Asset Pack Questions PreRelease (stores, permissions, structure, etc etc)

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I’ve got a bunch of questions I think I should ask prior to releasing a new pack in the store. I have some minor pixel packs out already years ago, but want to improve the quality with new stuff. Really appreciate any answers. Thanks!

  1. Demo Scene is now required even for small 2D assets I guess. Judging by existing packs in store it looks like I can do this by pretty much just putting my 2D assets into a Unity scene and saving it somehow. Anything else I should be aware of here? I am looking at the tutorials so hopefully this is straightforward.

  2. B. Should I be updating my old packs to a new version? They are simple Pixel assets so maybe it’s not necessary to do anything further with them?

  3. I got permission from an indie developer that I made icons for to resell anything I made for him (smallish pixel assets, icons, etc). I assume I can resell these on the store. There seemed to be a section of the publisher agreement that talked about not using an existing game’s art style, but I assume that’s for people trying to copy a big name style like Warcraft etc rather than an indie freelancer making stuff for low level indies and reselling it from their own personal style.

  4. B. Is it ok for me to put references to this indie game in the title or description of a pack that includes some stuff also used in his game? I’d be happy to give this struggling indie dev a bit of a visibility boost.

  5. From what I’ve been able to gather it sounds like Unity doesn’t have a problem with you selling your assets in both their store and other online stores of similar nature? In fact I see discussions that this is a good idea to avoid other people taking and trying to sell your stuff.

  6. I see they discuss file structure and some technical specs required, but do you have any pointers toward better file naming conventions devs would like to see? I guess there’s no real hard and fast rules.

  7. Any suggestions on where or how to advertise packs? I assume various social media as allowed is standard. And creating a thread in this forum to announce a pack release. Other ways people advertise?

  8. B. I’d love to put my old packs on sale when I release a new pack at some point. But I don’t see an option to set an asset to go on sale.

  9. Regarding packaging and price point, so far I’ve used a format of making assets that fit 32x32 space with 10 base versions and at least 50 total color combinations for the assets. Each set having a theme such as “fantasy armors” or “sci fi weapons” etc. Eventually hopefully packaging multiple packs together into larger combo/mega packs maybe? Right now I’m just going with the default minimum $4.99 price point.
    I don’t really know how to judge price point too much but I think my stuff will be pretty decent quality compared to much of what I’m seeing (or my old work) and I have a fair amount of experience. And producing this sort of work takes a fair amount of time.
    I’ve been told by another experienced dev that I might not want to even call this stuff icons as it’s a bit more complex or larger work. But i think icons is also a term of art for the store that may get searched and it is likely to get used in UI.

Anyway thanks again for any answers. Much appreciated. I’ve got a lot of content I’ve been working on and I’m itching to start putting it in the store.

Examples:
8936922--1225602--Breastplate_EmeraldPath00_3x.png 8936922--1225605--FullPlate_BlackKnight00_3x.png 8936922--1225608--Padded_GuildCrafter00_3x.png 8936922--1225611--Ringmail_ImperialGuard00_3x.png

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  1. Yep, just putting them in a scene with maybe a simple camera scroll script to look around is fine

1b. I’d say updating them isn’t worth your time. Maybe you can do better marketing if they’re updated. Just make sure they don’t become deprecated.

  1. As long as you have the rights, you can put them up. Don’t see why they’d make a problem out of this.
    2b. You can put it as a screenshot to show it off and put it in the description. Probably a no-go for the title

  2. It’s your content, do what you want with it. I’d say more stores == more potential revenue

  3. Don’t think file names are strict, just make sure they’re consistent and make sense

  4. Social media, forum post, etc are easy wins.
    If needed making a YouTube guide can help a lot
    5b. Not sure, there is something about this on the guidelines, but maybe you just need to change the price and change it back later

  5. Price is up to you. I agree with 4.99, but I work with completely other assets

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That’s too many assumptions, you should get this straight before you publish anything. There’s no information how those assets came into existence (did the dev order them and pay for them etc). It’s doubtful that a game developer allows you to sell the work you created for him and that you are allowed to sell it so that others can create a competing game with same or similar style. If you’re indeed allowed to do as as you describe you should do everything to protect yourself and also your paying customers.

Otherwise it would just look like the usual piracy stuff where someone rips assets from a game, becomes publisher, sells them on the asset store, honest customers buy them and use them, take a huge risk and lose time and money with that.

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DevDunk thanks for the info. Glad to get clarification. I was mostly double checking Unity’s stance on resale with permission and on sale to multiple stores simultaneously so thanks.

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Question 1 is, assuming I have permission, does Unity care about resale of assets that were originally made for a developer? So far it sounds like Unity is ok with you reselling assets you’ve created yourself as long as you have the developer’s permission, according to anything you guys have told me or that I’ve found in their Submission Guidelines or Asset Store Provider Agreement.

So that’s the first thing I wanted to triple check here.

Question 2 is what do I need to have from the developer I originally created the work for to prove that I clearly have permission to resell any assets I made?

As a related aside, how these assets came into existence was that I created them all from scratch in my own pixel style (there was no house style, this was a very indie dev situation and I think other art assets were probably either from packs or commissions). The dev asked for me to make icons based on his needs for something to represent a piece of equipment or spell etc. The pay rate he could offer was extremely low for my country (which only speaks to why he may be fine with me reselling assets, something you seem to doubt).

As to how he gave permission I emailed him and asked for it. If you don’t think this is ironclad enough please let me know what you think is necessary beyond this.

My question in email:
“I was looking to make further icon packs to sell on the Unity store (and/or possibly (another store I named) or another marketplace someday). Do you mind if I resell any of the icons I’ve made for you? Perhaps it would be as part of one of these sort of packs.”

His response:
“I have absolutely no problem with you selling those icons you have done for us. I will be glad if you get a few extra dollars ^^
If you can, please add some references to the (his game) series (we might get some sales too).”

To be clear anything I’ve made for him is between around 16x16 and 32x32 pixel art and could likely be termed an icon.

The part of the Asset Store Provider Agreement that seems to pertain is:
“6.8
Provider represents and warrants that Provider has all intellectual property rights necessary for Provider to grant Unity the rights set forth in this Agreement, including all necessary patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights, in and to Provider’s Assets. If Provider uses third-party materials, Provider represents and warrants that Provider has the right to distribute the third-party material in the Assets. Provider agrees that Provider will not submit material to Unity Asset Store that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including patent, privacy and publicity rights, unless Provider is the owner of such rights or has permission from the rightful owner to submit the material.”

And as for Unity’s Submission Guidelines, it seems the only semi-related part that I noticed was:
“1.1.b The submission does not directly recreate a popular game’s design, art style and aesthetic, and is not a compilation of found content/products. The submission is also not the direct result of public tutorials, or third-party automatic/AI-aided generation tools, unless significant value is added beyond the result of the tutorial, or the output of the generation system.”

Again, the game I made assets for was a struggling indie which, while a great game in terms of game design imho, probably would not be termed “popular” by their meaning. It had no clearly delineated house style and simply asked for me to make an icon which I then did in my style. All assets were those I created from scratch. If I don’t pass 1.1 b I don’t see how anyone would.

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