intent of refunding, the price shouldn't matter But I don't want kotach to die just yet. We should treat him like law enforcement treats new drivers. Don't stop them when they do 1 thing wrong, follow them until they've done several things wrong, then nail them with huge charges!

I had a bad time the first time I drove through Clifton ._.

 

found me another one
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=432021316

actually don't look all that bad, let's see what they finally release

 

At least they put some work into it, unless there is another UnitZ environment (can't say I am accustomed with this pack) that looks like Wild West.

 

Yeah, the Wild West one looks like somebody added their own original work to it. An "asset flip" should be a term reserved for the guys who buy an asset pack, add no original work to it, and then sell it as their own "game". A game that contains a licensed asset should not automatically be called an "asset flip".

 

True and I think this is Jim's understanding of the term as well.

 

totally

i gave them thumbs up

also send friend invite to them

what i want to see if them give credit where credit is due, not that much to ask for from anyone.

so if they only gave proper attribution i would not have so much, if any, problem with it

 

If they paid for the asset, then they already gave proper attribution. What else are you expecting them to do?

 

It's gonna take more than a sepia filter to convince me it's a different game

Reminds me of the patterns that appear when parents are concerned about what their adolescent children are going to do with their lives. As the creator of anything, you want to see it be all it can be and reach its potential.

Humans

 

Another one

 

Good catch!

We should all do one

Would be funny if HardWorking Studio did one and it was voted down and attacked for flipping assets, his own asset...

 

LOL! He does get all excited over these things, doesn't he? "It's the same flipping game!" lol

There are three things I see here.

First, it is quite common that only a small percentage of people actually bother leaving any kind of feedback and those who do are by far usually the people who are complaining. So, even though we may see 3 pages of comments saying "stop the unity asset flipping!" it is quite possible that a lot more people actually like these games and look forward to playing them and either don't know or simply don't care how they were made.

Second is these games keep getting greenlit and if that is being done legitimately and the system is not being gamed this shows there is still a huge demand for Zombie games or at least there appears to be a good demand for low poly zombie survival games.

Third is that we are probably only seeing a small portion of the UnitZ-based games represented in the Steam Greenlight. This means there may be a large number of people who have this asset showing there is quite a demand for a well done zombie survival game kit. If all of these developers actually purchased UnitZ from the Unity asset store at $50 each this asset developer has probably made some decent money from their effort.

There is always more information available than what people tend to focus on. I try to "read between the lines" because that is often where the most important bits of information are found.

 

That would be really funny. I'll keep my fingers crossed for this one.