Better earnings; Dota 2 Workshop or Unity Assets
interpolator
I'm curious which would be a better way to utilize my skills in order to make money short term, get out of my day job, and start making money off my modeling skills full-time so I can progress my skills properly while starting out.
The Dota 2 Workshop, or Unity Asset Store (+likely model distribution sites like Turbosquid).
I was originally working on Dota 2 and I've already released an item for it, but I've since realized after browsing around others' work that it is VERY difficult to actually get an item accepted. It is also all or nothing; either your work pays off big or not at all, making it very much like a high-investment lottery.
Contrary to this, I've seen plenty of claims of people working on it full-time as their main source of income, which was originally what lured me in.
I don't know if this is still the case today though, and if things have since changed to be as they seem now with only the big names and friends of pro-players making reliable income from it.
Unity has fewer claims of people working on it full-time, but they readily exist. It is also more reliable, since a "failure" would simply result in less income for your effort rather than none at all.
Even among claims of people working it professionally though, which are already less common, most seem to be those working on scripts and plug-ins rather than models.
From my own searching, models in general do seem to get fairly low publicity and ratings on the Asset Store.
I've not really found any claims of people making a living off regular model-distribution sites like Turbosquid.
If someone has a different suggestion all-together, I'm all for it.
A lower, steadier income would be preferable to a lottery-type system like Dota 2, since through great effort I've managed to get my cost of living incredibly low for this very purpose (less than $600 a month). The problem being that I would like to get out of my day job as fast as possible, and I would be at the mercy of that first acceptance with no idea how long it could take (if it comes at all).
The Dota 2 Workshop, or Unity Asset Store (+likely model distribution sites like Turbosquid).
I was originally working on Dota 2 and I've already released an item for it, but I've since realized after browsing around others' work that it is VERY difficult to actually get an item accepted. It is also all or nothing; either your work pays off big or not at all, making it very much like a high-investment lottery.
Contrary to this, I've seen plenty of claims of people working on it full-time as their main source of income, which was originally what lured me in.
I don't know if this is still the case today though, and if things have since changed to be as they seem now with only the big names and friends of pro-players making reliable income from it.
Unity has fewer claims of people working on it full-time, but they readily exist. It is also more reliable, since a "failure" would simply result in less income for your effort rather than none at all.
Even among claims of people working it professionally though, which are already less common, most seem to be those working on scripts and plug-ins rather than models.
From my own searching, models in general do seem to get fairly low publicity and ratings on the Asset Store.
I've not really found any claims of people making a living off regular model-distribution sites like Turbosquid.
If someone has a different suggestion all-together, I'm all for it.
A lower, steadier income would be preferable to a lottery-type system like Dota 2, since through great effort I've managed to get my cost of living incredibly low for this very purpose (less than $600 a month). The problem being that I would like to get out of my day job as fast as possible, and I would be at the mercy of that first acceptance with no idea how long it could take (if it comes at all).
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The asset store on the other hand has really no limits to getting started, simply make your assets and start selling. I don't really know personally how much money you can make on it, but it certainly seems viable. I've looked into this a little bit and there seems to be a *lot* of lower quality art content on there, so if you can put some really nice stuff up, you'll probably get a lot of sales. People also seem to be interested in packs of content, so think about modular creation.
Assuming they're willing to pay for assets at all, and not just grab free stuff.
I'm too new for freelancing; I have no portfolio, no contacts, and I'm not confident I could produce with the necessary speed a client would demand.
One thing about open selling at sites like these is knowing what people want or how they're using it. Someone might need to fill a few gaps for a concept they're working on, book covers, or outfits for hobbyist pin-up renders. Finding out who's doing what is easier said than done, but there are support communities for people using these assets, perhaps worth scoping out.
I've always viewed Dota 2 as being intimidating to design for. From where I sit, it seems that a design needs to be REALLY GOOD to stand out and actually make sales, but average enough to make them consistent. Maybe someone with experience can chime in on that.
