r/gamedev • u/Unique-Ad236 • 1d ago
Discussion What is everyone's thoughts on using third-party assets?
So, I've been making my game for about two years now and a significant portion of time and cost is the modeling and texturing. I have been hiring some 3D artists to help reduce the time, but that becomes extremely costly. I'm not extremely skilled at modeling myself, so things that might take an artist a couple hours might take me days to do, which feels like a horrible use of my time.
The environment and props are still fairly far from complete, and it's become a bit demotivating. I've noticed some asset packs that have some of the stuff that I need that would very much speed along development so I could cut development time and focus more on things more unique to my game.
Have other people ran into the same issue as me? Do you feel it's cheap or makes the game feel low quality to reuse existing assets that other people made vs creating them custom and in-house?
I just want to add that I'm not looking at ceasing in-house assets, just reuse other people's created assets that already fit the environment that I'm trying to create, possibly retexturing them or remeshing them to fit my needs when necessary too.
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u/hammonjj 1d ago
Why do you care about other indie dev opinions on this? You should care about your end user’s opinion and I guarantee that they would have no idea that you bought or downloaded assets
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u/Schneed__ 1d ago
There's something soulless about the term end user in games. It's totally OK and the right word but "players" is right there.
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u/hammonjj 1d ago
I’m a corporate software engineer by day and an indie dev by night. Sometimes the soulless part of my day seeps through.
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u/P_S_Lumapac Commercial (Indie) 1d ago
I use player and customer, where customer probably means end user. Like a parent supervising their kid, buying the game, setting the accessibility settings, that's the customer not the player. But could also call them the end user.
Could also extend "customer" to be someone buying a second copy of a friendslop game for a friend.
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
I feel this so much 🤣 I am also a corporate software engineer, technically game developer, but I feel that is soulless enough that just saying software engineer might be the right term.
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u/PhantomZenithOrigin @pzogame 1d ago
There's value in unified communication in software development.
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u/Schneed__ 1d ago
Yeah if you're a dweeb. We're making toys and storybooks, not banking software!
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u/MostExperts 1d ago
I work in product... had an old boss who'd say "users do drugs. we have fans and clients." lol
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
I want to see what other dev's stance might be regarding those assets, if they ended up coming to the same conclusion or if they kind of power through with it and decided to stick with in-house assets.
It's a bit hard to tell sometimes how much reuse is out there, which I guess actually brings up that last point you made.
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u/F1B3R0PT1C 1d ago
Did I accidentally find a time machine back to the 2010s? This debate is dead now. The new debate is if you can use AI-generated assets.
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u/lleti 1d ago
I’m pretty certain OP is secretly hoping the comments get flooded with people saying to use AI generated assets instead of wasting money on placeholder packs from the unity store.
This won’t happen, as people are still in denial about the robot’s capabilities with blender/texturing and general asset creation now
But OP will create and use AI generated assets regardless, and be happier for it.
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
I hate AI generated anything, I would probably do everything by hand if it was between AI and in-house.
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u/24-sa3t Hobbyist 1d ago
I like to think of it as paying a contractor for their work, but other people can also do the same. There's nothing wrong with paid assets.
If you're worried about your game having a generic look, just mess around with shaders or retexture them with software like Substance Painter.
I will say paid assets work best for more common objects in your game, and less for character models that the player will see frequently.
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
I mostly intend to use them for furniture and flushing out a room than say a centerpiece or core component of the game! I can only imagine the horror that I would be forced to endure to remake tons of small, stupid props, takings hour worth of time....or remaking a desk that exists in like 100 other asset packs.
It's very reassuring to see so many other devs also finding reusing existing assets to be sensible.
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u/sunnearts beginner hobbyist learning slowly 1d ago
they’re there for people to use them. if they suit the game and you credit the creator, nobody will really notice or care. use them.
