Using Marketplace content for commercial games a good idea?

Hello,

I was thinking about if games often use the same free marketplace assets (static meshes, architectures, props, textures).
For example epic’s free infinity blade assets are really great. But should I am careful to use them in a upcoming (small) commercial game?

Do you have some experience with making bigger use of free asset packs (for meshes)?
Do you think it’s ok. to use them as base for an real (but small) commercial Action-Adventure-Game? Or would it earn much negative feedback then?

Same question for purchasable market place assets (also static meshes, architectures, props, textures).
Do you think in commercial games it would get negative player feedback?

Perhaps should I make small changes to free and purchased assets, so that they are not looking exactly the same?
(And is changing of the files also legal, like doing small changes to meshes and textures of free assets?)

Best regards!

Hey,

completely depends on how and what you use.

I.e. if you use a tree pack from the marketplace, noone will really notice. Characters are another story and if the same characters are used in various games this will be very noticable.

Also, you can be very creative in using the assets. Does a doorway always need to be a doorway, or can it be used as something completely different (scaled and rotated)?

Despite what “professionals” will say, there is no problem with using marketplace assets in commercial games. Some people will recognize it, but if your game is good enough, most people wont care. A good example for that is QuiVR (Unity engine though) which used asset store characters, props and architecture. Noone really cared, because the game was good enough. (Though QuiVR changed to its own assets created by the team after they got in enough money from alpha sales).

Cheers,

I don’t see any issues with this. Look at PUBG, they are using a ton of marketplace assets and no one cares…

Another example would be Ashes of Creation. They are using Infinity Blade assets (though alot of retextured): Ashes of Creation ~ New MMORPG by Intrepid Studios by Intrepid Studios, Inc. — Kickstarter

The point of the marketplace is to allow developers to utilize content and assets for commercial or personal projects. =)

Worry less, the focus should be on completing the games.

I’m doing the same thing I’m sure the general gamer doesn’t get into development issues and probably wont care as long as your game is good. I believe most of the negative feed back is from people releasing these free assets as a game without doing anything like example someone trying to release silly geo with only changing the back ground and making it mobile then saying they made it…

You should certainly be careful insofar as you need to make sure that all the assets you use fit together in terms of style, quality and so on. And as others have said, using Marketplace assets for some things will be more acceptable than using them for others. As a general rule of thumb, the more generic an object is, the more easily you can get away with just using a marketplace asset. For example, fire hydrants, street lamps, cars, generic medieval swords, plants, that sort of stuff is going to look pretty much the same no matter whether you custom-make it for your game or buy it on the Marketplace. But more specific stuff like fantasy architecture, character models (especially main characters), hero props (like, if you’re doing an Indiana Jones-type game that revolves around finding an artefact, you probably shouldn’t use a Marketplace asset for that artefact), etc. you should make yourself (or have someone else custom-make for you if you can’t create it on your own).

It really depends on a company, a budget and a workflow. I worked as 3D artist where our team had to make really simple proxy meshes, just for level prototyping, collision testing etc. However, we bought several packages of props, which we used to test lighting, level design etc. Most of them were replaced by unique models done by freelancers. Marketplace allows you to quickly test and iterate your ideas, and sometimes those assets are good enough for a final game. As for myself, I only buy packs that can be used in various projects and it’s hard to tell if they had been created just for particular project/game.