1 Year Earnings and Retrospective - Unreal Engine Marketplace

How much profit can you expect from selling assets on Unreal Engine Marketplace? This video breaks down each month and asset sold.
Two things to consider:
1. I've done absolutely 0 marketing/promotion, in preparation for this video. I've kept product-related videos watchable by link only. I wanted to find out how well Epic Game's own systems perform.
2. My greatest marketable strength is logic and systems so that's what I sold. Some sellers only create music, 3D models, animations, textures, etc. Result may vary significantly depending on the products.
Physical Material Profiles - Footsteps and Impacts
www.unrealengine.com/marketpl...
AI Jump Navigation Links
www.unrealengine.com/marketpl...
Advanced Mobile Camera - Enhanced Input
www.unrealengine.com/marketpl...

[@modvillain9393]

Thanks for the video, that was very interesting. Out of curiosity, roughly how much development time do you think you have spent on your assets?
I imagine asset returns are very long-tail in that you have to keep updating them over time but with that initial work out of the way the sales could continue to trickle in for months or even years.
I’ve been considering doing something similar - taking things I want for my own projects and turning them into assets for some side income, but obviously there’s a decent time commitment to making a feature into an asset.
I found it interesting you had over 100 sales and only one review. I expected the reviews to sales rate would be higher, and this actually makes me a bit more optimistic I could make some side income with an asset that never gets more than a few reviews.

[@peanut_games]

So for the first 2 assets, I pulled them directly from my own game so it was just about creating a new project and copying blueprints, plus a few improvements. Each took me a week. Now, the mobile camera asset, because it was developed solely for the marketplace, it took me a month so I see that one as kind of a fail. The vast majority of blueprints are compatible from older -> newer versions of the engine, so it's not often you need to make significant updates. This is the closest to any meaningful passive income I've seen.
The trick is to not do what I did in the mobile camera asset, which was 1. spend so much time, and 2. slip into the cutting edge of Enhanced Input as it's in beta and being significantly changed with each version Epic releases. They completely deprecated core nodes I was using most recently. But I knew the Enhanced Input environment would be like that, so I'm not really upset by it.
Also remember I've done no marketing whatsoever up until now ( I plan on another update in another year WITH mentions in videos ), and I'd highly recommend starting a TH-cam channel or something and link your assets, but also keep those free videos insightful or entertaining on their own. The point of the video was to show what from my perspective is the bare minimum.
If you *already have* the assets, although integrated into your game, 100% go for it. *Start on the oldest version of UE that you plan on supporting.* Blueprints are forward compatible but NOT backward. Otherwise you have to rewrite manually, no copy paste. Clean it up, comment it very nicely, and provide beginner level documentation, or detailed video tutorial. Like I said it took me a week to convert, improve, clarify existing content into a standalone asset. Oh also read Epic's formatting requirements very carefully before you start something. There are certain places files have to be and certain naming prefixes in the projects you upload. Either way they will send you a checklist but it just saves you waiting another 3-4 days for them to review it a second time, and messing with references if you have to move stuff.
I'm also surprised nobody else has reviewed. Yeah, the review rate is less than 1% lol, but if you look you can see a couple of others left positive feedback but they left their feedback as questions not reviews so I don't get star ratings out of it to counter the 3 star. Oh well lol, I see why companies offer review incentives.
So yeah like I said in the video, why not? I was sort of coming from a place of comparing it to Amazon FBA, where you need to suffer a pretty hefty upfront cost for manufacturing, then you gotta pay to store your stuff at their warehouse, etc, and if it doesn't sell it sits in the warehouse costing you money. There's no investment here except your time, and if you already have the content anyway, very little. If you're selling original graphical stuff like models, textures, or even audio, etc you can also sell on multiple marketplaces like Unity, although I don't have experience with others.
Thanks for watching and good luck 👍

[@modvillain9393]

Thanks for the detailed response. I don't have assets that would be super easy to separate from my projects since my projects have historically been messy with endless interdependencies, but I was thinking I could create assets based on things I need in my projects with the expectation I'd put forth the extra work to make them more customizable and organized. I figure the benefits of making assets isn't only that you get money but you also grow your skills and can make some organized work you can use yourself in the future.
I've incidentally made a top down/RTS style camera asset myself over the last week or so (another doomed camera asset? lol) and just spun up a demo showcase level today. I did it in c++ so I need to figure out the Marketplace plugin guidelines, which seem annoyingly restrictive when c++ is used but I could link a sample project. It's basically feature complete minus a bug fix or two and then I just need to write some quick documentation and figure out the Marketplace mechanics. I definitely think you're right that it would be a safer bet to make assets on a faster timeframe than a month. It's kind of a nice change of pace to have made something in under a week that I might be able to get some income from, however minor it may be. Normally I spend months obsessing over some random game project only to burn out and abandon it, well short of being able to sell it.
I was thinking maybe I'd do a bare minimum TH-cam approach of like a very short feature trailer, maybe an unlisted setup guide, and then if I'm feeling REALLY aggressive... maybe I could consider doing a tutorial video that creates a simpler/worse version of my own asset and plug my asset at the start of it. I have no idea if that would convert into any sales, but would be curious to try it, as I imagine the people watching a video about how to make a specific feature would often times also be people that might be willing to just buy it.
I will be curious to see any updates you have and whether the self-marketing efforts are a worthwhile time investment. Your game is looking cool too, it's kind of giving me Dark and Darker vibes. There aren't enough FP immersive medieval/fantasy games like that.