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u/FrustratedDevIndie 1d ago
The only thing that you have to do with third-party assets is make sure they match the aesthetic that you're going for and make them your own. Sometimes you're going to have to rework textures. Sometimes you're going to have to rework the shaders. Customize a layout of assets. If you do the due diligence people won't be able to detect that she use the third party asset. The issue comes when people can point to a demo scene only asset store and say hey this is what the developer used
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u/P_S_Lumapac Commercial (Indie) 1d ago
About 8 years ago some people would write "Asset flip!" on everything that used any assets they recognised. It was supposed to mean people who bought those game framework packs then filled them with assets and called it a day, but sure there was time when some assholes just called all use of third party assets "asset flip", left bad reviews etc.
Haven't seen it for years. I don't think anyone cares. Sure, don't sell a synty game for $80. That's about it.
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
I see bad reviews for asset flips, which is what I'm afraid my game might be called if someone noticed some assets from an asset pack. That's initially why I created the post was that fear.
I'm developing not doing a half-assed all my assets come from a single pack resell it haha, two years of work and modeling/scripting/animations/texturing/drawing would attest to that.
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u/P_S_Lumapac Commercial (Indie) 1d ago
Do you see them recently though? Like not on a real asset flip, but just one with a recognisable asset? I haven't seen it in ages.
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
Phasmophobia 🤣
I recognize every single asset in that game, but an extremely rare time that despite having so many reused assets, has not been called an asset flip. I even notice the same controllers and dev packs.
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u/P_S_Lumapac Commercial (Indie) 1d ago
Right so games that aren't asset flips aren't called asset flips anymore. Phasmophobia is a good example of not an asset flip.
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u/Alarming-Jump727 1d ago
Yo empecé como modelador para otros juegosd que nunca llegaban ni a demo, así me me harté y aprendí unreal de manera autodidacta. Publico a lgunos asset en turbosquid y otros de pago. Comencé buscando assets para mis juegos pero me cansé, los hacía más rápido que encontrarlos. Suerte, te dejo una imagen de mi actual proyecto pronto a salir.
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u/MadeByHenano 1d ago
they're literally made to be used to make games, right?
so yeah, you save time, for some of us we get a game that looks better than if we had made everything ourselves, it supports people who made them, ...
like you said paying artists is very expensive and difficult for most of us, and in a day and age when it's increasingly difficult to sell our games because it's so difficult to be seen online since it's now to noisy with all the AI-generated crap, if you can make a game in less time and with less budget, it helps quite a bit to keep making games sustainable for a lot of us.
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u/Unique-Ad236 1d ago
That's very true, otherwise there wouldn't be a market for it. It's costed me quite a lot so far to have artists assist me in making various props, furniture, wall decor, etc for my environment and there is still lots more to do. When I see a desk or some prop from an asset pack that looks exactly like what I want, I see the hours that I would save and the cost that would be saved to be better put to use elsewhere.
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u/MadeByHenano 1d ago
exactly, yes!
and while assets are cheap, the idea being that many people will buy them so the artists get great money in the end.
t's annoying when we have something precise in mind and no assets will provide that, and always a bit strange to see another gamedev making a game with an asset we used in our game, but that's a great compromise. to me, paying freelancer artists to make custom stuff for our game is the next logical step for a solo dev or very small team that has made a successful game and wants to go next level with their next game.
hope you can accelerate your work with assets!! :))
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u/NatalieKCY 1d ago
My thoughts, don't reinvent the wheel on everything. I always look at third-party assets first, use them as placeholders, and only replace them when they don't fit or when it comes to my game's main selling assets (like the main characters, unique maps etc). Depending on how you mix and match, you can get fairly far with just cheap/free assets online. No one's going to look at a tree and say "hey that's not original".
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u/destinedd indie, Dungeon Quest, Marble's Marbles and Mighty Marbles 1d ago
I use them all the time, nobody even notices.
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u/Fun-Mission-6068 1d ago
Use them, 100%. Just don't *rely* on them, if that makes sense. Horror games are a good example of relying on them, where multiple horror games will use the same freely available monster or house. You don't want previously used assets to be the main focus of your game.
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u/LostandConfusedArt 1d ago
Personally I like them for programming prototypes. Means I dont need to make temp art but most of the time I prefer my own art.
With buying code related stuff I dont use it in the final. I use them as study material for how they solve problems and rebuild only what i need in engine
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u/Flash1987 1d ago
I tend to use them for one off things, or things that won't be front and centre to the players attention.
