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How much asset store publishers earn ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by bhavinpanara22, May 26, 2016.

?

Is asset store business profitable ?

  1. YES

    60.8%
  2. NO

    39.2%
  1. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    Still, for a well-skilled artist a $30 art package might take a week or two to make, and every couple of months you might spend a few days adding a few props or something. And a) it never really is in danger of losing value b) you can immediately start on the next one, you don't have to find a niche, there's always demand as long as quality is good.

    On the other hand, if you're developing scripting packages you have to a) find a gap that has yet to be filled, or hasn't been filled adequately, which is easier said than done b) create something that clearly differentiates itself/is clearly better in some respect than the established competition c) support it, patch it, update it for new Unity versions etc continuously and d) afterward, spend a lot of time trying to find something else that needs doing in scripting, and that fits your experience and skillset. Also there's the 'danger' of Unity filling the gap themselves and nullifying the utility of your package, or someone making something better that takes away all your customers.

    It's a little like making a single player game vs an mmo, there's always some demand for a good singleplayer game, but mmo is more like a service, you have to continuously work to create and maintain your player base, and some other mmo might come out that is much more fun and steals your player base.

    For scripting packages, it's more a question of hitting the jackpot, and then making sure you have a fallback when your cash cow stops giving. There's more potential for making money in the short term but it's much more risky and opportunities are few and far between.
     
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  2. VIC20

    VIC20

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    I have some 3D models on the store, they are doing pretty well in their category (vehicles/air) but that does not mean sales are any good. So far, after Unity's 30%, I've made $80-$130 per month (with all of them combined). It would take many years till I reach the minimum wage because I prefer to deliver accuracy and quality and both needs a lot of time.
     
  3. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    Your assets are good quality, but you're obviously not thinking like a buyer - if there's one thing you need to do as a rule is to make packs or models with variable properties. I (and I imagine most buyers) would not really consider a single model unless it was something specific that was not available anywhere else. In fact I'm really surprised that you're even making that much! I think it shows the potential you've got on the asset store.

    If you look at @rosor's assets here, judging by the ratings, people are little interested in single models and go straight for packs even if they're much more expensive.
     
    bhavinpanara22 likes this.
  4. PROTOFACTOR_Inc

    PROTOFACTOR_Inc

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    People are more likely to leave a review after paying a significant amount of money, I guess. And indeed if you can have a whole bunch of characters at almost 60 / 70 % OFF, compared to purchasing each of them separately, then it's a no Brainer to spend more money if you end up having way more value.
     
    bhavinpanara22 likes this.
  5. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    Fair enough, since I have no other metric to go by I tend to use ratings in a simplified way when I'm looking around on the store.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you make a lot more money off the packs? I see that you sell a lot of things both individually or as part of a pack, if you divide the profits of the pack by the number of models is the result higher than the average of the profits for the individually sold models? That's if you want to share of course! :)
     
  6. PROTOFACTOR_Inc

    PROTOFACTOR_Inc

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    Would need to check, I can't really tell... not the guy who likes to do metric, comparison and stats... that's the boring part...
     
    Billy4184 likes this.
  7. bhavinpanara22

    bhavinpanara22

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    Perfect explanation.
     
  8. infinitypbr

    infinitypbr

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    I produce 3D art. I pay a modeler/animator/audio (just started adding audio).

    I havne't yet made my money back, although I hope that by the end of the year it'll break even every month . It all needs to grow.

    The Dragons Pack PBR was on the Madness Sale. It started off in the top 10, but mid week dropped to the lower 9, and finished there. Post fees it was about $3300. If I were to factor in my time, I think the Dragon would have profited less than a normal wage by far. Other packs? Not nearly enough sales yet.

    My hope is that as my library grows and people get exposed to my work, it all grows. It's growing slowly, so maybe it'll work out!

    According to http://unitybuzz.com/stats/companies/ I'm "Company #34"....I think this must be wrong, or must be only because of the madness sale that just finished. If it's not wrong, then I would say only a couple dozens publishers are making a full time salary. Because I'm not, not even close!
     
