3DForge

Blacksmith

Hi everyone,

I would like to introduce myself.
I am a 3D modeler and texture artist living in Johannesburg that has been developing 3D art asset packs and selling them on the Unity Asset Store since March 2013.

I already have several popular product and am constantly developing new ones to expand my product type and range, I do custom work on request as well.

Unity Publishers page (several web demos, many with cool environment sound, so have earphones handy)
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/publisher/2970
Web
http://www.3dforge.co.za/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/3DForge/535899169786851
Twitter
@3DForge
Email
info@3dforge.co.za

Cheers
Cobus

Elyaradine

Hi there!

I'd be interested in seeing more breakdowns of the work. Some stats, wireframes, the sizes of the textures, that kind of thing. We've purchased a handful of assets for our prototyping, and pretty much every single one of them has had to be reworked for whatever reason. I'm glad your packs are proving popular.

I've been interested in doing this for a while. I think it's a fantastic way of getting some passive income to fund my own games, rather than having to do (what is probably an excess of) contract work to do it.

What has your experience been putting assets in the store? What is the approval process? Are there any trends you've noticed?

Blacksmith

Hi,

Thanks for the questions, hope I can to your satisfaction answer them.

First off, I want clients/users to get more than they expected and have them experience that they got a good deal.
Most of the users whom purchase have commented that that actually have several of my packs, which can only mean that they are happy customers and satisfied with the overall quality.

I have not had one client come back with complaints of having to had to rework anything, I pre-load all the colliders, remove animation defaults and make sure scale is correct all to reduce drawcalls and wanting to have you the client having a good experience in dragging, dropping and using my products.

I am building a brand and a name which means a lot to me, I want you to come back like many and purchase more, I want you to in fact first look at what I have before you look elsewhere, knowing that you will get the same level of quality as you received previously.

3DForge has a overall 5* rating if you look on the publisher page and I am going to do my utmost best to maintain that :)


The Cave Adventure Kit was my first pack: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/8317
- I added many different resolutions, three texture sets giving 2 completely different theme sets,
Normal Dark, a Moss overgrown and a Frozen ice like set.
- I added props as well s that you don't need to go purchase other items and hope there look and feel match the main
environment art.
- The set was built with Top-Down(512x512 incl) as well as FPS(1024x1024 incl) game types in mind
you could reduce them down to 256, they will still look good for top-down.
- A simple to use set of roof tiles was added if you wanted them, otherwise just don't add so that less geometry loads and


Fantasy Treasure Loot Kit: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/9440
There was a serious lack of a decent loot set on the store, with different people selling bits and pieces and again you would end up with a bunch of items that did not belong together regarding style and look and feel.
I added all the places that you could find these items of loot many chests Stone and wooden, jewelry boxes ( all with open and close animations), diases, scroll cases, pouches, sacks, Medical bags, herb bags, backpacks urns - barrels - crated with fixed and broken version if you wanted to be able to smash them.
A very large selection of books, scrolls and maps, 78 rings with the Gold Silver and Platinum textures, 70 potion bottles.
Currency wise, there is Platinum, Gold, Silver & Copper - Ingots, piles, heaps as well as single coins.
8 amulets and 24 gems to finish that off

The Fantasy Treasure Loot Kit is not the cheapest on the asset store, but it the biggest and best one around,
it happens to be on a -33% Holiday Sale Special at the moment.


Tower Defense RTS Human Towers: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/10817
I started to test modeling and UVMapping to end up with single Atlas textures and it worked wonderful,
Each of the factions load of 1 x 1024 map only, again giving good performance

My personal favorite - Fast Travel Portal: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/10412
a drag and drop modular set to give you all you need to build a endless variety of teleport pads like you find in many popular game old and new, Diablo1/2, Path of Exiles, Titan Quest to name a few.
Some cool pulsating energy scripts was added to pre-fabs, so you have very nice glowing pulsating ruins on the assets
Alien, Ancient, Dwarven, Egyptian, Elven & Fantasy are the themes that are included, but you can make duplicates and add Zulu, Xhosa or what ever suits you :)
I very simple, easy to use actual teleport script was also added, check this WebPlayer demo out to see it in action
This baby also loads of a sinlge 104 map
http://www.3dforge.co.za/3DForge_Unity_WebPlayer_Demos/FastTravelPortal_DEMOS/FTP_Demo_Dark.html

Action RPG Top Down Camera Controller: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/11508
I needed a cool Top-Down type camera for my Web Demos to showcase upcoming products, so I approached a friend that wrote one for me and it is doing pretty well, so many other must like it as well.
I personally like the follow-cam because you just always see what is ahead of you, but it can be pre-configured and on the fly changed to whatever play style you want to use.
http://www.3dforge.co.za/3DForge_Unity_WebPlayer_Demos/ARPG_Cam_Controller/ARPGCamControllerDEMO2.html

Tile - A - Dungeon Sewer Kit: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/12867
It is my latest product that is the single product with the most meshes and prefabs in a single product
The whole asset pack, all the brick work, metal parts and all the props loads of a single 2048 map diffuse only
I ideally try to stay away from all kinds of fancy features, because if you mobile device can not show them or struggles to perform if it could use them, then the set was worthless to you.
I included both the Mobile and the Desktop assets in this pack,
it just feels wrong when publishers sells you almost identical assets twice.
There is a Top-Down and a FPS demo for this Asset pack will speak for themselves
Click on the product link and head over to the demos, they each only a tiny 16mb in total which is very small when you see everything in the demos respectively.

This one is also on a Holiday Sale -33% Special after it was on the Daily Deals, it is currently the nr10 seller in the Asset Store as a whole, and the nr1 seller for all 3D models.

Hope you guys enjoyed the guided tour, shout if there is any more questions


Asset Store side of things, I can not complain, the Staff is very friendly and helpful, approval sometimes takes a bit longer than one would think, but there are many people submitting, and once to get to know the requirements there is no hassles.
I have not had one products declined yet, but rather placed on a Trusted Publishers white list so first time submissions till go through the store staff but future updates to contents or meta data are live laterally a few minutes after submission.
Hard work and keeping to the rules and helps you to get there.

Have had several Skype chats to the CEO himself, they don't see themselves as way above the average person.
They are a business at the end of the day, but they actually do care and want everyone including you to succeed.

It is a lekker feeling to wake up in the morning and see that you earned some money while you were sleeping.
Gives a new meaning to " Sleeping on the job "

Cheers
Cobus

Elyaradine

Great! Thanks for the info! :)

How does Unity pay you? Paypal?

Blacksmith

Hi,

Yes, between the 13th & 15th they dump it into a PayPal account you give them and then via FNB I pull the cash in, that takes between 5-8 days, so every + - 25th you get the money in a local account, you can now also setup with FNB to directly drop it as an auto process into any other verified account at any other bank

Cheers
Cobus

Elyaradine

Thanks for your help! :) I'll have a go early next year.