Unity Publisher: How to Create and Sell Unity Assets?

Here you can find Tutorial for Unity Publisher, free part of a book about Asset Publishing in the Unity Asset Store, but rather on how to Create and Sell Unity Assets as effectively as possible.
Complete Book you can only get in Unity Asset Store.

Book: “How to Sell Unity Assets?”

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

My book is called “Asset Store Publisher: How to Create & Sell Unity Assets?“

This book is about 3 years of experience, mistakes and success, nuances of business and helping people in solving their tasks. It’s a product that I’m really proud of.

I have studied all the materials that I could find about Unity Asset Store on the Web in English and Russian (really, guys, every blue link and my personal interviews with other Asset Store Publishers), but this is not enough to understand the overall picture.

That’s why, I decided to write a Book, which answers all critical questions.

For Unity Publishers. By Unity Publisher.

In Publisher Book, I’ve systemized all accumulated knowledge and experience concerning the business in Unity Asset Store.

Today you can Get Publisher Book, and also some cool bonuses. Subscribe on YouTube, Facebook and welcome to Unity Publisher community.

Check more ratings and reviews for assets by Book Author.

Changelog

Check the current version on Asset Store.
The latest versions will be added as soon as possible.

1.9:

• Unity 2021.3.4.

1.8:

• Unity 2021.2.

1.7:

• Unity 2021.1.

1.6 (New Article):

• Sales Stats: Charts and Analytics. How a certain action or event affected sales results?

1.5 (New Bonus Tool):

• GUID Regenerator (for assets in specific folder).

1.4 (New Chapter):

• Useful Links.

1.3 (New Bonus):

• Checklist: “How to create Unity Asset” — detailed step-by-step list of actions to publish your product in the Unity Asset Store.

1.2 (Improved Design):

• Numbered Headings;
• Captions for Pictures;
• Info: Support & Copyright;
• Book Cover.

1.1 (2 New Bonuses):

• Publisher Window — Welcome Screen;
• Publisher Component — Custom Editor.

What People Love in Digital Assets

I spent a lot of time and money on finding out what business is. Business is to benefit people. In order to understand how to benefit people, you need to find out what people love.

So, people really love numbers.

Here they are:

• In business since 2015,
• First success in 2017,
• 3 failed businesses,
• 1 successful business,
• 27 Unity Assets (on January 1, 2021),
• 5 successful Unity Assets,
• 1 deprecated Unity Asset,
• 1 electric guitar,
• 8 a.m.

Got a thought?

What if I show you how this can be applied to your products (i.e. Unity Assets)?

• 3 Demo Scenes,
• 17 Levels,
• 2 Modes,
• 10 Customized Prefabs,
• 3000 Polygons,
• 75% OFF (Personal 2-week Sale or Bundle of Assets),
• 5 Events,
• Version: 3.5,
• 4 Characters,
• 9 Animations,
• 56 Icons,
• 3 skins,
• 24-Hour Support.

What if I tell you what exactly and how to Sell Unity Assets to earn money, while others remain outsiders?

Unity Asset Value

To sell Unity Assets on Asset Store, you have to give people more value than the product itself. The great value is in numbers, modules, integrations with other popular assets, bonuses, optimizations and so on.

Pay attention to the value of your product:

• More video demos,
• More examples,
• More documentation,
• More communication with people.

Got a thought? Then welcome to business, my friend.

Why do you need to become Unity Publisher?

Free to make decisions. Freely decide what to do and what not for the result. You will have next Advantages:

• Making Games/Apps,
• GEO-Independence,
• Own Business,
• Happiness,
• One of the highest revenue share in Online Market: 70%.

Video Tutorials for Unity Asset Publisher

Here you can find some video tips to help you with Asset Creating.

How to test Unity Asset before Publishing with Unity Publisher Portal?

When you publish your Unity Asset, you need to make sure that your product is installed correctly at the first download by your client. The Tutorial shows how to test Unity Asset Before Publishing in Unity Asset Store.

It’s Especially relevant for Complete Projects or Plugins in which Project Settings play a crucial role.

---

How to identify files within Unity with GUID and why it can be useful?

Unity GUID is a file identifier within Unity. Video Tutorial shows why it can be useful when dealing with Unity Asset Collection, where Assets are connected to each other.

Here you can find the full article about Unity GUID.

---

Is it Expensive to be a Unity Mobile Game Developer?

Since I provide cross-platform AR Unity Assets, the video below shows my building testing environment to cover iOS and Android devices. For more info, check the article about Mobile Testing with Unity.

---

Licensing in Unity Asset Store

The biggest risk when you sell Unity Assets online (icons, plugins, 3D models, templates, etc.) is licensing and piracy. Both of these boring questions can make any IT Business unprofitable.