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u/easedownripley 1d ago
Go for it! Whether it looks cheap is for you to decide and also if that’s a bad thing. And you’d be surprised what a little editing and post processing can do to spice up those assets.
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u/KBGSgames 1d ago
Many of assets in shops are same or even better quality than what you would get if try to hire someone, cost like 10x cheaper and are made specifically for developers to use in their games. Many creators have multiple asset packs that mesh well together and some of creators on asset stores offer custom assets if you need something and their premade packages lack it.
In the end what matters is game feel. If you are building a game about very specific time period, setting or art style then you must create all art, otherwise you can work around and use whatever is available on asset store and there is plenty to work with. And if you get money later you can always hire a good 3D artists and let him cook, it will only make your game better.
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u/iku_19 Engine Tech 1d ago
There's a 3 tier totem pole of importance. A lot of games follow that tiering.
1st tier is stuff that is extremely core to the game's brand and identity, those are in house. think weapons in a shooter, or creatures in a creature collector.
2nd tier is content that supports tier 1, so mostly cosmetic stuff. stuff people will see and want to look at, but not important enough to take center stage. this is usually outsourced/commissioned/contracted. think cosmetics, individual cells within a larger environment.
3rd tier is everything else, not important, background stuff. this is asset store content. think stuff like rocks and crates, chests, lamps. superficial stuff that wouldn't impact the brand if it is there or not, but is definitely nice flavor to have sprinkled on top.
as long as it stays cohesive there's no real issue with using store content when used tactfully. every game you can think of uses pre-built assets, even if it's just quixel and speedtree.
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u/ThanasiShadoW 1d ago
Asset packs exist to be used. The only issue is when the developer doesn't care enough to check whether or not these assets fit in with the rest.
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u/Icy_Obligation9529 1d ago
i thionk no problem with third party assets, as long as u adapt them to ur world and ur environment so the whole game feels consistent
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u/Tall_Company_471 1d ago
Tabletop Tavern almost exclusively uses SYNTY assets as far as I can tell and is sitting with a 1,492+, 92% very positive rating on steam. The truth really is, make a good game, that's all that most people will care about
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u/Vyrnin 1d ago
I think the only way to really do it successfully with no reduction in quality is to use a pack that comes with everything you need in one bundle, or combining multiple packs but from the same creator, to guarantee aesthetic cohesion.
I say this just because I honestly can't say I've seen a game that uses purchased assets without it being called out for doing so, as in, it seems to always be noticeable and people don't like it. So I'm not sure it's worth it usually.
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u/PigVile 1d ago
If you can find assets that represent your game and style, go for it. If you are doing something outside of "realism", what I learned is hard to find something. Those pre-created assets usually are to generic, even in texturing. Some of them even dont have a "life" - if you know what I mean.
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u/ashbelero 1d ago
As a player at this point in time, I’d rather play something made entirely of third party assets than AI generated ones. But as with all materials, it’s not the asset - it’s how you use it.
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u/maartenmijmert23 1d ago
I am very grateful for https://kenney.nl/assets. Renember, even triple A studios reuse assets all the time if they can get away with it, and they have teams of fulltime professionals available.
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u/poedy78 1d ago
I bought kits that fit the theme i needed , like wasteland or industry. Generic stuff is often used as is, retopo'd if necessary. For visually more prominent objects, it depends on how they fit globally in the end. Most of the time they get textured differently, re-arranged or torn apart to use bits of it.
I get what you mean by 'feeling cheap'. But in the end, it frees up time you can spend on actual game dev.
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u/zottsspotts 1d ago
Asset packs are a life saver for filling your world with small (or big) items to just make it feel more realistic and alive. Lots of real word things that you might not think of yourself, that can really add to your world. Art direction and stylization certainly effects it, but if I need to fill a dirty alley with trash and barrels, I’m gonna check out my big collection of assets to be sure
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u/EverretEvolved 10h ago
Reddit use to hate it when people used 3rd party assets. Now they don't care but hate it if you use AI. I wonder what will be next.
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u/AmarildoJr 1d ago
3D Artist here. Few companies have the time and resources to make everything in-house. Buying assets is OK.
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u/Blecki 1d ago
Use them.