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  9. greggtwep16

    greggtwep16

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    It is definitely from the sale. I'm unsure of the time period used but it is very short and you will drift a lot. You really need to take the average on a non sale month to know approximately how popular you are.
     
    infinitypbr likes this.
  10. Darkcoder

    Darkcoder

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    The AssetStore is my primary source of income. While I don't make tons of money compared to what I could be from a 'normal' job, one thing I don't see mentioned here are the benefits of this kind of situation:

    - No need to commute. Thus saving lots of money on fuel & maintenance, or from public transport. Also, this gives you more time to actually do stuff each day as you don't have to spend time travelling, or even getting changed...

    - No need to live in an expensive area. This is a big one in my opinion, because with this kind of online income you can literally live anywhere that you can get a visa for. There are tons of amazing places around the world you can live, and the only reason most people don't is because they can't get good jobs there, but this no longer becomes an issue.

    - So much flexibility with when you work. This is also a big one, as I can basically go to any concert or holiday with friends without having to worry about requesting a day off.

    - Much more time to work on side projects/businesses/hobbies, without having to cut into your free time.

    There are of course down sides: like the income is not stable, so you need to make more than your expenses to not have to worry so much each month. You need to keep developing new assets or evolving your existing ones to maintain or increase income. You won't get company benefits like medical, pension, etc (not an issue for all countries though). You need a lot of discipline to actually do work and maintain the business. You need to regularly check and respond to support requests (not so bad for my assets at least).

    However, for me at least I'd say that these benefits far outweigh the lower pay (and if you're really skilled/lucky it may not even be lower).
     
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  11. S4G4N

    S4G4N

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    thanks for the compliment :);)

    Value for money is something that every user will appreciate, and I always aim for.
    Re-usabillity and many other factors help to build trust with users.
    Building a trusting client base is important, not having each time you have a new package have to start from scratch
    Respect your users and their opinions, after all, without them, you wont be doing this.

    They way try my best to treat all users, is,
    " How would I like to be treated is I was the customer "
    " What would make me smile " if I just paid $XX.00 for this or that package
    For me, I try to let each package deliver way more then what you expected and were happy to pay for.
    That makes next time I release something possibly sell better.

    It makes each following project almost more difficult,
    for I personally want to improve and not hurt the hard worked for reputation

    Cheers
    Cobus
     
  12. bhavinpanara22

    bhavinpanara22

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    In madness sale, it must be at least more then $5000. But I think, dragons are not used in all games. So, people may not be interested to purchase it.
     
  13. infinitypbr

    infinitypbr

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    The Dragons Pack PBR has been the #1, or close to #1 "Creature" for quite a while now. I think you're right, but not specifically to the Dragon -- people just don't buy 3D Models as much as they do editor scripts. When they do buy, they certainly seem to buy the Dragon more than a Mushroom Monster :D

    But the total was less than $5k before unity takes its 30% cut. It helps, tremendously. I'll get to make 1-2 more characters with that money, depending on the complexity of the model and animation. But I'm not going on vacation anytime soon :D
     
    bhavinpanara22 likes this.
  14. bhavinpanara22

    bhavinpanara22

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    All of your models are really high quality models. I think, you should make more common things like soldiers or something, that is useful in most of the 3d games.
     
    infinitypbr likes this.
  15. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    I've had some success on the store and continue to, although my tools are aging somewhat now and there is more competition (as in any marketplace). When the store was smaller it was of course easier. That said, the number of people using/buying from the store has increased. My shaders etc were featured in a few one-day sales and each time earned between $500-1000 maybe depending on the price. At other times I usually see about $200-300 per month total, although lately it's been more like $150-$250. That's from 5 or so packages, which are mostly shaders or a combination of a shader system and some kind of tools/scripts.

    Overall over time it has sort of added up, I mean, probably for a year I get somewhere between $2000-$3000 or so which is helpful 'extra' on top of my full-time job, and I haven't had to do very much customer support - partly because I usually provide pretty thorough documentation or just making sure the thing is easy to use etc. Definitely not enough income to live on at all and definitely not enough to go part time on a day-job.

