If i was making a game with bought assets,and so did five other people.Surely the games would be similar.
Maybe i am looking at it the wrong way,and you use bought assets as placeholders for your own assets.
Mind Boggles.
5/thousands of games isn’t much. And it happens in the industry constantly.
Besides the fact, content won’t always be art assets. Sometimes it will be plugins, nodes, frameworks, templates, etc. Marketplace is good!
In addition, assets can be customized. You might buy them as a start point and modify them to suit your needs.
It is also useful for non-game developers, hobbyists and people prototyping their game.
You are right that many game dev uses marketplace to get something for their game.You can buy from market place ,edit it .Thats all thanks
How strong is your need for a unique rock mesh? Road signs? Cicada sounds? There are a lot of mundane assets in games that are often not worth the time to make them yourself. You could use that time to make your primary assets better.
Pretty much what you and Lhutz say, even AAA buy assets and textures. For the most part they don’t go around scanning PBR images off bricks and the like, also having base meshes for indies saves soooo much time. It’s pretty much the only way smaller teams can tackle larger games, then you just modify them to suit your needs and nobody really cares about mundane things like rocks as said. Plus buy enough and there’s potentially thousands of combinations that I doubt anyone else will use.
Sure, you do need to put in additional effort to make games look unique whilst using bought assets. But still it’s better than starting from scratch… Also frameworks and materials etc. just speed the whole thing up.
I’ve shared the same concerns with Assets sold to the masses in Marketplaces and presented potential solutions to these issues in various concepts and forum posts over the years:
[TABLE]
- Mystique Entity System
- HierArch Emporium
- [CONCEPT] Crowdsourced 3D Game Art & Animation]([CONCEPT] Crowdsourced 3D Game Art & Animation - General Discussion - Unreal Engine Forums)
- The UMECHS Compendium of Interchangeable Modular Entity Asset Parts
- I Buy Modular Parts Website
- TUTORIAL C++ - Runtime Async Load Modular Character (Intermediate)
- Full Models -vs- Modeled Parts
- A New Model Pack System: Modular Entity Construction Sets (MECs)
**
In a nutshell: **Modularity, Interchangeability, Extensibility, Mass Customization, and Price Point geared for the masses.
I truly believe the Marketplace can offer greater value to the public than just mundane assets. Modularity offers an infinite amount of variation. So, instead of putting the additional effort of customizing a bought asset on the purchaser, Content Creators could profit by offering additional Interchangeable Parts and accessories to customize existing assets.
Not only do I desire unique entities in my games, I desire my players to be able to customize them too. I seek readily customizable assets in the Marketplace and will spend lots of money on these types of assets. Who knows, with additional part/accessories, I may spend several hundreds of dollars on a single Entity I can customize 255 different ways in my games.
Many Games and 3D Apps such as DAZ3D, has demonstrated the potential of modular/customizable entities. Eventually, the Modular Content Creation methodology will become the norm. We’re on the forefront. The UE4 Marketplace could easily be the Leader-of-the-Content Packs.
As a rapid prototyper I love “marketplaces”. I burn through assets making various prototypes.
While I agree with TechLord in that a modular-driven engine-specific marketplace would have a greater value and impact, quality control remains my number one concern. If I buy a marketplace asset, I should be able to assume that asset itself is created to the best that it can be, meaning it shouldn’t have terrible file names or performance issues that stem from simply bad logic. For example, the fact that various skeletal mesh packs on the marketplace have absolutely terrible physics assets is a big deterrent for me when buying skeletal meshes. If I’m buying a marketplace character for UE4, and UE4 relies on Physics Assets for many things such as bounds and some forms of collision detection, when that character is not set up properly I tend to not feel burned by the single asset but moreso burned by the marketplace.
There is a point in post somewhere.
@Allar - I’m sure many of the assets don’t actually have physics rigs attached to the original files and UE4 just does a best guess. Either way fixing that is still relatively simple as UE4 still has PhAT. The marketplace does however provide a ton of excellent resources for free. And it is an excellent method for distributing those assets. I do plan on buying some of the products there but only for parts of my project where I really don’t care about whether or not they look like original artwork. But you can’t beat being able to download entire projects created by Epic with the engine for free. That in and of itself is worth more than all the assets on the marketplace combined AND you can use the assets in those projects for free! Even if it’s just the vase from that ‘Lighting’ project - it’s the best, most well made vase on the marketplace. And it’s free! So, my point is, some folks will build games and eventually figure out that they belong to a collection of games that all look alike. Some people will see the true value of the marketplace as a learning resource and actually go beyond that. There’s a reason why only a few people are actually successful in any given industry. It should go without saying that, in the games industry, you either need to make at least 50% of your own assets or you need to be a programming genius- otherwise you won’t be taken seriously.
I’m assuming that most think that the marketplace is just for those looking to make a commercial game to sell where I’m thinking that it’s more of an opportunity for those interested in making a game having access to resources that they themselves do not have the skill or resources to do it on their own.
