Creating for the asset store: Basic strategy?

Hi all,

I am someone who is at home all day with next to no income, I consider myself a pretty good 3d modeler and coder. If I were to create some assets on the store, what are some qualities that would make some sales so that I can pay my rent (haha? :/ ) I see thousands of 3d models on the store, but its hard to determine which of those have animation and scripts attached to them, is there a general area i should be aiming. I can do props too but there seems to be already so many of them out there.

Customer support is a given, but I want to make sure i understand the best format and package I can produce to include with my models.... maybe some sounds, and diffrent texture packs?

Cheers,
MetalSutton.

 

You can make money on any kind of 3d art as long as it's good.

From what I've seen it would seem that environment packs are what sells best. Whatever you do, just make sure it's top-quality and you'll be fine.

 

It seems to me 3D models (especially environments as randomperson42 said) are more popular than sounds and texture packs. Choose a platform and build your models with an appropriate level of detail for that platform. Don't try to make a model that you think will work for low-poly mobile games and high-detail PC games; it won't look its best for either. Make note of what the top-selling 3D assets provide, both in terms of content and showing prospective customers what it can do. Really good screenshots, videos, and demo scenes are musts.

Provide models in FBX format with prefabs to go along with them.

Include really good humanoid animations or none at all. If the animations are half-assed, customers will just retarget good animations from another source anyway. If you provide animation, it's nice to provide an example animator controller.

If your art leans more to sci-fi, now's the time. A slew of space games are coming out, and they're going to inspire droves of people to make their own. Medieval European-style fantasy is always a safe bet, too, of course.

There's never enough good 3D art. I look forward to seeing what you create!

 

I spend a lot of money on the asset store (other women buy shoes, I buy assets *sigh*) and can of course only comment from a personal consumer perspective.

Agreed with the comments above that environmental packs are very appealing, but only if they offer something different than what is already available. Something I do not see enough of is high quality environments - far too many low poly/mobile models. Might also be worthwhile to consider a theme that is not very well covered by existing assets, such as the realm of the fae, dark or gothic fantasy, ancient cultures or even adult (tough to build my medieval brothel LOL). Character models would fall under that too Not really any vampires, fae creatures (very few) or more folklore critters like the tokoloshe on the asset store.

If you can code well, then there are more opportunities such as small modular kits such as a spellbook with spells, tech tree modules, city building systems, business management systems (what can I say, I loved the Guild even with its brokenness and horrid graphics), plant growing/harvest systems, pet/companion systems, etc etc.

There is also basic stuff like providing achievement badges, background 2D art for HoG/platformer games, etc.

Hope to see your releases on the store soon!

 

Just as a general tip is can seem like more perceived value if you have a `pack` of stuff, ie you get lots of individual objects or whatever. They will have to look good and have genuine value. But also you can boost sales quite a bit with good PRESENTATION of the asset... looks of quality screenshots, maybe even a video or two, really show how awesome it can be and some of the creative options people can put it to... not just some basic straight-on view of an object by itself. If you spend some time on this `marketing` then it will help. Plus have good documentation and description etc, and a thread in the asset store forum.