Tuesday, October 15, 2013

A few experiences gained from selling stuffs in Unity Asset Stores

Here is a few experiences I gained from Selling Stuffs in Asset Store for over a year now.

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1. Do not attempt to make Asset purely for the purpose of selling them.

Because most of the time, Assets don't sell. You cannot rely on it as your main source of income.

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2. Create Assets as part of your project, then sell it as extra income

Doing thing this way, you will gain money 2 ways

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3. Do not include Stuffs provided by Unity Tech unless your Asset is being provided for free.

A letter I sent to Asset Store for Confirmation
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Message from User
Hi, I am the owner of this asset here,
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/11049

I am currently planning to release a new update at the moment.

I am wondering whether it would be alright to include parts of Assets that were made available for free by Unity Tech, such as this one here
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/7677
To be more specific, Motions used in Animation

Could you clarify me on this?

Regards,
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Reply
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Hi there,

No, you are not permitted to include Unity assets in your commercial product.

If you product is free then you can include them, provided you make it clear to users that you are making use of assets provided by Unity.  Since your asset is $50 you should not include Unity assets.

Thanks,

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4. Create a community

Get opinions to improve your product as well as ideas on what others want to create new Asset.

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5. If the Asset is really large, make 2 versions

5.1 Bundle Package
5.2 Divided Smaller Packages

Bundle Package will sell well with User who have more funding, while divided will be more expensive per piece, but generally more affordable.

Once the Asset is up, even if you updated and add something to it, the staying Customer will get its for free as parts of EULA.
Divide it to smaller Packages will add extra income outlet.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A good Practice in Setting up Unity Scene

Here's how it all started.

I was selling this asset here
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/11049

The test scene work, but if player wanted to set up in their own scene, which they likely will,
they will have to do quite abit of manual setup.

Then I just realized this, initially it wasn't a hassle for me to do so, because I know how the codes work and know what I needed to add.

HOWEVER!!!

Once I go do other stuffs then come back at it, I realized how annoying it is if I have to set it up again without missing anything.
So, it will likely be a much more hassle for those people who don't know how the code work inside-out.

Well, that's what manual is for. To make sure things go right.

BUT!!!

There is another good practice to go about it.

Automatic Setup and Fix if things weren't made correctly.

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To setup inside Unity, there are things needed in consideration.

1. GameObjects => Are they properly name?
2. GameObjects => Do they contain  right Components?
3. Scripts => Do they reference right GameObjects and right Components?
4. Components => Were correct Transform/GameObject correctly linked to public Parameters?

When there were NullException thrown at you, the causes are likely either one of them.

Meaning? => If even one of them is not correctly setup, the entire Scene will likely crash.

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So, how do we make this easier for both ourselves and the customers who risked their money to buy our stuff?

Simple Enough, Make sure that if a Script require something,
At Startup, check whether the required stuff is already there. If it's not, MAKE IT!

For an example, let say that Object A needed to ref from ObjectB, with Component C inside it.
https://gist.github.com/Zenneth23/6789750