[@peanut_games]

​@@modvillain9393 Sounds like you've got the right idea. I will say for unreal people generally seem to prefer blueprints. Obviously it's easier, but unreal also seems to intentionally deter you from using C++ to be honest. BP is easier = more people use it = more interest in products, as people will feel more comfortable knowing they can tweak things if they have to. That being said I have no idea ultimately lol, it's just my impression of the community and my logical deduction of easier = more prominent.
About growing your skills - yes absolutely. It has made my own stuff cleaner out of habit lol. I put more thought into naming and file placement. But it also builds you up mentally to respond to feedback, and release larger projects like... video games lol.
Time investment depends on your confidence in the demand. Mine was also marketed to mobile and maybe that's why. Like I've spent 2 months I think on a souls-like template just so far. Some of the most popular assets are the $100+ starter kits. Knowing that, plus the fact that I'll make a solid introductory video showing it off, and what I think is a guaranteed viral video of a demo game... if I do it right... I feel optimistic about the time investment. Also, avoid heavily relying on experimental Epic systems lmao
I agree would keep videos somewhat simple but the same quality. I think the best way if possible is to start off with your asset and make a video showing what you can create WITH it. But keep in mind even if you showed the whole process, the convenience benefit of your asset being in the Epic Games app, easily installed to projects, and receiving updates, will always be present. You could consider introducing Patreon or something as well, still not sure myself.
The setup guide is interesting point, I forgot to mention in the video, ugh, but for the AI Jump asset, I released it with a short step-by-step video to get started, and I did this with a secondary motive of monitoring the traffic brought to a product page, as I imagine most people would likely click the video link. It got to around 300 views pretty quickly before it stabilized and now rests around 360. And as you know that product got around 100 sales. So there you go lol, approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of the people clicking the video will buy.
Darker and Darker huh, I'd say the main inspirations are Vermintide and Dark Messiah, probably mostly Vermintide else I'd have a god-tier kick ( maybe I should tbh ), and you may find it funny but... Mega Man. And I feel like I have to explain that one lol. At its core Mega Man has a hub - a menu, where you select boss stages in any order and you have to figure it out, and that's one of the main things I leaned in on, except it's done in a persistent world. 🙂

[@modvillain9393]

@@peanut_games Yeah, I do think the hobby community buying assets skews more towards Blueprints, but for small contained assets with all the relevant functions exposed to Blueprints I don't think there's really any limitation to c++ even for purely Blueprint users, except that Unreal's marketplace has an annoying "install plugin" setup for anything with code instead of allowing normal projects.
The larger kits can be way more successful but the time investment is also huge. I have a pipe dream of making an RTS template because I love them, but a full template is big undertaking. It's also pretty niche, but the assets on the Marketplace also kind of suck and are old so the competition isn't tremendous.
I think full templates require a LOT more support because you're more apt to get beginners reaching out hoping the template does all the work for them.
I think your Dark Souls template idea is a good one with a broad audience. There are a few genres like those, survival games, and FPS games that have templates with tons of sales, but I think it also means you have to make a better template to compete. The people on top are probably making a bit of a killing though.
And yeah I actually thought of Vermintide too when I saw your game, Dark and Darker is just the most recent game I played with FP melee combat.
Do you have a discord for your game or something? Might be easier to chat there outside of giant TH-cam comment trees.

[@randomvideosguy7939]

Hey what do you think sells more Blueprints or 3d assets cause I have been selling 3D assets like characters but that don't have much sales I think blueprints have more sales.

[@peanut_games]

How long have you been at it? I always assumed 3D assets would sell better, but I haven't done it so I don't know. Maybe it's just my own bias because that's what I buy. One advantage of 3D assets though is that you can sell on other marketplaces like Unity or Sketchfab, I imagine you're not allowed to use the UE skeleton though so definitely figure that out, but either way that would be my suggestion to consider.

[@jamesgtmoore]

Hi I make about $400 USD a month due mostly to sales of my Skyrim-like RPG template (Moore's RPG Template). Why don't you sell a stripped down version of your game on the UE marketplace? With the code systems in place but not all the monsters and enviroment art? I think there is demand for game templates because most people don't want to learn blueprints and Blender to a high enough standard in order to be able to join multiple blueprint assets together to form a complete game.

[@peanut_games]

The first 2 systems are from my game. Truth is the game as a whole is not nearly as clean as I would make it if I did it now. Funny you mention template though because I'm working on a soulslike template, it's just that work is seriously getting in the way. But it's almost there

[@jamesgtmoore]

@@peanut_games A souls like template would be great I think although there are a few on the marketplace already but not many. Competition is good for the consumer they say and good for us devs to make us create better products. I had to outsource 3d modelling and animation to 2 other guys because theyre not my strong points: the 3d modeller through the upwork website and animator through blenderartists website. It was cheap, only $600 or $700 each. Used my credit card to pay them. So that is something you could also consider but I suspect you already have enough assets for your souls template anyway. Multiplayer is a popular selling point for templates too.