So here I will guide you in this topic & just for example compare licenses for Unity Assets & for WordPress Plugins/Themes.

License: Unity Asset Store EULA

Unity Asset Store EULA describes under which conditions you can publish Unity Assets.

3.5 point prohibits piracy: “Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Unity and except as permitted under the Unity-EULA, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell any Asset that you have licensed from the Unity Asset Store for any purpose.“

At the same time, I repeatedly appealed to Unity Support in order for them to take measures on illegal asset distribution in pirate websites. No support with it.

Unity says that YOU must take care about legal using of your digital assets by yourself.

License: WordPress GPL

GPL (GNU General Public License) describes under which conditions you can publish WordPress Plugins/Themes.

In short, any paid solution for WordPress inherits the GPL license, which means it can be freely or at another price (low or high) distributed by third parties. You can also get paid project, modify it, and share it as you wish, but also under GPL license.

In other words, we have legal piracy for WordPress stuff. Everything is legal. Such model of Software Business is defective for plugin authors, and this entails monetary losses.

The type of licensing for WordPress is not going to change.

GPL Clubs

GPL Clubs are communities for resale or free distribution of paid WordPress Plugins and Themes without support and, more often, without automatic updates.

You can read about how to protect your intellectual property in next article: “The Ultimate Guide to Legally Protect Your GPL WordPress Plugin Business Against Trolls”.

Conclusion

Cool idea of product is at the head of everything.
Both user communities are huge and, accordingly, the market is large, but:

1. Unity has more correct license for Asset Store Publishers without legal piracy.
2. WordPress with GPL and legal piracy also has the right to exist because not all people know about GPL Clubs yet (but times are changing). There are a lot of successful cases here like Yoast SEO plugin or Avada theme.

There are always clients who need premium support and time saving.

Such people are definitely looking to save money, but they are not looking to steal. For example, you can make cheaper annual support than half a year support like on Envato Market.

Anyway, you need to analyze which your idea is better in different fields: Unity Assets vs WordPress Plugins and Themes. Make right decision and Good Luck with Best IT Business Online!

Unity Publisher Sales Statistics

Here you can find analyzed Sales Statistics of Unity Assets by Makaka Games and open some interesting behavior patterns. The presented Unity Asset Store Statistics does not show the number of Asset Store Sales since such information would be useless. Much more interesting and useful is how a certain action or event affected sales stats & results.

Graphs Rules:

• The height of the graphs for each year are independent of each other.
• Each line represents one product.
• Line height shows the relative number of publisher sales of a single product.

Publisher Start: New Unity Asset

If you have a new Unity Asset, the market will respond to it.

Vouchers, Featuring, 24-Hour Sale

If you give vouchers to your friends and friends redeem these vouchers, then the number of product downloads increases and your assets ranked higher in Asset Store categories, main page and search results. It attracts additional attention to your Unity Assets and as a result increases publisher sales.

Featuring and 24-Hour Sale on the Main Page causes more trust from users, and they more willingly buy your assets.

It is not necessary that your product be very popular having amazing revenue to get into promotion from the Unity. It is enough to create something unique and cool, and also publish it to Unity Forum (Assets & Asset Store) — this will increase the chances of being noticed by Asset Store Team.

2-Week Sale and Global World Events

Any seasonal sale like Birthday Bonanza or Cyber Week Mega Sale increases publisher sales.

Global World Events or News in your niche like releases of ARCore or ARKit affect the market and Unity Asset Store Sales Figures of your Unity Assets. People need time to learn new technology and draw conclusions later.

Personal Sales and New Assets

You can make Personal Sale for each Unity Asset:

• Personal sales can not last longer than a two-week period.
• Sale periods should be separated by at least 2 months.
• Details of your sale must be provided in your description text. Sale period and regular price must be mentioned.

Check Unity Submission Guidelines p. 2.7.1 for more info.

Personal sales work well If you fulfill all the conditions of the store as well as personal promo campaign in social networks.

If you are constantly releasing new assets, it also has a positive effect on your Asset Store Sales Data. Especially if these are products of the same niche and are interconnected.

Tools for Sales Statistics

You can also make your own Unity Asset Store Statistics and Analytics with open-source tool:

• Publisher Dashboard for Unity3D — Chrome Extension;
• Custom public sales statistics for packages in Unity Asset Store.

Unity Asset Store Tools

If you want your Unity Asset (or Unity Project) to be convenient and understandable for other people (clients or teammates), the following Unity Asset Store Tools will help you (Publisher Book contains them):

• Checklist: “How to create Unity Asset?”
• Unity Publisher Window — Welcome Screen;
• Unity Publisher Component — Custom Editor;
• GUID Regenerator;
• Unity Everyday Publisher Tools.

Who needs Unity Publisher Tools:

• Unity Asset Store Publisher;
• Unity Tutor;
• Teammate.

