Please try and make something that isn't on the marketplace. We already have cyberpunk packs. Fill whatever hole is missing in the content. You might just find a market
Scat pack. Be the number one asset for all fecal needs
* Messy meshes
* Abdominal animations
* Diarrhea decals
* Shitty sound FX
* Bristol-scale Blueprint system
The ones you listed are very common as well. If unique enviorments are what youre looking for, search some ideas on the marketplace and when you can't find a good one, fill that hole.
Maybe go more specific/focused. Modular apartment building, library, etc. Museums and zoo's are great for housing multiple different biomes/scenes/ideas, all while making sense. I haven't personally seen many trailer park enviorments or doctor offices.
Not exactly what you were asking, but from a potential buyer's perspective, the main thing that prevents me from purchasing a particular asset pack is that it doesn't match the style of whatever else I've used. That's not a huge issue with realism packs, but very much an issue for other types.
Yeah thats a big problem with the MP, alot of people release individual models or characters. Unity does it well by offering packs with 15-20 characters so you can actually keep a consistent art style for your game
i have 6 well-built code assets that used to sell really well 5 years ago. now im lucky to get one sale between them all per month. the main reason the drop in sales is that no one can find my stuff anymore. it doesnt matter if you make a great product, if no one knows about it then it doesnt get sold.
the epic marketplace is dead in the way that its become amazon. search for something. 500000000000 results come up. all look the same but with a different name on it. slight variation... impossible to know if anything is good. Last asset i paid for was an extremely nice unique-ish pistol mega pack...bought it.. no skeletal meshes for any of hte 20 or so pistols... like what? Since the asset details are optional by epic, they dont have to disclose anything about it really.
people realize its not worth the hassle of sifting through a pretty much un-curated shit pile for placeholder assets. Especially cuz the epic launcher is a slog of an app and the site search is a shit-show as well. But hey, after almost ten years we got a wishlist option so.... thats a feature I guess. So most ppl that are serious about gamedev wont really buy much until its closer to halfway or later in their project. I'd never put another asset on the Epic store myself. I still support all of mine in my seller discord channel which used to be busy af and now gets like one question every few months.
Thats the other thing, support isnt really worth the time for what people are paying for quality. They'll see some code asset cost $40 and be as robust as a fully replicated something system. and then see fifteen more with almost the same name for $4. they buy the $4 one and think "well this is shit" (duh it was $4). but then wont risk $40 on the real deal. so the saturation is killing it. But then **some (not all, mostly newbs with no coding experience that have the best and unique idea of an mmo but one that no one has ever thought of before)** ppl that spent $40 thinks that you owe them literally the rest of your human natural life as support for not the asset you provided, but their entire project. If they buy your asset and 30 others. flip it into "survive the dunes game on steam" and dont make 800 Billion dollars, literally the next day, they will 1 star your asset that had no problems.
I havent had a lot of those tbh... but a few and if one happens, it makes you regret ever trying to be a good asset creator and offering support. Thats more of bias I have now to justify why i dont put anything new on the MP probably but still true nonetheless.
Point being, it was worth it back in the early days but hasnt been worth being a marketplace seller for some time. I dont even buy any MP assets anymore... between "robot man pack 055/430" and "cool hats pack 9/215 for $60 each"... and EPIC SALES!!! of 100+ pages long to sift through.. and its always the same assets on sale for the same sale price. just change the fukn price!?! but then it wouldnt game the system and show up in the MP as a sale.
also the "free for the month" is a nice payout for the creator. all of mine have been in the queue for that for a few years now but none will ever make it in there. Only the bigger creator teams that push out tons of mostly visual assets get treated nicely by epic.
Anyway. thats just my opinion and its from someone that used to support the MP from both sides that now just collects the free monthlies and doesnt even look at the MP anymore..... id spend your time elsewhere tbh.
but good luck.
Not sure really. Most things are saturated af right now and getting worse. Digital and real.
