3D Model Discussion- Understanding the Market

In general, When trying to decide where to begin my journey to sell my 3D models... I noticed something.

Blender Market appears to be the better option. Here is the reason why:

Overall Artists products get a better return. For example the acerage selling price is $10 or more.

A wider audience is reached.
And the Artist keeps 95% of the selling price.

Now I chose Unity for now to work on the basics in 3D model design to build my skills. I see a lot of good work being given away for free or selling for $1-$5. And the artist gets 70% of the sell.

So far I like Unity because of the community and I am chosing to start here knowing full well that artists seem to be under valued based off of the costs of the amazing work that I have seen so far. But given the setting here in the Unity Asset stores... I doubt many artist stick around here. It seems to be more of a testing ground with a few ‘big dog’ artists that sell high priced great work.

Thoughts or idea? I am open to any discussions on this, even if you think I am insanely wrong.

Assira

 

One major downside to the Asset Store is that any artwork sold on it has to be approached with the mindset that it is an incomplete asset that needs to be touched up as otherwise you end up with assets that don't mesh with any of the other assets on the store (often including assets from the very same developer).

 

You are comparing apples to oranges. Blender's store isn't dedicated to game art, and Unity's is primarily dedicated to real time stuff.

That being said...I find the idea of an artist being at full value on any storefront impossible. They will only realize full value doing custom stuff for good full prices, and the stores are the exact opposite of that. It's their choice of course, and I can't judge them for getting some side cash via storefronts like these, plus it's a good way to get some work out into the public if nothing else.

 

Since customer usually not happy to see the same model cloning in other games, unless its a very common model.
Require further retouch to fit in style is also necessary. (as Ryiah mentioned)

That means most of the work have done are demo purpose.
Modelers usually receive edit request if customer want to delegate the retouch work, and the pricing under table may not reflecting in store, which is also one of the reason seeing good model to have Free pricing.

Selling model or service depends on what kind of model you providing.
Anyway, wish you a nice journey

 

It's basically just a portfolio where you get occasionally paid, ie the best kind of portfolio.

 

Ah, I completely missed the undercurrent. I am glad I made this topic. It has been informative. I had noticed that the blender market was predominantly about final products within blender. Which all the bells and whistles in blender do not move into game engines with the object. I am glad you pointed these out.

Thank you I am just starting out so I had no clue that the work in the asset store was like a demo display. Kind of makes me think of title or paint samples given out.

Make sense now. Showcasing ones work. Hard to see the entirety of a 3d item from just pictures.

Ah, so it is always a work in progress. I understand changing to match style. Otherwise people would have patchwork games. That do not flow well or look pleasing.

 

Ah..not all of them are demo, don't get me wrong
There are many best selling models in store, and they care customer workflow which makes them standout.

For example, searching rocks in store, its easy to see why some of them are top selling, and some of them are not.

 

Also game asset in store tend to favor generic asset to sell, as anything specific is the game's identity (generally), also more generic mean catering to common denominator (generally the big style in vogue, like realism, anime, and certain kind of cartoon), the more niche the less sales by definition, I mean almost every game need some rocks, grass and tree when they have nature environment. SO be sure to have your contact upfront and center to have people who like a certain niche style but want them to be expended or adapted to their game, I think maybe that's where the business might be, ie services.

 

You don't have to sell only on one store...

 

Modular Packs with some prefabs are nice.
Generic enough to be affordable, yet modular enough to sort of make it my own.

 

I answered yes cause some sell their stuff way to low, or make it free where it shouldn't. Lack of business acumen, no market research.

Tip #1 : When selling on the store you accord a Non Exclusive right to Unity to sell your stuff - So sell it everywhere else that is non-exclusive (but don't sell it cheaper, that's against the terms )

Tip #2 : like XCPU said, make things modular, easy to modify, advertise that feature, show how to modify in screenshots or some documentation !

Tip #3 : Maintain and update (maybe you just need to submit an update with the latest unity version that's all! ) I very rarely buy assets that are from 2016 in their one and only 1.0 version !

Tip #4 : Think marketing. Prepare stuff in advance but don't release it, tease it as upcoming and release it in an update, say that you will increase the price in next version, etc ...

 

A lot of the free models on the Asset Store are kind of a "loss leader", in that they are placed on the store for free as basically a free sample. For example, I have a collection of 40 sailing ships on the store for $79. I have 1 of the ships separately available for free, and mention it is part of the larger collection. So anyone can include the free ship in their game, and if they want more of them they are available for purchase.

Secondarily, there are a good many assets on the store that aren't actually produced for placement on the store. Back to my own example, I personally didn't produce these specific ship models. I hired a modeler to custom make them for a game I'm making, which costs considerably more than $79 obviously. I put them up on the store with the intention of offsetting their costs while I continue to develop my game, not for generating a profit. They have been up on the store for about a year now and sales have recouped approximately 40% of what I spent to have them created, which I'm very happy with. If I were a modeler trying to make a living on the Asset Store though, I would be very unhappy with those sales results.

Needs for models for games are very specific. Not only does the game developer need the correct item, they need it at the correct detail level and in a style that fits with the rest of the game. This depends on a variety of factors. A sailing ship RPG game will have drastically different requirements for their models than an RTS will, even on the same platform, and then throw in the variety of platforms Unity supports with their own requirements, and it is really hard to create models that lots of developers will find useful in their specific game. It is a lot different market then models sold primarily for animation outside of games.

 

This is silly to compare Asset Store with Blender Market , they are two different purpose stores.

Unity has a big base about mobile games, most indies are not studios able to produce AA games and put lot of money on models. The prices in the Asset Store is adapted to those people.

Blender Market is not about games, many people are from different fields, and most models are not game ready.

Anyway if you want to make more money in the gaming field, work as freelance and make some models for studios.
In the Asset Store, models packs is what works pretty well instead of individual models.

 

Please consider at least 1 solid year of practice on numerous models before attempting to sell any content - especially for a 3D engine.

As a modeler you'd be making a lot more packs to make a living. I could imagine a modeler making a lot of accessory and character packs to fit on those sailing ships, although in my opinion sailing ships are pretty niche.

 

Yes, it takes a long time to make enough money with a model but sales does not drop a lot over a longer time (at least this is my experience.) The problem of the Asset Store is the 'race to the bottom' price war. I’ve slowly increased my prices over time to reflect the quality of my models but I think they are still underpriced.

 

@Joe-Censored I seem to recall these ships from another thread, but in that thread the legal aspect never came to a conclusion. Have you a contract with the artist that specifically let you resell it like this? Most royalty free licenses does not let you do this from my understanding.