I quickly went through the UE4 marketplace and noticed quite a bit of this game is fluffed with other people's work that has been bought up from the marketplace. If you look at the environment, models, and spell effects, you have to wonder how much of this game is really being developed if you compare their developer videos especially if you had a chance to watch the livestream last Thursday (23rd of February) the stream on Twitch.
It almost looked like they slapped a bunch of copy/paste of bunch of stuff bought form the marketplace on UE4 and put out a video.
If anyone has the free time to find the environment they bought of the UE4 marketplace let us know, I didn't find it on my first pass. Those soldiers and the bar maid from the video that didn't have any animations and looked like they were props for the video looked like they came from the marketplace too.
While there is nothing wrong with buying up other people's work in the UE4 marketplace, if this game goes on a crowd-funding campaign, you have to ask yourself how much of this game are they really making, that is a huge concern.
Links below:
Really? I've heard this new
'fad' going around a lot lately with 'reviewers' or 'defenders of the game
community' and it's rather pathetic. Are you going to criticize every game that
is made with Unreal Engine 4? 3? 2? Unity3D? CryEngine? Any Engine that is NOT
in house constructed? I mean after all the engine is an asset. Oh, you only
care about graphical models now ... So, it's ok to just “asset flip” every
backend component and use them long as you "can't see it?" I mean
where does it stop, or is "OK" for your likes to not claim "asset
flipping?"
It's becoming overly annoying that your like come
out and point fingers at people, companies who are just attempting to make a
game for others enjoyment. Clearly this game you are crying about has hours and
hours of invested time into it already and if you can't see it and are
comparing it to the typical "rename template and submit to steam" I
feel sorry for you. BUT you are aware if you don't like it, ya know, don't play it!!!!
No one is forcing you to. You can try and argue "but clones saturate the
market! and these asset flippers are bad for us all!" perhaps but your
focus is only games I assume? Because you won't whine that these 'clones' and
what not is allowing you to buy off brand car products you need for your car to
work, or for your house, or clothing, or
<insert_whatever_other_non-named_product> am I right? Or do you buy all
top of the line clothing items?
Seriously though, your kind (yes you have your own
subcategory of humans at this point) all need to just stop whining about these
"asset flippers." How about you actually do something productive and
make posts about games that are actually WORTH checking out, vs whining about
"oh my god these pre-alpha monkeys are using assets from <this game
that game and that game>!!!" while totally ignoring they are in pre-alpha, alpha or even beta status still. Jesus christ. Even then, if you don't like it do what most sensible human beings do and don't waste your time. Unless ... you pick up every piece of trash you see while walking around and the such, unwavering moral standards? I doubt you do.
P.S. While you're at it, ensure you hit every game
that uses other assets, don't just focus on one if you're going to do it. Next
up for you: Pantheon: rise of the fallen. Go check out what they have bought
from the asset store and freak out.
So long as it all fits together, and by using difference source art etc., it doesn't look like a mish-mash jigsaw puzzle...I don't think it matters in the least.
In this case, reaching the objective is more important than the route taken.
They are using them because they can't do it themselves and therefore cannot hope to build a mmorpg.
So you are saying Blizzard should have stopped the development of WoW too since much of it's game content was created after looking in the kitchen of the neighbour?
Looking at someone's bread and thinking "Yeah I'd like to make bread like that too" and then making it, is a far cry from going to the store, buying the bread and telling everyone "Hey look at the bread I just baked!! I'm going to open the best bakery around now.. "
Abuse of asset flipping will ruin it for everyone.
You guys know that Conan Exiles, one of the best selling online multiplayer games right now, relies heavily on UE4 marketplace assets as well as recycled assets from Age of Conan right? That's how normal this is. One of the best selling games from one of the most liked studios uses marketplace assets and released a phenomenal game with them.
I am not surprised by this and it makes perfect sense and there is nothing shady or unprofessional about it. First things first those marketplace assets are there for sale so their purpose is exactly this one, help people make games.
The other detail and thing to take into account is, indie companies rarely start fully staffed with a complete dev team, and by that I mean, when someone decides to go on their own and open a studio and start their own project, more often than not ( in my experience ) it is a bunch of programmers with maybe one or two artists. Nowadays with so many resources and out of the box engines available it is a lot easier and quicker to actually get a core game going and gameplay features than it will be to actually produce art content to fill your game especially if you are doing an MMO open world type of game.
So it only makes sense that they would essentially outsource a lot of their content in this case the cheaper alternative is to get stuff from the market place.
I am currently a software engineer on an unreleased MMO project and despite our large art team ( ~30 or so artists ) we still outsource a lot of our art content to a third party company so we can keep up with the content demand.
Comments
Really? I've heard this new 'fad' going around a lot lately with 'reviewers' or 'defenders of the game community' and it's rather pathetic. Are you going to criticize every game that is made with Unreal Engine 4? 3? 2? Unity3D? CryEngine? Any Engine that is NOT in house constructed? I mean after all the engine is an asset. Oh, you only care about graphical models now ... So, it's ok to just “asset flip” every backend component and use them long as you "can't see it?" I mean where does it stop, or is "OK" for your likes to not claim "asset flipping?"
It's becoming overly annoying that your like come out and point fingers at people, companies who are just attempting to make a game for others enjoyment. Clearly this game you are crying about has hours and hours of invested time into it already and if you can't see it and are comparing it to the typical "rename template and submit to steam" I feel sorry for you. BUT you are aware if you don't like it, ya know, don't play it!!!! No one is forcing you to. You can try and argue "but clones saturate the market! and these asset flippers are bad for us all!" perhaps but your focus is only games I assume? Because you won't whine that these 'clones' and what not is allowing you to buy off brand car products you need for your car to work, or for your house, or clothing, or <insert_whatever_other_non-named_product> am I right? Or do you buy all top of the line clothing items?
Seriously though, your kind (yes you have your own subcategory of humans at this point) all need to just stop whining about these "asset flippers." How about you actually do something productive and make posts about games that are actually WORTH checking out, vs whining about "oh my god these pre-alpha monkeys are using assets from <this game that game and that game>!!!" while totally ignoring they are in pre-alpha, alpha or even beta status still. Jesus christ. Even then, if you don't like it do what most sensible human beings do and don't waste your time. Unless ... you pick up every piece of trash you see while walking around and the such, unwavering moral standards? I doubt you do.
P.S. While you're at it, ensure you hit every game that uses other assets, don't just focus on one if you're going to do it. Next up for you: Pantheon: rise of the fallen. Go check out what they have bought from the asset store and freak out.
In this case, reaching the objective is more important than the route taken.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Abuse of asset flipping will ruin it for everyone.
The other detail and thing to take into account is, indie companies rarely start fully staffed with a complete dev team, and by that I mean, when someone decides to go on their own and open a studio and start their own project, more often than not ( in my experience ) it is a bunch of programmers with maybe one or two artists.
Nowadays with so many resources and out of the box engines available it is a lot easier and quicker to actually get a core game going and gameplay features than it will be to actually produce art content to fill your game especially if you are doing an MMO open world type of game.
So it only makes sense that they would essentially outsource a lot of their content in this case the cheaper alternative is to get stuff from the market place.
I am currently a software engineer on an unreleased MMO project and despite our large art team ( ~30 or so artists ) we still outsource a lot of our art content to a third party company so we can keep up with the content demand.