A GOOD game is not GOOD because of assets. It’s good because of all the stuff that’s not free. The Story, the level design, the mechanics, the voice acting. It’s GOOD because of the game play and the journey. If it’s ALL free assets, that won’t make it a BAD game. And if it’s GOOD enough, you can easily replace all the assets when the money comes in.
When people think Assets are what makes a game GOOD or not, then there is a serious problem. And maybe that is a possible reason for so many games feeling so Meh. Are they just the same old games and mechanics and story but with better looking assets??? Possibly.
Point being. Make a GREAT GAME with free assets. Get everyone LOVING it. Then update the assets later. Unless you are the person who specializing in making assets. Then of course make the assets and maybe try to get free mechanic templates?
But yeah I see so many games that are great and they look exactly like so many other games. Assets aren’t really important until later. It’s just about prototyping. And a single patch near release can replace all the assets without issues. You can’t just replace a story or levels and keep the game intact.
But I could be wrong. I just go by the prototyping way of building a game. Get the game working before making it look pretty. Makes sense to me.
However, WHEN you want to release it, it’s BETTER to have truly original assets to help the visual side stand out from the rest. It will greatly impact the effectiveness of gifs and game play videos. And that will help the launch. Well that’s what I worked out from all the GDC videos. So I could be wrong. Still makes sense to me 