The Unreal Marketplace Improvement and Feedback Thread

Distribution UE Marketplace
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[= ;252315]

  1. When I make the big blog post writeups about each release that week, is actually interesting or helpful to anyone?
  2. 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?
  3. Would a Marketplace Twitter account be interesting?

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1: I do like the blog posts. Maybe you don’t need to go into so much depth? If you keep your current format with a weekly release (which I think should be more often if possible) then the depth is good, but if you are doing a recap I would have a much smaller blurb about the item. Let the pictures and videos sell the content, not your words and opinions on the asset.
2: I am at unrealengine.com religiously, so I see the blog post, but also the NEW tags really bring attention in the launcher.** I suggest you put the little ‘1’ notification that you have for the library/unreal tournament to include the Marketplace as well. makes users check and will be the best way to bring attention to new items. **
3: Meh.

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[= ;252315]
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:

  1. Guaranteeing we’re spending enough time on internal QA and not rushing things for the sake of a release that looks bigger,
  2. 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:

  1. When I make the big blog post writeups about each release that week, is actually interesting or helpful to anyone?
  2. 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?
  3. 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. :slight_smile:
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Thumbs up for a Marketplace Twitter account.

So far I just login to these forums and find out about the updates.

Also, someone else mentioned on here a problem with metrics for environment kits.
Maybe have a checklist of things to adhere to when creating these kits? Suggestions, so to speak.
For example, stair heights, door heights and widths, hallway widths, cover heights etc. Crytek had a good write up on :

http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC2/Measurement+Reference

^Something like that might make it easier for animators and environment artists to adhere to a more standard way of creating content.

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I disagree with the metrics suggestion. That can have the potential to limit creativity of the developer. As long as it adheres to the 10cm grid it should be fine.

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Hi! My suggestion is visible content version number on the content marketplace window/subpage, what do you think? I don’t want to wonder which version of file it exactly is, if the update has already been implemented or not.
Regards

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The folder layout for content to be added to a project VERY much needs to be rehashed!

Instead of:
Content{ProjectName}{Type; ie: Textures}\filename.ext

it needs to follow a more sane level of naming… such as:
Content{Type}{ProjectName}\filename.ext

way I don’t have to keep spending time moving assets around to keep everything tidy in the project hierarchy.

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[=crumbaker;252469]
To be honest, No to all your questions(except#2, the answer is the launcher or forums) we just want more quicker releases, all the time and effort you’re putting into that I think would be wasted. All the information we want would be on the sellers marketplace page, and further questions in a forum post. I say let people vote on things they buy, if something continuously gets low votes take it down. Love ue4’s engine, and think it’s far better than Unity, except the marketplace.
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I agree with you. I think between a seller putting stuff on the marketplace and being able to buy it should never be more than 1 week. If Epic want’s to do some QA during week they may do, but if they don’t find time for , then they just shouldn’t. Every pack on the marketplace should have a detailed video to show the quality of the content.
And Sellers should be able to upload updates immediately to the marketplace without any Epic staff doing anything.

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  1. I like the blog post. It’s like a commercial for the new packs.
  2. I usually find out about new releases from the blog post.
  3. I don’t use Twitter, but I’m not opposed to the idea.

I agree with some of the others who want more releases per week. Release as many as you guys can process.

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When a pack is updated, can you post update notes in the launcher - directly in the asset? I see an update but hesitate to download it because I don’t know what has changed and how it will affect my game. matters a lot considering how heavily some bought packages are edited after being purchased, but will be an absolute requirement once you start accepting C++ plugins on the marketplace. If we don’t have clear update notes associated with each update, then clicking the update and add to project button would be similar to asking to be kicked in the nuts.

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I also noticed just now that the realistic landscape pack (you know, the one who’s high price tag started the whole landscape asset war on the forums) has dropped in price from $150 to $50. I think is a great move in the right direction for asset pack, but nothing was mentioned about it being on sale on the marketplace. Even if its not a sale but a new permanent price, why not advertise it? Seems like you might losing potential buyers.

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I like to be able to access the marketplace without unreal, when I’m traveling or without the UE4, I cannot go into the store.

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You should be able to access it via the web browser. The menu at the top of the page can take you there.

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[=protegedev;259223]
I like to be able to access the marketplace without unreal, when I’m traveling or without the UE4, I cannot go into the store.
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thanks! couldn’t find link via google search

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I think the ultimate solution for automating the marketplace and increasing the quantity of items should be simple:

Let the wallets be the judges

could be achieved by:

A) Deep filters for categories: like Environments / Buildings / Houses / Medieval / Low Poly
could be achieved by check boxes in each category, like in filters. A filter combination of House, Medieval and Sci-Fi may seem weird, but who knows if a Final Fantasy-style will pop up?

B) Let more items in the marketplace.

C) Set a combination of sales cap and a maximum quantity of items per category.
For example, only items that after some time makes a certain amount of money, or only 100 items in a certain unique category.

D) Set an uniform price policy among similar items, so that is price fairness across the marketplace.

E) Let the rating systems as is.

The problem with the current system is:

A) It is slow.

B) Very few items.

C) Scarce categorization

D) The staff that chooses items for voting are not the ones that will choose to use it.

E) The users that vote for it may or may not be the ones that will buy it.

For those that feel could crowd the marketplace with meh items, as subjective as good and bad is, the sales cap and maximum quantity of items in an unique category should naturally take care of that, as what one may think won’t sell may actually do, and what they think will may not.

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Just a thought, but maybe thread should be sticky so it won’t be lost in the sea of marketplace threads? The more people that see and submit feedback here the better. =)

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[=;261512]
Just a thought, but maybe thread should be sticky so it won’t be lost in the sea of marketplace threads? The more people that see and submit feedback here the better. =)
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Good idea! Done! :slight_smile:

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That was quick, thanks !

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Hi all! Will reply to the latest comments in detail a bit later, but I’m prepping today’s release and wanted to push out two little process improvements:

  • Whenever we update the public Trello with next week’s release, we’re going to notify the submitters immediately that it’s been scheduled and ask for any video, screenshot, description, or content updates. I realized we could be doing a better job of letting everyone know exactly when a pack’s going to be released, and I don’t think it should be a surprise. It also gives them advance time to start advertising and building up buzz in advance of the release. :slight_smile: So those emails will start going out tomorrow or Friday.

  • Now that we’ve gotten three weeks of releases roughly planned out internally (pending QA and other considerations), I’m not planning out any beyond that. Instead, I’m adding each new content pack to the next coming release as they become ready, so each release will get bigger and everything will come out sooner, just like you all said you wanted. :slight_smile:

Responses to specific posts coming soon once I’m done with today’s blog post. I just wanted to let you know I’m still here, still reading, and still improving the Marketplace!

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It’s so awesome to see feedback implemented so quickly! Keep up the good work!

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Please add bitcoin as receiving-payment option :slight_smile: It’s the most cheap one regarding fees…