We are building games and non-game applications with many of the asset store plugins. It feels very good to see new asset pop up where developers are pushing great quality and keep updating and fixing bugs. New users pile up for the asset and life is great.
Then one day the market gets saturated. Pushing another “big release” with bloated crap on the asset is not anymore making the customer base re-buy their old assets. What happens? All those developers that are basing their development on those plugins suffer greatly. They start to get worse products. Lets say there is no total collapse of buyers for specific asset. But bad enough situation that those asset developers can not sustain their team from updating old things. They are pushed to invent yet another new asset and basically put the old great asset to sleep mode.
Suggestion: Unity please let me pay voluntary “support developer”-subscription in addition to asset price (recurring revenue to the team behind good plugin). So that I can buy an asset, keep using it, and not always be afraid to see the dev team vanish after 6 months. If my own product is dependent on asset updates and bug fixes, I would be more than happy to keep paying e.g. 5€ / month to the asset developer to make sure they can feed their family and keep doing good job (Even more if I really want to make sure or less if things go south).
This has to be voluntary and I would want to select how much I keep paying (Not fixed), lets say I pay 20€ to start using asset, then I realize how great it is and use it in production system. Then I go and activate my “support developer”-subscription from asset store, I select how much money I want to keep paying monthly, now I on my behalf make sure the team can be more sustainable and can keep up the good work.
I’m throwing money at my screen but nothing happens
Yup. IMO Asset Store should apply itchio-like policy where each asset has minimal price (even if it’s $0), but then you can put voluntary “tip” on top of that if you so desire (AS store cut would apply to both price and “tip” though it’d be nice if unity would leave second part entirely for the dev).
Yes, I have tried that. That is the reason why I am here, asking for practical solution to the problem. Unity would also benefit as company, my feeling is they are also seeking alternatives with their business model, along the lines of darkhog. Everyone wins.
I guess more options wouldn’t hurt. Do you see a benefit to Unity enabling an option to do this (which I assume would be optional) vs. tool creators setting up a Patreon or equivalent? I can’t say I’ve thought before about setting up a patreon but I certainly could and let subscribers vote on tools I’d do next.
When purchasing asset, could buy “VIP customer pack” (if the seller has enabled it. VIP customer could have faster support, or other extras like beta access, 1 feature request, skype support, private repository access… etc. All different price levels, as in Kickstarter you can pay more to get more)
Unity Asset Store Developer Support Tax (each purchase in store would take minimal % amount from the price into Unity Dev Funds, which would be given out to support good sellers/assets… not yet sure what would be the criteria to select who gets funds though)
Totally agree. Our World Political Map series has been selling quite well so far and we know that a large % of customers are from stablished companies and large organizations who see $70 a bargain for such kind of asset (ie. NATO, US ARMY, NASA…).
It’s really a need to have the possibility to define services level packages that could be included along the purchase or after the purchase (eg. Premium support, custom development, …)
(I’ll preface this with a; I don’t have the decision power on this stuff) My 2cents & I’ll be honest, I don’t really see the need. Asset developers choose to put their assets for sale to make money, the same effect would be achieved to raise what they charge for an Asset.
Alas, if such an initiative was put in place, there would no doubt be some tax thing for the Asset Seller. But I’ll send this to the Asset Store team.
Not if the asset is no longer selling , but has a huge active installbase ( Dakion Forge GUI for example that got canned after unity released there own UI solution). But maybe they could just set up there own pateron for that.
If it were me, I would contact the asset developer and offer to pay for something added to the asset. For example, pay for extra tutorials or an extra feature, knowing that once it was added it would also be available to anyone on the asset store. I know some developers will do this. They simply offer to make “custom content” that is then non-exclusive. An example would be a special model that a developer needs for his game but not something that would be super popular. By paying extra money but giving up the exclusive rights, the developer can charge less than he might for an exclusive model/script/etc. The model can then be offered on the asset store and the developer gets more money even if the model doesn’t sell as well as the generic models.
I see danger in paying more for support as support should be built into the asset store price. If one is providing too much support, they should raise the price, not ask people who purchased to spend more for support.