I'd really like to know some figures of people who are selling textures via the asset store. Like how many units they sell across a month, so if someone reads this who's selling texture packs I'd be thankful for some numbers... I can't imagine if people sell an average of 5 or 20 or 50 units a month or even more...
I just started using the asset store a few months ago and put up two items as a test. So far they have brought in about 20-30 a month. I imagine if you had a pretty large inventory you could do well for yourself.
I put a bunch of old general assets up on turbosquid about 3 years ago. Stuff like chairs, tables, soda cans, etc. Things I use to populate environments and nothing unique or special. In that time it's make enough to buy the licenses to all my software.
Hope that's useful!
As I do currently have a job I'm getting by on I could theoretically do anything or nothing at all to monetize my modeling work.
The problem lies in the fact that my job is God-awful horrible and I have no other options in my area, and it's a dead-end that's sucking up way too much time that should otherwise be spent improving my art.
On top of which the job is far from stable; they could choose to fire me over something arbitrary at any point, then I'm screwed. One person got fired recently for taking an extra several minutes on their breaks.
I just wanna get outta this as fast as I reasonably can, which would mean avoiding any dead-ends.
@Skylebones; That is very helpful, thank you.
What I think I'll be doing then is going with Unity, and finding other places to put the same models up on to increase the income I get from any particular piece of work, like Turbosquid.
If you don't want to do fantasy art for a full-time job, then yes, Dota 2 would not be a good option. But on the other hand, if you do manage to get items in game, the payoff is worth the time considering the scale of the game. And I don't believe it would be sketchy at all if Dota stuff comprised a part of your portfolio, you're essentially modding a game which is how a lot of people get jobs nowadays. You might be narrowing your focus too much if Dota stuff is all you make but balance in the key. Plus, if you DO get an item in the game, that would look amazing on your resume. If Valve recognizes your skills then I feel thats a big plus.
However, if you feel your skills aren't up to snuff for Dota 2 then I can understand the unwillingness to delve deeper into it. The Unity store is a great place to start and I as well need to broaden my horizons.
Also as others have mentioned, try Turbosquid too. I'm even looking to open a store on Shapeways with 3D printed stuff as I think that can be pretty lucrative as well. If its cool, people will want to buy a tangible version of your model.
Don't give up your day job.
To figure out which is the right choice, you need to know what your chances of getting into Dota are, how much you would sell if you get in (total payoff), life of the game (assets eventually worth nothing), and the amount of hours you must work to complete an asset.
If you only have a 2% chance of getting something in game, and the typical asset earns $100,000 over lifetime, then really your equity is only $2,000.
To make $40 per hour, you should spend 50 hours on that asset ($40*50 hours = $2,000).
Your hourly rate drops as you spend more time on each model.
With the Unity Asset store, you will always be accepted unless your work is total crap. Your work will not be tied to a particular game so it will continue having value in the future.
The first asset package I made for the asset store was for sale in August of 2011. Since then, I have sold 116 copies of that asset package at $20, which I keep 70% of before taxes. I spent about 16 hours making it.
116 * $20 *0.7 = $1624
$1624 / 16 = $101.50 per hour.
It has taken three years for all of that money to come in, but it comes every month. I have sixteen asset packages for sale and each one sells a bit each month, some a bit more and some a bit less.
If you are patient, you will reap the rewards. Honestly, I put very little effort into it and the cheques keep coming. My regular job pays well so I don't really need the money.
My philosophy is based on on the book "The E-Myth Revisited". Basically, if you are killing yourself trying to make everything perfect, you can never turn your product into a sucessful business. You'll be busting your ass trying to satisfy the pickiest people and grind yourself into poverty. Shoot for a quality level that satisfies the majority and doesn't require you to work 16 hours a day.
The biggest change in the asset store in the past year or so has been sales. Assets that are discounted for sales sell huge volumes. This was a surprise to me because I thought the people buying assets were creators who bought assets that were appropriate for their games. In reality, people are buying assets like consumers.
