Marketplace contents for free (an addition purchase option)

[MaxiHori]

Please read till the end before answer.

I would like to spend 150-200$ for preparing a quick demo, but it is hard to understand which package I need and if they are really worth the money.
furthermore any project can change drammaticaly from prototype to the final version and some packages may became worthless later on, while others became needed.

Having an upfront cost like that really stops me from buying anything. I always wait till the last moment, and buy everything as later in time as I can, even important things that could change the feeling of the game.

On the contrary I immediately download and use every free content provided by Epic and other developers.

so what I’m proposing is something similar to what you do with UE4,
everything is free from the start, but each project should have a “licence costs” which is the sum of the costs of each packages used within that project. Now, before being able to ship the game, you must first cover the “licence costs” of the packages.

Of course I’m aware that it would be hard to release C++/blueprints source code, and then identify that they were actually coming from the marketplace and not made from scratch.
However it could be implemented just as an addition puchase option, in the first case you pay upfront and you get the source code (like now), otherwise you get the binary but you pay only when shipping.

I don’t really know much about other type of contents (3d models, animation, etc…) so I don’t know I would handle those scenarios, but still…
you released the engine source code and you must have ways of detecting if someone didn’t pay your fees. if you could figure it out something similar to protect content creators too, it would be a win-win situation.
For example, in order to build a package for the shipping stage you could require an internet connection in order to check for protected contents (something similar to what youtube does for copyright).

In this way contents creators would have a much richer base to sell their product, and more from even a single user since if I’m shipping 2 different games with the same bought package it would require 2 different purchases.

As for the consumers, they could include everything from the marketplace from the start, being able to quick prototyping and being much more phrone to keep already used packages when reaching the shipping stage.

as a second suggestion I noticed that you financialy help game creators, but I think that if you could buy some contents already in your marketplace and release it for free for everyone that could help too (of course after reaching an agreements with the content creator).

Thanks

[BinarySword (Benjamin D. Smith)]

@MaxiHori;371988

so what I’m proposing is something similar to what you do with UE4,
everything is free from the start, but each project should have a “licence costs” which is the sum of the costs of each packages used within that project. Now, before being able to ship the game, you must first cover the “licence costs” of the packages.

Of course I’m aware that it would be hard to release C++/blueprints source code, and then identify that they were actually coming from the marketplace and not made from scratch.
However it could be implemented just as an addition puchase option, in the first case you pay upfront and you get the source code (like now), otherwise you get the binary but you pay only when shipping.

The overall percentage of completed game related projects is slim at best (around 2%) and can take many years to complete, so by the time a developer does manage to release a game the content provider would most likely have gone out of business.

There is however other options which you can use that are readily available within both this community and others which provide collections free of charge for either non-commercial use (good for internal prototyping) or completely royalty free.

**[FREE] Various models]([FREE] Various models - World Creation - Epic Developer Community Forums) **(among other forum threads you can easily find on the UE4 Forums)

Also my colleagues and I have even been trying to help solve this problem with: **[Free Marketplace Assets] A Patreon page funded approach :D]([Free Marketplace Assets] A Patreon page funded approach :D - Marketplace - Epic Developer Community Forums)

**However like all good things, you require investment, be that money, time, motivation, support, etc.

NOTE: We will most likely be investing quite a lot of resources into that above proposed project come early next year after the main legwork has been done on a Commercial UE4 Plugin we are currently developing and we can afford to lower the overall development team for that product

@MaxiHori;371988

I don’t really know much about other type of contents (3d models, animation, etc…) so I don’t know I would handle those scenarios, but still…
you released the engine source code and you must have ways of detecting if someone didn’t pay your fees. if you could figure it out something similar to protect content creators too, it would be a win-win situation.
For example, in order to build a package for the shipping stage you could require an internet connection in order to check for protected contents (something similar to what youtube does for copyright).

A game engine is a very different scenario than a singular or dozen assets as each individual game engine has its own unique shading, workflows and procedures which when combined you can easily tell that a game/render is made with that engine and thus a lot harder to get away with stealing the source code for than a simple 3d model, etc.

@MaxiHori;371988

In this way contents creators would have a much richer base to sell their product, and more from even a single user since if I’m shipping 2 different games with the same bought package it would require 2 different purchases.

As for the consumers, they could include everything from the marketplace from the start, being able to quick prototyping and being much more phrone to keep already used packages when reaching the shipping stage.

This would surely be a matter of excess quantity over quality and I feel would surely hurt the community over improving it, unless you include the modding community but due to there being no direct revenue in that field I would count it out.

@MaxiHori;371988

as a second suggestion I noticed that you financialy help game creators, but I think that if you could buy some contents already in your marketplace and release it for free for everyone that could help too (of course after reaching an agreements with the content creator).

Epic Games already does this by hosting UE4 Marketplace Sales and where they covers the difference from the sale as to support the Content Vendors during the marketplaces infancy. This may change as time goes on and the UE4 Marketplace grows.

How are prices set?

"Epic won’t sell your content for more than your base price except for making these international retail price adjustments. However, Epic reserves the right to offer discounts and to sell it below the base price. Whatever the discounted price, you still receive 70% of the base price.

For sales, we may occasionally work with sellers to temporarily lower the base price for a limited period of time. This will only be done by mutual agreement between you and Epic."

Source: https://publish.unrealengine.com/faq

Jon Jones has also stated that there are no current plans to ever support free assets on the UE4 Marketplace besides by Epic Games themselves and some special circumstances relating to education based content.

Source: [Free Marketplace Assets] A Patreon page funded approach :D - Marketplace - Epic Developer Community Forums