Can you make a living out of Unity Asset Store?

motenai

Hey guys, it's been a while i had my eye on the Unity Asset Store.
At the moment i'm making a living with Dota 2 content creation, but i might want to move my efforts on something that will be more "durable" in the future.
So what do you think? Can that be Unity Asset Store?
Is there any reference online of how much money a good artis can make out of it? Or would you like to share your experience?
How long would be the investment in time and effort to start getting back enough money a month to live with?
If you can share any info about it, please do so , i'm very interested.

Fwap

I think so, i'm aiming at heading there as well.

http://u3d.as/publisher/manufactura-k4-michael-o-/1YC Michael O seems to be doing alright.

http://juhakiili.com/blog/my-first-five-days-in-the-asset-store/
http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1z2o7n/how_i_made_1000000_under_a_month_selling_assets/
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-09-29-unity-devs-can-make-a-living-from-asset-store

UE4 is getting an asset store too.
I found an awesome article about selling on the store that i'm having trouble finding.
It was basically recycling game assets if anyone knows of it. Make a game, develop a level, sell the assets for the level, which in turn pays for the second level so on so forth.

Just get your feet wet man, probably the best way to find out about it, chuck some assets up there.
If they sell they sell, if they don't who knows they are up the forever now, maybe in a years time your assets will trend.

curzed

I can name a few which have done very well. NGUI creator was bringing in $70k a year off of sales but that was a year or two ago. http://blogs.unity3d.com/2012/04/07/interview-super-seller-michael-lyashenko-of-tasharen-entertainment/

Some art assets have done well as long as your doing them "correctly" releasing them in stages or packs/kits look up Michael O. or I think he is K4 Manufaktura.
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#publisher/585

Shaderforge is pretty much going through the roof right now,
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/14147

Daikon Forge is big,
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/10438

Playmaker has turned into a studio now,
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/368


I know Final IK is doing well..
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/14290

Basically if your able to address a problem and solve it in a clean, simple and efficient way, you will be saving developers a ton of time and they will be willing to purchase it. Unity is famous for embracing third party tools that capitalize on Unity's subpar features. Look at Skyshop and Shaderforge for example.

A lot of terrain plugins have done well
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/5664

Vectrosity was one of the very first (before the asset store even existed) which re-wrote Unity's line rendering system very fast and efficiently, I believe his forum name is Eric5 or something..
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/82

Oh and also Chris West and Megafiers is huge.
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#publisher/382

The answer is Yes and No, if you're able to solve a problem that a lot of people are looking for a solution to, then the sky is the limit. You also have to be able to turn it into a product - which means proper branding, marketing, clean code and documentation, good pricing and great support above all.

Its a great time and opportunity to release something both for Unity and now Unreal 4, just know that there is no easy way or get rich quick there's a lot of useless shit on the store as well, all of these people mentioned above have put in tons of work to produce something really great and helpful.

TL;DR

If you plan to make a living off of it, treat it like a business and do it right

motenai

Thanks a lot for the answers, from what i can tell the bigger market is for problem solving through scripts and apps, so i'm not sure how much providing game ready characters can be profitable....but it's definitely something i'll try sooner or later.

curzed

Also if your interested in characters check out UMA
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/219175-UMA-Unity-Multipurpose-Avatar-on-the-Asset-Store!

I think someone released an armor pack that uses this system.

ziji

CodeAssembler

Yup, scripters do lot better somehow. I think I'll still try do some things just for fun and if they do profit, then cool. In the specific case of Michael (NGUI) he did that well not only because of his superb work (I do love using NGUI) but also since he filled a huge void for the whole Unity community, since Unity OnGUI stuff where not that efficient at all. So his case should not be used as example in my opinion, just my 2 cents.

Michael O should be used as best case scenario indeed.

letin

New GUI system in Unity 4.6 is based on NGUI as far as I know.

axiomstudios

We have created a new Android all-in-one plugin for Unity 3D. Its open beta at the moment and can be downloaded at https://github.com/axsu3d/axsandroidplugin

andrewio

Hello, guys! I'm Andrew Sirota, full-time Publisher in the Unity Asset Store.

As you develop your game, you need money for life. You can find an investor (game publisher) or (if you are a true indie) provide yourself with everything you need through creating & selling assets on the Unity Asset Store. 

And this deal can make you really independent from no one.

I've just released a book about Asset Publishing in the Unity Asset Store: “How to Create & Sell Unity Assets?” ☄️

⚡ It is already Available in the Unity Asset Store

Video

andrewio

Hello, guys! I'm Andrew Sirota, full-time Publisher in the Unity Asset Store.

As you develop your game, you need money for life. You can find an investor (game publisher) or (if you are a true indie) provide yourself with everything you need through creating & selling assets on the Unity Asset Store. 

And this deal can make you really independent from no one.

I've just released a book about Asset Publishing in the Unity Asset Store: “How to Create & Sell Unity Assets?” ☄️

⚡ It is already Available in the Unity Asset Store

Video

andrewio

Hello, guys! I'm Andrew Sirota, full-time Publisher in the Unity Asset Store.

As you develop your game, you need money for life. You can find an investor (game publisher) or (if you are a true indie) provide yourself with everything you need through creating & selling assets on the Unity Asset Store. 

And this deal can make you really independent from no one.

I've just released a book about Asset Publishing in the Unity Asset Store: “How to Create & Sell Unity Assets?” ☄️

⚡ It is already Available in the Unity Asset Store

Video

Zack Maxwell

First post, I see... So I'm guessing what happened here is, you did a google search for anyone asking about this subject, and went around copy-pasting random promotions for your book.

andrewio

Zack Maxwell said:

First post, I see... So I'm guessing what happened here is, you did a google search for anyone asking about this subject, and went around copy-pasting random promotions for your book.

Hi, sorry, It could be a bug?
I write only one message here. And now I can't delete others.