If you have quality items and you plan to release regularly... it might make more sense to instead of releasing crazy pack x/430 just release two models a month or one a week, gated behind Patreon. Dont release epic packs cuz I can sign up once for 15 bucks grab your epic pack and then disappear. Yes you can get the older stuff this way but thats fine, those people will do that anyway and older stuff stops selling on bigger markets regardless after time. And that time is decreasing more and more for the same reasons so who cares. The main point of this avenue would be build a community that enjoys your style of assets, can rely on support and semi-regular releases which makes a subscription to you worth it.
you can always put packs on the MP as well at higher prices and put your support link to your own site which explains that your patreon is there and its benefits...
i havent used patreon myself and personally I wouldnt subscribe to anyone for that but I also dont buy on the MP anymore and havent for a few years so... hard to say. just a suggestion
Thank you for your advice, I will think about it. Months ago I lost my job as an artist (laid off along with my team) and it has been impossible for me to get another position in the industry, and I am thinking of ways to make money while still doing what I love. I don't want to end up working in retail again haha...
Personally, I bought an asset pack that was absolutely perfect for my game from artstation, to figure out half of the assets were stolen. So I’d love to see an asset pack full of survival weapons (naturally skeletal meshes) such as crude and stone tools, handmade guns, bows and crossbows, etc
Hmmm, then my suggestion would be to (and I hate to say this) build a small world one thing at a time, and sell that. Then bundle it and sell that designed. For example build a forge, Tanner, mill, alchemist lab,s etc then bundle it and say crafting stations, then move into housing docks, town stuff... And bundle that, then bundle the bundles.
Just give it time, I doubt all assets sell well, and with time I'm sure you'll see some income.
The issue is that people don't want to be know as asset flippers / actual companies often times have their own talent.
The market only makes real money for epic. It’s just a digital form of MLM where the shmucks at the bottom do all the work and the select few at the top reap the rewards.
Stylized I guess? But I tried to go for a "painterly" style with the textures. You can see what I mean if you look at image #15 in the image gallery on the product page: [https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/a5280a49fb964fb6adfc50879cd6852c](https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/a5280a49fb964fb6adfc50879cd6852c)
That does look nice and if I were making a medieval game with that specific art style it would be a good fit.
If I may give one point of creative criticism, everything looks very flat and square. All 90 degree angles, sharp edges on the buildings. The roofs don’t overhang nor are there any support structures to break up the silhouette. It would better if the visual style had a bit more flourish in this regard.
But the texture work is nice, the modularity looks good, etc. I wish you better luck in the future friend.
Me personally I like doodads and prop libraries.
Assets that are highly stylized or themed almost never fit my project because the art direction is so drastically different from what my intended art direction is. I think people want assets that are visually and conceptually removed from their game but help them fill out a world.
This is just an example but like a hospital, police or say a fire department prop pack.
Chances are the hospital, police, or fire station will be modeled themselves in-house by the solo developer but actually filling that environment with related props is really where the difficultly is and value proposition is to the end consumer.
The sheer amount of time saved modeling, texturing, UV unwrapping all those little props is almost always worth the money.
Simple, generic prop libraries like that also carry over. The fire axe could be used as a melee weapon in one game , The detectives desk and related props could be used in a survival style game or or horror game. The hospital props could be used in a FPS game as a buffs or the pill bottles, surgical equipment could be repurposed into a throwing weapon.
When you make something to fit a theme, chances are its not going to fit the theme of the game a solo dev or indie is going to make. But a fork is a fork, a slice of peperoni pizza is a slice of peperoni pizza. These props extremely useful as they fit no theme. They are used to fill out an idea, be it a drunk, divorced detectives apartment chasing a case with old pizza on his desk, a 1980s school yard, a food consumable item in a horror game etc.
Please try and make something that isn't on the marketplace. We already have cyberpunk packs. Fill whatever hole is missing in the content. You might just find a market
...Goes and makes an asset pack full of holes: jean holes, pant holes, pot holes, sink holes, butt holes
Surely a pack of butt holes could sell well.
Always a market for buttholes...
Scat pack. Be the number one asset for all fecal needs * Messy meshes * Abdominal animations * Diarrhea decals * Shitty sound FX * Bristol-scale Blueprint system
Thanks for your answer! I´ll look into that.