I’m also assuming that there are more individuals who just what to make a game, any game, as an experience than there are those looking to do it professionally but already have the ability to produce quality as in there is more who play the game of golf for the enjoyment and have the skills but with no intention of doing it professionally.
As for junk showing up with a price tag I don’t see someone paying 20 bucks a month just to upload junk being the case and along with a review process on Epics end of actually reviewing what is submitted as to fit to finish in the case it’s a price tag that should determine value and worth is more than enough of a safe guard. The only thing I would add would be at least an in-store credit if something does get through that is no usable.
On the other hand if someone want so give something useful away for free then there is no risk of buying junk.
Give it a year and see what happens.
As for one game looking like another using the same assets it’s only noticeable by those looking for recycling and next time you play COD or BF count how many times the same door is used over and over again and if hero stuff does get noticed so what. How many fan flicks based on Star Wars are there where the same ideas, concepts, and content is use over and over again and no one really cares beyond being entertained?
I say you to it way. I sit in games long enough to recognize textures from CGTextures, GoodTextures, TotalTextures and others. Even if they are heavily customized. And that is even in AAA games, like Skyrim or Witcher 2 ;).
But I can assure you about one thing. Most people can’t spot a difference and more over most of them don’t care.
Besides taht most assets are customizable to some degree at least. If they are not, well they will loose with those that are.
If your game is “too similar” because you’re using third party assets that other people have bought as well, you’re working on something incredibly generic and you should change your design.
I personally prefer asserts that are more generic than say a complete level. I find it hard to use asserts that are design specific to a certain level.
Something would be good will be like
Picture frame pack.
Victorian style Furniture pack.
Rock formation pack.
Autumn Trees pack.
Royalty free moke up brands texture pack.
Stationery packs.
Also if they have the high poly model in them, even better.
Marketplace is good.
For eg. I bough set of some scifi low poly meshes that are meant to be used for detailed maps renders (have no uvs etc.), but i bought them to have base for creating my own set of meshes. Total for 400 meshes was like 20$. Thinking about bunch of different shapes to make my set will easily take longer than 1 hour, and i have it all there ready to be used as concept art.
Ps.
I also remember when first Stalker was shipped with same textures as HalfLife. Everybody screamed “stolen textures” but it turned out that valve used some from commercial pack.
Same goes for trees and other plants. Do you really need your trees to be different than other trees? Bushes, grass, rocks, stones… Why would you spend days and weeks on making them, just to make something which looks like another rock if you can buy it for $20-$40 ? Where is the point.
Personal knowledge gain and high levels of satisfaction. I’m 50% with OP on subject, as it does mean that lots of carbon copies can exist because chances are thousands of people have the same planks of wood and trees as you. Personally however, I prefer to do everything myself or within my team. It’s much more gratifying making your own assets, you have full control over the appearance and behaviour of your game and most importantly: you learn while doing it. Spitting out rapid prototypes is all well and good but if it’s not teaching you anything new then you’re probably going the wrong way about it.
For those that just want to get their ideas out there and don’t strive for personal development, marketplaces are great. On the other hand, you run the risk of not looking like you have the skills to pull off the idea on your own. I’ve seen and played a lot of games that have default UDK assets (I still laugh manically when I watch TotalBiscuits video of Garry’s Incident and it still has the default UDK sky and foliage). That studio shot themselves in the foot anyway when they we’re exposed for all the shady things they were doing, but just by seeing the game I felt as if the studio was lazy.
In my opinion (and it is just an opinion so pls don’t flame me), using Marketplace/mass-available-content runs the risk of making you look both unprofessional and unskilled. That said, it’s still a great resource. I only plan on buying content I can learn things from, because that’s my main goal.
If your game is only about graphics then sure, it doesn’t make sense. But for prototypes or for games where gameplay is the focus, these assets are excellent.
It´s great for non artists.
I prefer to use my skills on original content (that’s the place where I get satisfaction, gain experience and have fun with). Mundane, ordinary, repetitive assets are better bought. You see, everything is possible, everything can be made, the only problem is time. That’s why I prefer to spend my time making original (so only my game has it) content, and learn and gain experience from it.
Sure, I did make (when I was learning), a rock, tree or grass. But after I’ve learned it, I see very little point of making original trees, bushes and pebbles.
Identical point to reusing std:: library from C++, or boost:: from C++. During learning process, great, it is a fun to make your own vector or map or string. But you should use those provided by library writers in production code and not write your own from scratch, because as I’ve said, everything is doable, possible and manageable. The only problem is time (lack of it).
What is the difference between road sign bought in market place and one made by myself? The only difference is that instead of doing something challenging, interesting and original, I’ve spend my valuable time on making something bog standard, which I could buy for $20 instead and be done with it.
Your opinion is incorrect.