I agree with Aurore. I don’t see the need to do this formally. I have plenty of developer friends who have contracted for non-exclusive work. I have offered this to a few developers who have added to the asset without taking my money…such cool people. But I would be very willing to pay extra for something that I want, even if it is then offered to everyone.
Wouldn’t surprise me if something like this could be apart of the Level 11 reworking. I’d be on board for some kind of subscription that would actively support the assets I rely on.
I thoroughly disagree with the implication that there is no need for recurring revenue for asset store developers! I am startup entrepreneur and there is whole world of difference between the two.
If you try to extrapolate over time, the dependency and sustainability of my company is greatly endangered on buying asset from 3rd party for 50€ and expecting to use that product for many years ahead. It is absolutely impossible for Unity3D as a platform and asset store to function properly as foundation for my business when every 1 year I have to find another new developer re-inventing the wheel hopefully at same quality as previous developer. With your solution of raising prices I would practically need to pay one time fee of hundreds or thousands of €, it is not feasible and far from practical as the lifetime is expected to be many years (This is the advantage of asset store that you can evaluate at low price point, then if I am happy with the quality, support and performance of the asset store developer and product, I would really like to start paying more over time to secure my business needs through helping the developer). It is even absurd for me to expect good service for so low price over time. Now only solution is to A: send money through outside of asset store mechanics or B: for the asset provider to re-sell the same asset again and again with artificial major releases.
Even Unity3D could not sustain that business model yourself! Don’t you see the analogy?
This has already happened with multiple assets. I am a customer, a paying customer for Unity license. I am telling you that there is a problem. I am not asking if you see the problem, I am telling you the problem is there. I’m sorry to be blunt, but for love of god do not diminish the concern by quick hand analytic. I want to build sustainable business dependent on 3rd party assets (One example: Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making). With current Asset Store business model it simply does not deliver the sustainability that our company would need.
One time payment is absolutely not the same as recurring revenue over time, I am afraid.
I’ve had someone contact me directly and offer money for additional support. I also contacted someone directly to send them additional money out of sheer joy of their asset doing everything I needed. Not sure there has to be any sort of additional infrastructure for this?
I guess it could be nice as there wouldn’t be:
“No, no, I don’t need extra money.”
“…but …but I want to give you money.”
“I’m fine, really.”
“Here’s money anyway!”
“Wow, thanks!”
In my opinion, it would be good. Completely optional, as saying thanks to the developer, speaking as a customer. Now speaking as a developer, some of you say that the developer can just the same increase the price of their asset, but that’s not always the best way. We for once try to keep the prices low (sometimes too low, and realize after a long number of updates like our Cartoon Low Poly Pack lol), so more people can afford them, even if we value the asset more, and think it deserves to be slightly higher priced. But we don’t because we want it available to more people, with not so high a budget. But recently realizing people get turned off by low prices, some even thinking its suspiciously low, but that’s another matter.
Another reason is what @Yukichu said, I always react exactly like that, refusing a few times before finally giving in. Which sometimes leaves you feeling a bit embarrassed, also feeling good, contradictory to the pride you’d feel if you had Patreon-like supporters, or a tip jar. It probably sounds silly to some of you, but I both like and dislike when that happens.
Speaking of Patreon, if Unity didn’t have such a thing on the asset store, I wish Patreon was more widely known and accepted among developers. I don’t like shoving advertisement links in peoples faces telling them about our Patreon page, but if it was more widely known/done among developers, it would be common to see links to Patreon in asset description or thread.
I’ve occasionally had people buy another copy on my website to show support, so if the asset store would allow buying multiple copies for all assets, it seems like a simple way of solving the problem.
I really think this is the best way to go. If you want to be a patron of the arts, then pay a commission to the asset author to make either an improvement to an existing product, or a new one, or something special for your own project. Or if you don’t want to spend that much money, buy another one of their products. Or buy them a beer.
I think most of the store devs are looking for piece work, and their products are a way to show potential customers what they can do. So if you like their work, hit them up for more. But I don’t think Unity should be a middleman in that.
But I would be very willing to pay extra for something that I want, even if it is then offered to everyone.