Whether you’re a programmer, game designer, texture artist or 3D modeler, the Unity Asset Store is a great place to share and sell your creations with the growing Unity developer community!

Asset Store Tools will allow you to reach a whole new level of publishing:

• Your Brand is always in sight;
• Your Brand is always in touch;
• Important links are always available.

Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
Do more than others expect from you.

If you have any issues with the first launch then just Reach Support with Invoice Number and Get Help.

If you read this tutorial from PDF, first check the latest docs online to get actual information.

Unity Publisher Window — Welcome Screen

Unity Publisher Window is a welcome screen where the user can learn all the important information about the product (unity asset or project) and your company by visiting important links.

Welcome Screen is automatically opened when you import a new Unity Package or when you open Unity Project at the first time.

The asset is ready to design your own welcome screen:

• window title,
• header logo,
• links (titles, descriptions & icons),
• copyright info.

Links in Window by Default:

• Documentation,
• Support (allow users to send an email),
• All our Unity Assets,
• YouTube channel,
• Unity Connect,
• Facebook Page,
• VK page,
• Instagram Page,
• Twitter Page.

Unity Publisher Component — Custom Editor

Unity Publisher Component is a decoration for your script inspector.
Now your product will always look cool.

The asset is ready to design your own custom editor:

• Flexible Header;
• 38 icons for Property Field;
• Help Box;
• 5 strings of code — the simplest implementation (Header + Help Box).

Everyday Unity Publisher Tools

This is a set of utilities that I use in almost every asset. For years of work in the Unity Asset Store, I have accumulated a lot of such scripts for every day, e.g. RandomObjectPooler.cs to implement Object Pool.

Why? You can not put other people’s Unity Assets in the package, even they are free. So if you want to use third-party Unity Assets then you need to write a manual, like: “How to import all third-party Unity Assets to make everything work”.

Moreover, this approach is not always convenient. If you have a small task, it’s easier to write your own script, that complements your product with additional instructions and third-party products.

The Best Unity Publisher Support for Unity Assets

First, read the latest docs online.
If it didn’t help, get the support.

How can Unity Publisher make the customers happy, provide the best support for Unity Assets, and maintain speed reaction for customer service?

The question is a kind of challenge for every Asset Store Publisher.

This story is about one customer who bought AR Basketball GO (docs) and won.

Have questions? Email me!

Because of the specifics of the business, my clients contact me for the most part in case of any problems. If there are no problems, then Unity Publisher doesn’t know practically anything about the buyer, except for impersonal data from Google Analytics.

After receipt of the request to email, I provide a response within 5 business days. Of course, 5 working days is not very good for a company.

This is an adequate time for solving almost any technical issue, without prejudice to the development of new products. I don’t have employees, and I provide support personally (therefore 5 business days, not 15 minutes).

Awesome Feedback to Best Customer Service

If I respond in a timely manner, most customers remain neutral to the request for leaving a review in the Unity Asset Store.

But if I react earlier (e.g., per day) and send a ready-made archive, the client will be more than satisfied and leave big feedback in the store.

So for Eugenio Gatto from the LA Group, I’ve developed the Vuforia version of my app template for Unity with the augmented reality called AR Basketball GO (docs).

Perfect for my needs, and GREAT assistance! ★★★★★

The product is simple but functional, perfect for my needs. Andrey was so fast helping me to make it work with Vuforia, he even made some modifications himself specifically to my needs.

Thank you, Andrey! Great job and great customer service.

Speed reaction doesn’t work

Of course, there are times when the declared speed reaction does not work.
Unfortunately, there is a majority of such cases.

Why?
Some customers do not want help. Really!
They write their problems right on the Unity Asset Store and then don’t respond to me.

Support is working for you, and I really want to make you happy.
Just email me and the product will work.

What’s the matter?

There are a lot of factors, why purchased Unity Asset will fail at the first start. Especially when it comes to mobile development with third-party frameworks:

• Unity Version;
• Version of third-party framework (e.g., Native Gallery);
• iOS/Android version;
• Other reasons.

All of this — software from different manufacturers, which can contain a lot of bugs.
I write down all known cases in the documentation, but I can not predict everything.

What do I need from the client to provide high-quality support?

I can help you only if you email me and send some test data, which is indicated on the support page.
If you did not find your case in the documentation, then this is the only way.
So stay in touch!

Let’s solve your issues and make the world a little happier.

Love and Patience for Every Unity Developer

Here a developer wanted to know which AR Engine is used in AR Basketball GO (docs) & what the difference between AR Camera GYRO (docs) & AR Foundation by Unity. I’ve answered as many times as needed, with additional info and clarifications.

Q & A

---

Full Info about Using of Unity Asset Store you can find on the official document called “Asset Store Terms of Service and EULA“.