And on the note of improving the Marketplace, what would all of you think if I posted little work log updates to thread as things get better?
Right now I’m working on writing the blog post for today’s content release (the contents of which you can now see in the public Trello!), and I’ve also updated our public submissions guidelines to include the new larger image sizes for the web Marketplace. In addition to that, I’ve increased the minimum requested number of screenshots from 3 to 5. More screenshots == more opportunities for a buyer to think " is something I want to buy!"
I’ve sent out file requests for several dozen new submissions in the past week, and we’re working on QAing them all internally before moving them to the public Trello. Lots of stuff coming soon!
The speed of voting on the public Trello boards has sped up by at least 10x. Amazing!
One important new addition some of you may have noticed is that I now include web links to each piece of published content in the blog post and on the forum. is going to make it MUCH easier for you to advertise your content, link it to friends, and advertise! With all the additional attention people are giving the Marketplace, represents a massive boost in traffic.
also means that the web Marketplace can be indexed by search engines. Now people using Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc will see Marketplace content pop up in their search results when they’re looking for content for their game. Writing a detailed description and giving your pack a good title is even more important than ever.
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Which email ad. are you guys sending stuff to?
Keep in mind that is still finalizing some marketplace stuff.
A new support email is being set up and some other things are getting prepared as well.
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Thanks , I fired an email off to the new address and immediately got a receipt. Awesome. =)
I also think it’s a great idea to continue to keep us up to date in thread. I’ve enjoyed watching the improvements you’ve been announcing in here as of late, so keep em coming! =)
Okay, let’s fix . Can you reply to the last email you got from us and CC ? That’ll make all my devices scream and we can jump on it. I apologize for the delay.
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Thanks , I fired an email off to the new address and immediately got a receipt. Awesome. =)
I also think it’s a great idea to continue to keep us up to date in thread. I’ve enjoyed watching the improvements you’ve been announcing in here as of late, so keep em coming! =)
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Thanks man! Your pack update is going live tonight and you’ll get an email update from us as soon as we verify it.
And cool, I’ll keep posting the updates then! Glad you like them.
Small victory of the day: We have the next 3 weeks of Marketplace content releases QA’ed, staged, and ready to publish. That’s the most we’ve had lined up and ready to go so far, and we’re going to keep doing better! We’re getting to the point now where we could potentially start having content releases built around a central theme, which I’ve been curious to start experimenting with.
A question for all of you: Now that we’re able to get the releases queued up far out and we’re minimizing last-minute additions or delays, how does everyone feel about the number of packs we release each week? Not enough, too many, just right?
Personally I would like to see more packs released. It doesn’t really need to be only once a week either, I would really like to see them published as soon as they are ready to go.
way will still work with your weekly blog too, instead of being all about weeks content pack release have it as a weekly recap blog to go over that week’s new additions.
I would like to see as much as possible on the Marketplace once it has passed QA, I think the sellers would also appreciate having their packs pushed live when complete. Having to wait an extra week or two before going live just because you guys currently release once a week just adds to the length of time before the seller receives their first payment from sales.
Yeah, right now I think having a populated marketplace is more important than any sort of “exclusivity” that having an official release might give. If you want to, simply those new releases more prominently on the website for the week or something.
At the end of the day, the marketplace for game dev content is far more about having the right content at the time you need it. So its not like there’s a “perfect” time. I would hardly buy a pack or something because it was released at a given time, I’d buy it because my game needed it for something. Or I’d buy it when it became available if I already identified the need for it. Otherwise, I just want to see more options in order to give me confidence that eventually I’ll be able to fill more needs from the marketplace.
I guess I might as well shove in here that I’d love to see more characters on the marketplace. Kind of strange that there’s only a few so far. Given the amount of unreal engine beauty shots I’ve seen from junior artists on polycount and the like.
Once you get C++ plugins on sale there though, I’ll be all over it
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Small victory of the day: We have the next 3 weeks of Marketplace content releases QA’ed, staged, and ready to publish. That’s the most we’ve had lined up and ready to go so far, and we’re going to keep doing better! We’re getting to the point now where we could potentially start having content releases built around a central theme, which I’ve been curious to start experimenting with.
A question for all of you: Now that we’re able to get the releases queued up far out and we’re minimizing last-minute additions or delays, how does everyone feel about the number of packs we release each week? Not enough, too many, just right?