    But I know some folks are definitely making a full-time living off the store and actually the higher ones are making upwards to 5 to 6 figure incomes... but along with that comes (it seems) quite a bit of responsibility .... the need to make constant updates and be very engaged with users, answering a lot of questions, spending a lot of time on bugs and continued development and figuring out people's problems, providing and improving a website with learning resources and videos and maybe a custom forum and all that stuff. You know, like a pretty full-fledged software company where you're pretty much working on it full time or at least many hours every week. That said you can still make some money by just doing stuff on the side or in your spare time, just you have to be realistic about the scope of it and just make small things that don't need a lot of support time or constant upgrades.
     
  16. bhavinpanara22

    bhavinpanara22

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    So, you have stopped developing or are you going to continue on asset store ?
     
  17. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    Mostly stopped. After I spent a period of time making assets I personally came to realize that my heart wasn't totally in it, ie making software apps/tools and doing quite technincal programming. I moved on a bit more toward game making and toward art. Right now I'm not really doing anything with Unity or in these areas whatsoever. Thats just me. Some people I'm sure are constantly beavering away because it's right for them, so you can't really compare.
     
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  18. Lanre

    Lanre

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    How do you get Unity to feature you? I have implored and implored and implored to no avail. They just don't listen!
     
  19. infinitypbr

    infinitypbr

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    It's not easy. My first sale was luck because the person who was in charge then just really liked it. But high quality images, good descriptions and demo scene etc, high ratings and good comments. Those all help.

    Also it seems they prefer non models i think
     
  20. jerotas

    jerotas

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    nirvanajie and Lanre like this.
  21. Rombie

    Rombie

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    Being featured and on sales from Unity is all luck. You first need to fill out the form to be considered for Unity sales; but getting staff picked and such is a roll of the dice. It's determined by a lot of factors; but you have to have something of high quality for them to pick you. If they don't think it will sell they won't invest time promoting it.
     
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  22. jerotas

    jerotas

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    Don't totally agree, but mostly.

    I've seen a lot of things for daily sales where I was like "really"? It's pretty obvious that it wouldn't sell much, and indeed, when the day is over it's barely ranking on the front page. But yes looking quality and having good reviews already helps a lot. Luck is a factor, but not "all".
     
    Lanre likes this.
  23. Lanre

    Lanre

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    Soon after i posted, I filled out that form again. It really is a roll of dice. I have enjoyed being a publisher (apart from NatCam 1.1 when I got an email a day after each purchase saying something wasn't working right). The Unity dev community is such a nice one. Unfortunately, it isn't so big as to be a sole source of income.
     
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  24. infinitypbr

    infinitypbr

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    From what I understand, filling out the form again doesn't do anything, it just changes your values if you change it, but the entry remains the same.
     
  25. infinitypbr

    infinitypbr

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    I think it's important to realize that there are maybe an average of 35-40 "sale spots" a month, but there are tens of thousands of assets, and well over 1000 new ones each month, it seems.
     
  26. Lanre

    Lanre

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    Very true. I guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
     
  27. Dustin-Horne

    Dustin-Horne

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    My asset was on the store for 2 years before it got chosen for a madness sale and almost 3 before being chosen for a 24-hour sale. Just to add some perspective.
     
  28. Lanre

    Lanre

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    Wow... But thank you for this; it gives me a rough idea of what to expect. That just baffles me.
     
  29. infinitypbr

    infinitypbr

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    So maybe about 3% of those who would get it for fee are willing to pay $1 -- that's crazy, so little $. I wonder what would happen if you raised it to 7 or 8 or something. You may find the same number of people would buy it for that price as $1
     
  30. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    I think you're right. From what I know about marketing, people will always generally prefer something that's free, but once there's a price on it, not only do relatively large changes in that price have little effect on whether or not it will sell but it's also used as a marker of quality. That's why I think pricing at the median level is often a good strategy if the asset is good quality but doesn't have a really strong selling point, and lowering it just makes people think that you as the developer think it's not worth very much, or you know it is shoddy or has some hidden issues.
     
  31. Moonjump

    Moonjump

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    The biggest price barrier is between 0¢ and 1¢.

    As soon as they have to put their hand in their pocket, there is a decision to be made. It doesn't matter what the value proposition is, it is still a decision. Online adds extra obstacles: Do they trust the website enough to give them financial details? Do they have the correct payment type (many do not have credit cards for example)? Do they need to make sure they have enough balance? Do they value data enough (some still struggle in seeing the value in something not physical)? Are they conditioned to wait for sales because they are so common online?
     
