What do you think? I’m still grappling with the whole game dev thing, wondering if I can make a go of it, and one of the things that is de-motivating is the fact I have literally zero budget, being poor as hell. I know a little bit about 3D modelling, but that’s about it. But the free stuff on the marketplace seems pretty good, particularly now they’re adding more every month.
So is it possible? Would people accept a game that was nothing but free assets, or would I just get laughed at, regardless of the quality of the actual gameplay? Are there any examples of games that have been successful using only free assets?
Yes, it’s possible. You just have to know how to share/advertise your game, in a subtle way of course (and not like you’re desperate for money/attention).
Try posting it on forums (related to games/indie games or whatever your game happens to be about), social media, and YouTube ,or your friends or your family. If you have a small following already, it can help. I’m sure people aren’t expecting AAA quality from a solo developer, and people will be more forgiving. A lot of Indie games have been successful.
Personally, I’m looking at PS1 games as a source of inspiration.
Most of their development teams were small (around 10 to 30 people) and they used ancient technology! I’m sure it shouldn’t be too hard for you to make something simple like that with today’s technology.
Keep your game small and simple, is the best advice I can give you.
Edit: What assets do you mean?? If you have the talent, I definitely suggest making your own models/textures, especially if you ever intend on using whatever skills you develop using this engine in your career/future career.
Personally, the only assets I’m using are custom shaders and post process effects, but I intend to use my own models and textures because I’m training to become texture artist- and not a computer graphics programmer, so I definitely need the experience of creating textures/models myself.
I’m in the same situation as you, even my PC is trash, it barely runs UE4, and here I’m, trying to make a small Pinball 2D game with Paper2D, I’m doing everything from scratch with free tools or cheap to by (waiting for discounts, free assets and the like), there is even a post about Free Resources in this same subforum, check it out, there are plenty tutorials on the web, and what you don’t understand, you can ask for advise and feedback, don’t be hard to yourself and go one step at the time