For example, one of my asset packages typically sells 10 copies a month. I put it in a sale for half price, and it sold 88 copies in three days. It more than quadrupled my gross profit for that asset. Shocking. The lesson for me is that I need to be more active in sales for any product I am selling.
Summary:
Be patient
Make lots of stuff
Don't try and satisfy picky people
Participate in sales
What do people want to buy on the unity asset store? What's in demand?
By contrast, with something like Unity/Turbosquid I can create whatever I want without any limitations.
If one is already an experienced and established artist, then yeah, there wouldn't be any issue.
Was that done as a part of discount event that Unity promoted (forgot the name) or did you just do it on your own?
Usually an item gets in and makes quite an amount of cash in the first month, after that months it drops down to abot 10-15% in monthly earnings and gets less and less every other month.
Dunno where your numbers come from but i call them wrong, considering i can see the earnings of plenty artists running through us in the dota workshop.
I only used those numbers as examples. I'm trying to show that when there is a risk involved, an artist shouldn't blindly hope that their model will be accepted. The artist should estimate their equity based on their estimated chance of being accepted and their estimated earnings.
If the percentage of models accepted is higher, but the earnings lower, the equity calculation is just a change in numbers. Let's say 20% chance of being accepted and $20,000 earned over lifetime.
20% * $20,000 = $4,000. If your goal is $40 per hour, then you should spend 100 hours on the model max.
The numbers change, but the process stays the same.
Please post the percentage of models accepted and the average earnings of the models.
Unity discount event. You can't put your assets in a sale without Unity's permission.
But, if I chose to sell my stuff on my own store, I would put stuff in discount sales regularly. It's not just something that applies to the Unity asset store.
Until now I always neglected those events since I thought that people who actually want to buy my pack will save money and and buy it for full price anyway eventually.
And that's probably true but it seems there's all kinds of people who don't need it that much but they could buy if it was cheap enough. There's probably lots of people who learn that some pack exists only because of discount.
It's like with those steam sales where people buy a shitload of games despite not having time to play them or not even liking them that much.
hm, i wouldnt even say that they wont use it, but until they saw it on sale they didnt know they needed it
at least thats how i do it.
i bought all the stuff i needed but when something good comes up on sale, i at least check it out
without the sale i wouldnt know it existed because i never browse through the store when i am not looking for something specific
Unless you noticed a drop in sales after the pack went back to the full price, RyanB?
Also it seems that now it's called '24 Hour Deals', but you mentioned having an asset for sale for 3 days. So the length is negotiable?
not too sure how it works, but they are sperate things as far as i know
There was no drop in overall sales when the pack went back to full price.
Also, it had no impact on sales of my other packs. No increase, no decrease.
Length of sales varies, I was invited into the three day sale. You can submit your stuff for other sales, like the 24 hour deals. More info here:
http://blogs.unity3d.com/2013/10/21/the-10-commandments-of-asset-promotion/
Form for 24 hour deal is here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1eL91dQ2uttWV0hyIPjiYizP98BIxQOfrNx95NfJiLqI/viewform
I've also played around with pricing. I've made packs that sold for $5, $10, $15 and $20. The $5 packs sell slightly more than the $20 packs, but the $20 packs make a higher gross revenue. So, for regular pricing you are better off setting your price at $20. Then, you can drop the price to $10 for discount sales.
The promotion on the front page during discount sales is important, but I think the feeling of getting a good deal is important to a lot of people. My experiments with pricing have shown me that just setting the price low is not enough to draw customers. You have to slap a big "SALE!" sticker on the product and discount the price. All the rules and tricks of retail product marketing apply.
As far as getting things into the game, it seems like Planetside 2 has a more transparent process, the art director is pretty involved with the community and will give you feedback on your work if you post it in the playerstudio forum. Rhinokio has been heavily involved with it, I just made a muffin decal and a camo pattern, I make about $100 a quarter off it, not a lot of money but I didn't really put a lot of assets in.