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  32. Lanre

    Lanre

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    I can attest to this fact. When NatCam's price was increased (as we had planned from the onset), sales volume actually went up. Of course, this can also be attributed to the fact that the API was packing new additions that appealed to more developers. Bottom line is that in some situations, a more-than-small price increase might have no adverse effects on sales volume.
     
  33. TomasPetrlik

    TomasPetrlik

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    Any newcomers who would like to share some info ? For me, I released 1 Asset here and it´s been doing O.K. while I am waiting for another to be confirmed. It really takes long, around 2 weeks to get it reviewed and confirmed/declined.

    Here´s the asset: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/gui/awesome-circle-loaders-137447

    I also am usually on the first page when searching for relevant words like Loading, Circular, first asset listed on Loaders so that´s important too I guess.
     
  34. Fraktalia

    Fraktalia

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    Ive started creating assets back at christmas in 2016. For me it is just a hobby where the money is just an additional reward just like how most Lets Player do it for fun. I have 7 assets now and it generates between 50-100$/Month. Also my assets(check signature) are low maintenance assets as they are very easy to use which reduces customer support questions. Dont expect much but see it more as a passive income source and make your asset as easy to use as possible. You have one video in your asset which shows what it does but no video about how to use it. I started with one asset just like you but developed a maintenance and asset creation pipeline to keep konsistency (for example similar background for shop icons) in order to reduce time requirement. My main reason for creating Unity assets is for fun and to have something to show in my portfolio for a potential job position.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2019
  35. iParithi

    iParithi

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    seriously I like your work adam
     
  36. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Thanks.

    We have grown our team and our income considerably since I wrote that post.

    We find that during sale months we do very well and the last sale netted our best ever revenue - beating the last number I put out out there substantially.

    There is definitely a good living for individuals to make if you work at it, however covering the cost of a team is more difficult.
     
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  37. Radu392

    Radu392

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    So... going off of Adam’s example that he made Gaia because there was nothing like it at the time and he wanted such a tool...

    Any of you want something that isn’t already on the store? :D
     
  38. michealcaj

    michealcaj

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    Clap for your self
     
  39. michealcaj

    michealcaj

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    True talk
     
  40. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    Gaia is one of the most successful assets though :D Same league as Final IK, Veg. studio, microsplat/megasplat etc

    Just know that not everyone make that kind of revenue :D
     
  41. jerotas

    jerotas

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    Because they have great hype. And great screenshots. I don't know whether it's a good product or not, I assume that it is to sell that many copies. I bet it is the #1 most successful money-wise though.
     
  42. michealcaj

    michealcaj

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    Trust me it's a good asset I currently use it ,you just have to get use to it mate
     
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  43. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Thanks for the shout out! We have been hard at it since it launched in 2015!

    Hype is super important if you want to succeed. You can have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it then its just an expensive waste of your time.

    To build hype, engage with your community. Show progress. Be relevant. Go where they are. Here is something I contributed to in 2016 - and its still just as true today:

    https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/02/09/launching-a-successfull-product-on-the-asset-store/

    Here is our latest video - a lot of time and effort goes into making these - and I am firmly of the opinion that you need to show some sizzle if you want to motivate people to buy.



    That said you need to back it up with a quality product and good support. It is all part of the mix.

    BTW, I am happy to give feedback and support to anyone that wants it. The more that people succeed on the asset store, the better it is for us all.

    You can connect to me via our Discord channel at https://discord.gg/TggjQNN.
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2020
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  44. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    When it comes to assets always have good screenshots showing how strong your metalness/smothness map is. If you dont have good screens on this I as a customer suspects you have weak maps. Its important to show it off in specular lighting

    It surprises me how many assets that fail to showcase their PBR maps or lack of strong PBR maps. You cant sell assets without strong maps!

    example: hard to get good speuclarity samples on small props
    upload_2020-10-14_11-8-11.png
     
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  45. Marc-Saubion

    Marc-Saubion

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    I agree.

    A sketchfab viewer is your friend. This way, we can see what we want, view the model in whatever resolution we like and check the texture.

    Nobody should try selling 3D meshes without it.
     
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