Is it okay to use a bought asset to create a game?

Hi, I was wondering if I am in any wrong if I buy something off the asset store and use it in my game and then publish it into the Google Play Store.

Or even say, if I bought a complete scene like lets say a racer and I change the whole track, cars, etc. Would I be able to publish it legally? Therefore, only using the script and functions that made the original bought scene work but implicating my own work into it?

 

Yeah you could even publish it as is if you want

 

Yes, it is allowed, this is the whole point of asset store.
https://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms

See "End user obligations". 2.2.

 

Oh wow. I thought publishing it as is would be infringement and you would have to edit it as your own. Thank you for the answers guys!

 

Quoted for emphasis.

Even big titles use off-the-shelf assets from time to time.

 

No, some people might frown upon it as "asset flipping", but its still completely legal.

You are very welcome to buy my assets and put them onto itunes/play store as is. Please do

 

You don't actually need to change anything. Sure, go ahead and change stuff that will make the game better. But there is no need to change stuff just to have changed it.

 

It is not technically an infringement, but if you do that, then "your" game will be downvoted into oblivion on (steam) reviews, generate a lot of negative publicity, and people will be wary of buying from you next time when you attempt to release something.

So...

 

Legally: Do whatever you want
If you want a good game?: It better not be assets stitched together then thats the day, either edit them to be unique or add your own content

 

Been checking a game out using Asset Store assets, mostly from BitGem which is one of the best texture art you can get. Developer is doing a great job, the color pallete is concise and attractive. And I can guarantee 999 out of 1000 people outside of Unity will NEVER recognize the assets. Which is what matters.

 

Art wise its all coherent, which is why it looks good

 

Yep! I hadn't read your post previously, but it's very true, it's biggest obstacle anyone will find when working with stock assets.
I think most of those assets are from the same seller, hence share same style. Asset Store is becoming full of neat packs that work well together.

Big opportunity #justsayin

 

Yeah if you can make it work looking good enough then most people wont really care. I mean look at golf with friends that sold 50k+ units on steam and the art wasnt really that good it just had a cohesive coherent art design and once we can solve that issue you wont even need an artist.
http://steamspy.com/app/431240

 

I been thinking a lot about this subject. I am only a programmer by degree and have no modelling skills but I spent the time to learn Blender and got a decent low poly art style going. I been showcasing it to family and they all just say "its ok" which doesn't satisfy me. Except now I am realizing it just doesn't look "as good" as stuff on the asset store and still takes me forever to make my own and will take forever to complete the game this way.

Now browsing through the asset store, I found a beautiful cohesive design with characters and environment that is much simpler and better looking than mine. It solves all my problems I am having as I will just use those and modify them to make them unique (change textures). Except they follow the same character model...so people will obviously spot it as a unity asset store purchase. Now I'm trying my best to get my asset out there, and I have my own limitations and that asset solves them, I don't see why this is frowned upon to just use unity asset store assets. It's concerning that people really dislike this, and I'm starting to think this is just a unity dev thought, as anyone outside of Unity would have no clue or even care.

I'm spending years into my projects, fully doing all the source code entirely myself from scratch but the graphical assets are from store. But I will modify the assets for them to work properly and cohesive in my game. You think people will care about this on Kickstarter?

 

Honestly, why do you care? only a unity developer that used that asset may spot it. There aren't many of those.

People have been using rpgmaker for quite a bit of time with some success, as long as you have something interesting on top of the assets you bought, it is good enough.

Or you could spend few more years also trying to level up your art skills. That can be done, but it will take more time and will delay release date of your game.

 

This. The only reason asset flipping even became a term was because several people uploaded the same game framework from the asset store with zero modifications to greenlight at the same time. A YouTuber noticed this and asked why the games were exactly the same. Then started poking at the asset store.

Thing is, these games were complete frameworks downloaded verbatim from the store. Or they were games with no cohesion in art style at all. Upload UnitZ without modification and you will get called out. Mix low poly buildings in primary colours with a realistic zombie and you will get called out.

But as long as your game is good, and the assets all look like they belong in your game, no one cares.

 

Thanks guys, it eased my mind

 

As everyone has previously mentioned totally legal to do so. However, Google Play and I'm sure eventually other marketplaces are starting to get wise to templates posted as-is (who wants 100 of the same exact game?). Google is starting to reject apps that contain to much of a % identical to other previously posted items.

From a sales perspective it doesn't matter since if your publishing something without modification it isn't going to do well anyways, but I can only see this type of thing getting stricter, to the point where while it is legal, the marketplaces won't allow you to publish without a decent amount of modification.

 

Just to make sure - The one point not mentioned, you can not sell/resell the assets separately yourself. That would fall under infringement and is against EULA. They can be in a free or paid for games - marketing material etc. but not sold or transferred to other people.

I agree dogzerx2 the BitGems assets are some of the best hand painted models on the store - and they are also setup beautifully optimized. Because of this the micro characters specifically are used in quite a bit of Unity games, and oddly I've also seen them used for marketing non-game content in adverts and banner ads.

 

But to be clear, what if you have a character in the game that uses these bought assets and you are selling the character in the game? Like 50gold to unlock that character? Technically its selling just the character itself. Is this ok?

 

It's OK since it's considered a part of your game as an "end-product" (covered by your Unity asset license). It would be illegal If you started to sell the character mesh and textures on a 3D asset store.

 

IAP is fine. DLC is fine. As long as it's part of your game.

 

The only place I would see it becoming issue is when you do DLC that isn't part of the game i.e. OST, artbook etc because then you are giving them the source assets

 

A bit of a layering issue going on with that game - the "1P" goes underneath the blood, which is kinda wierd. Is this a game that's actually published somewhere?

 

Please check the dates of posts before deciding to respond to them; this thread is from 2016.