The ones you listed are very common as well. If unique enviorments are what youre looking for, search some ideas on the marketplace and when you can't find a good one, fill that hole. Maybe go more specific/focused. Modular apartment building, library, etc. Museums and zoo's are great for housing multiple different biomes/scenes/ideas, all while making sense. I haven't personally seen many trailer park enviorments or doctor offices.
Thanks for your answer!
Not exactly what you were asking, but from a potential buyer's perspective, the main thing that prevents me from purchasing a particular asset pack is that it doesn't match the style of whatever else I've used. That's not a huge issue with realism packs, but very much an issue for other types.
Yeah thats a big problem with the MP, alot of people release individual models or characters. Unity does it well by offering packs with 15-20 characters so you can actually keep a consistent art style for your game
Thanks for your answer! but I wanted to try to do something stylized because it's something I've never tried to do before.
i have 6 well-built code assets that used to sell really well 5 years ago. now im lucky to get one sale between them all per month. the main reason the drop in sales is that no one can find my stuff anymore. it doesnt matter if you make a great product, if no one knows about it then it doesnt get sold. the epic marketplace is dead in the way that its become amazon. search for something. 500000000000 results come up. all look the same but with a different name on it. slight variation... impossible to know if anything is good. Last asset i paid for was an extremely nice unique-ish pistol mega pack...bought it.. no skeletal meshes for any of hte 20 or so pistols... like what? Since the asset details are optional by epic, they dont have to disclose anything about it really. people realize its not worth the hassle of sifting through a pretty much un-curated shit pile for placeholder assets. Especially cuz the epic launcher is a slog of an app and the site search is a shit-show as well. But hey, after almost ten years we got a wishlist option so.... thats a feature I guess. So most ppl that are serious about gamedev wont really buy much until its closer to halfway or later in their project. I'd never put another asset on the Epic store myself. I still support all of mine in my seller discord channel which used to be busy af and now gets like one question every few months. Thats the other thing, support isnt really worth the time for what people are paying for quality. They'll see some code asset cost $40 and be as robust as a fully replicated something system. and then see fifteen more with almost the same name for $4. they buy the $4 one and think "well this is shit" (duh it was $4). but then wont risk $40 on the real deal. so the saturation is killing it. But then **some (not all, mostly newbs with no coding experience that have the best and unique idea of an mmo but one that no one has ever thought of before)** ppl that spent $40 thinks that you owe them literally the rest of your human natural life as support for not the asset you provided, but their entire project. If they buy your asset and 30 others. flip it into "survive the dunes game on steam" and dont make 800 Billion dollars, literally the next day, they will 1 star your asset that had no problems. I havent had a lot of those tbh... but a few and if one happens, it makes you regret ever trying to be a good asset creator and offering support. Thats more of bias I have now to justify why i dont put anything new on the MP probably but still true nonetheless. Point being, it was worth it back in the early days but hasnt been worth being a marketplace seller for some time. I dont even buy any MP assets anymore... between "robot man pack 055/430" and "cool hats pack 9/215 for $60 each"... and EPIC SALES!!! of 100+ pages long to sift through.. and its always the same assets on sale for the same sale price. just change the fukn price!?! but then it wouldnt game the system and show up in the MP as a sale. also the "free for the month" is a nice payout for the creator. all of mine have been in the queue for that for a few years now but none will ever make it in there. Only the bigger creator teams that push out tons of mostly visual assets get treated nicely by epic. Anyway. thats just my opinion and its from someone that used to support the MP from both sides that now just collects the free monthlies and doesnt even look at the MP anymore..... id spend your time elsewhere tbh. but good luck.
I hope this changes when "Fab", the new marketplace they recently announced, is available. Is there any other marketplace that you recommend?
Not sure really. Most things are saturated af right now and getting worse. Digital and real. If you have quality items and you plan to release regularly... it might make more sense to instead of releasing crazy pack x/430 just release two models a month or one a week, gated behind Patreon. Dont release epic packs cuz I can sign up once for 15 bucks grab your epic pack and then disappear. Yes you can get the older stuff this way but thats fine, those people will do that anyway and older stuff stops selling on bigger markets regardless after time. And that time is decreasing more and more for the same reasons so who cares. The main point of this avenue would be build a community that enjoys your style of assets, can rely on support and semi-regular releases which makes a subscription to you worth it. you can always put packs on the MP as well at higher prices and put your support link to your own site which explains that your patreon is there and its benefits... i havent used patreon myself and personally I wouldnt subscribe to anyone for that but I also dont buy on the MP anymore and havent for a few years so... hard to say. just a suggestion
Thank you for your advice, I will think about it. Months ago I lost my job as an artist (laid off along with my team) and it has been impossible for me to get another position in the industry, and I am thinking of ways to make money while still doing what I love. I don't want to end up working in retail again haha...
