Value of 2d Platformer Engine Assets

The asset store is full of various different Script compilations and asset packs that are designed to handle the general mechanics of a 2d platformer for you. I am always wary of resources like this. Are there any of them that are actually worth the cash? I have known a lot of people who have dreams of being game designers and think that if they spend a little money making the next indie hit will be a cake walk so they buy a bunch of assets/game engines that claim to basically make your game for you, mess around for a little bit, and then move on. Nothing wrong with this some people just enjoy to tinker it just makes me concerned as to whether or not the systems would hold up over time and how difficult they would be to build upon. Does anyone have any experience with these types of assets and building on top of them? Sorry for the mini-rant, just curious what you all think.

 

Well, the real value of systems like these is if you have plenty of content, but not much in the way of coding experience. If you aren't a big coder, but are big into making art and designing levels, then an asset pack like what you are describing would probably be worth the expense.

On the other hand, if you are already a capable coder, then no, they probably aren't worth it. Unity already contains pretty much all the tools you need to make a basic 2D platformer out of the box. Anyone with coding experience can put together a basic 2D platformer prototype in Unity in an afternoon. It would take even less time for a capable Unity-familiar developer.

I tend to like making my own tools, so I never bother buying packs like these. For me a big part of the fun of development is solving problems like this, so I wouldn't want to rob myself of the challenge. I would say only go for one of these asset packs in order to get around your own limitations, or to save on development time. The biggest draw for me on purchasable assets is how much time they will save me. If there is a lot of technical back-end development that they will let me get around, I'm willing to spend. If it's just some basic templates and sub-par interface tools, I'd rather work on it myself.

 

I guess for me it is a matter how difficult these systems would be to build on top of. Being able to get right into level design and prototyping would be really nice but I know that none of them are going to have to exact right mechanics I am wanting. Would using them as a base them building on top of them be worth it? I am not much of a coder but I am trying to learn how difficult would it be to build my own code on top of someone else's? At least in your personal experience.