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Personally I think if it’s done it should be released. That way consumers get access to it right away, and sellers can get their revenue and sales numbers quicker which helps them to determine whether it’s worth doing a follow up pack. So the more the merrier, if it’s done I say why not release them? Just my perspective on the matter. =)
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Personally I think if it’s done it should be released. That way consumers get access to it right away, and sellers can get their revenue and sales numbers quicker which helps them to determine whether it’s worth doing a follow up pack. So the more the merrier, if it’s done I say why not release them? Just my perspective on the matter. =)
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would like to chime in with the others; Dont restrict the new Contents to a specific number, but just publish them when they are ready and make a Blog/Forums post “new content week”. Not only the content would come in without delay, but it would feel like there’s more content coming with small updates with 1-2 assets each day instead of big ones with 5-10 per week.
Awesome feedback, everybody. Thanks! I’ll start pushing for more content to be released, then. We’ve started an internal discussion about how much we can realistically process and release and how often, and find the best way to do it.
Since Epic’s a fan of transparency, I’ll lay out the two biggest reasons that we’ve been cautious about how much content we release:
Guaranteeing we’re spending enough time on internal QA and not rushing things for the sake of a release that looks bigger,
Publishing a release is actually a very manual and time-consuming process right now. We’re still working on , but there is a LOT to it, and we’ve been trying to make the process better and easier to predict.
Fortunately, since we QA things before they make it to the public Trello, we have a LOT more time to test and fix problems and plan releases. I’ll talk to the team and find out what we can safely and responsibly handle, and update here when I know more.
Since feedback has been great, I have some other questions for you guys and girls:
When I make the big blog post writeups about each release that week, is actually interesting or helpful to anyone?
What’s the first place you actually find out about new releases? Is it the blog post, the forum, or do you just log into the Marketplace and see the ‘NEW’ labeled items?
Would a Marketplace Twitter account be interesting?
I’d love to hear what you think! is good stuff and it really helps us, so please, keep it coming.
Asesome ! Loving the transparency and openness to feedback. =)
I enjoy them, it’s definitely interesting so keep doing them.
Blog generally, sometimes marketplace though if I happen to start the launcher before my browser. But I usually still read the blog posts. Not everyone posts their marketplace content on the forums so I don’t usually seek that information here.
I guess it depends on its purpose. If its to announce releases and such it may be redundant? But then again you may be able to reach a wider audience than with the blog alone so it could be beneficial. Especially when spotlighting content or announcing sales. It certainly wouldn’t hurt. =)
I think in general more exposure for the marketplace is a good thing. So twitter could be an integral part of expanding our (community) reach.
When I make the big blog post writeups about each release that week, is actually interesting or helpful to anyone?
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I really like them and it’s my major “connection” with Marketplace information. However I don’t like that pictures and text placed in different locations - I prefer when they are in same place. If I interested in picture - I definitely will read the text, but now I have to start reading text to understand what exactly you’re going to talk about. I hope I’m not sound like super lazy school kiddo
Quick potato-quality-pic to illustrate:
What’s the first place you actually find out about new releases? Is it the blog post, the forum, or do you just log into the Marketplace and see the ‘NEW’ labeled items?
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Blog post is getting my attention, so it is the main resource for me to find out what’s new. At the top list in Marketplace usually either good stuff or discount, so to find new items here you have to scroll reeeeally long time.
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Would a Marketplace Twitter account be interesting?
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I am a twitter user, but not sure I would be interested in , maybe someone would.
I usually hear what’s newly available either through email (blog) or via the launcher.
It doesn’t much matter about what’s released though, its more about what’s available and what isn’t. Plus of course the quality of the products. Mainly the is that content producers need a bit more of a firm hand on things like working at the correct scale, having good documentation and the like. The easiest way to get me to purchase more stuff, is to make sure the stuff I do purchase actually works (reasonably) easily. So if I have to mess around with something to get it to work, then its less likely I’ll take a next time.
Its stuff like having modular building sets, where the parts are built to a scale where the “default” character feels out of scale that would put me off (as happened with one pack at least). Stuff like collisions not allowing characters to get through doorways and the like.
I guess its really a programmer point of view in that sense. I want the art to “just work” when I drop it in. So I want that standardization so that I don’t get two packs with complete different scales. Things like weapons and characters should always work together. But things like characters and doorways are another pain point in a lot of circumstances.
Its the kind of thing where its not a HARD fix, but it would require an artist I don’t have available to do it. (OK, so I do it myself anyway, but I’d rather not waste that time).
So the more you can do to ensure consistency and high quality, the better I think the overall marketplace will be viewed. Once people know they are going to get that high quality “ready-to-use” content every time they buy something, I think the confidence will be there to rely on the marketplace a little more.
So yeah, its good to get new marketplace releases, but I think the manner of release right now is fine (although I prefer just release it as its approved) and I’d concern myself more with ensuring consistency and interoperability.