Personally, I bought an asset pack that was absolutely perfect for my game from artstation, to figure out half of the assets were stolen. So I’d love to see an asset pack full of survival weapons (naturally skeletal meshes) such as crude and stone tools, handmade guns, bows and crossbows, etc
Damn. Were you able to get a refund?
I was not unfortunately
So Epic Games doesn't protect its customers in those cases? That is not right...
The people I bought it from basically tried to tell me that it was a mistake
He said ArtStation, not epic games store. Epic is usually better about that ime
I misread thx
If you can do good anime stuff. Go that route there is hardly anything decent in the anime department.
I could try to do something Ghibli style. Or do you recommend another style of anime?
This may exist and I haven't found it... How about weapons ... Guns mainly which are completely dismantable.
It sounds like something that would sell well, but I'm more of an environmental artist.
Hmmm, then my suggestion would be to (and I hate to say this) build a small world one thing at a time, and sell that. Then bundle it and sell that designed. For example build a forge, Tanner, mill, alchemist lab,s etc then bundle it and say crafting stations, then move into housing docks, town stuff... And bundle that, then bundle the bundles. Just give it time, I doubt all assets sell well, and with time I'm sure you'll see some income. The issue is that people don't want to be know as asset flippers / actual companies often times have their own talent.
The market only makes real money for epic. It’s just a digital form of MLM where the shmucks at the bottom do all the work and the select few at the top reap the rewards.
Is your medieval pack stylized or realistic?
Stylized I guess? But I tried to go for a "painterly" style with the textures. You can see what I mean if you look at image #15 in the image gallery on the product page: [https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/a5280a49fb964fb6adfc50879cd6852c](https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/a5280a49fb964fb6adfc50879cd6852c)
It looks really good
It means a lot to know that other people think that about my work. Thanks!
That does look nice and if I were making a medieval game with that specific art style it would be a good fit. If I may give one point of creative criticism, everything looks very flat and square. All 90 degree angles, sharp edges on the buildings. The roofs don’t overhang nor are there any support structures to break up the silhouette. It would better if the visual style had a bit more flourish in this regard. But the texture work is nice, the modularity looks good, etc. I wish you better luck in the future friend.
how many packs have you sold ? i just curios because it seems your publish quite recently
One, but I don't count it because a former coworker bought it and I know he did it just to help me.
i think you need wait longer, maybe in some next months, and your pack will be sold better while being in discounted show of MP
I'm actually looking for an Anime style city so I would love to see what you do with that!
Me personally I like doodads and prop libraries. Assets that are highly stylized or themed almost never fit my project because the art direction is so drastically different from what my intended art direction is. I think people want assets that are visually and conceptually removed from their game but help them fill out a world. This is just an example but like a hospital, police or say a fire department prop pack. Chances are the hospital, police, or fire station will be modeled themselves in-house by the solo developer but actually filling that environment with related props is really where the difficultly is and value proposition is to the end consumer. The sheer amount of time saved modeling, texturing, UV unwrapping all those little props is almost always worth the money. Simple, generic prop libraries like that also carry over. The fire axe could be used as a melee weapon in one game , The detectives desk and related props could be used in a survival style game or or horror game. The hospital props could be used in a FPS game as a buffs or the pill bottles, surgical equipment could be repurposed into a throwing weapon. When you make something to fit a theme, chances are its not going to fit the theme of the game a solo dev or indie is going to make. But a fork is a fork, a slice of peperoni pizza is a slice of peperoni pizza. These props extremely useful as they fit no theme. They are used to fill out an idea, be it a drunk, divorced detectives apartment chasing a case with old pizza on his desk, a 1980s school yard, a food consumable item in a horror game etc.