Character models look familiar

[[Bot] Skaven]

are they same as the WILD HUNT game?

[I have no idea what I'm doing.]

They're basic unity assets and models, lots of games utilize them. Off the top of my head, Soulstone Survivors, Stolen Realm, and Sherwood Extreme as well as dozens of other shovelware games use the same character models. It's just easier to use premade models if they're available.

Edit: Not to say Soulstone Survivors or Stolen Realm are shovelware. I highly recommend Stolen Realm in particular

[Power]

You'll find most games made by 1 or a few people use premade bought or free assets.
Do you expect 1 person to be able to code, model, paint, animate, play music, etc all on their own and manage to get a game out in less than 40 years?

[[Bot] Skaven]

Originally posted by Power:

You'll find most games made by 1 or a few people use premade bought or free assets.
Do you expect 1 person to be able to code, model, paint, animate, play music, etc all on their own and manage to get a game out in less than 40 years?

Love the minor hostility- Uh- no- i dont- i was just asking a question.

[Power]

Originally posted by Bot Skaven:

Originally posted by Power:

You'll find most games made by 1 or a few people use premade bought or free assets.
Do you expect 1 person to be able to code, model, paint, animate, play music, etc all on their own and manage to get a game out in less than 40 years?

Love the minor hostility- Uh- no- i dont- i was just asking a question. :bad_beauty:

You shouldn't imply hostility to something non hostile. Sounds like you have a defensive attitude.

[busbum00]

I’ve been doing some research on this topic and it honestly seems like the most “defensive” people are devs/hobbyists who want to make games but don’t A) want to build personalized/specific art assets [a fundamental part of how a player engages with a game AS a piece of art] themselves, and/or B) don’t value the visual component of a game [again, one of the primary ways that a person can even relate to a game — if there’s nothing to see, the code doesn’t translate to/“mean” anything] as much as the mechanical function, since the main complaint from this crowd RE: Synty assets is their price-point.

As an artist, it hits a raw nerve to hear “Why do we have to pay for art?” when you’re trying to make art that will, you hope, will be paid for by others? This attitude is pretty common amongst tech folks/engineers/etc. and it’s common amongst AI-art apologists, too. It’s probably why Steam and every other digital game store has an absolute glut of indistinguishable asset flips (and yes, I’d include games that are well-made, like Stolen Realm, to that list) with thumbnails/banners that are equally indistinguishable. EXAMPLE: Search the term “Kingdom” and tell me how many blue-sky, green grass, low-poly castles you see.
OR: How many RPG’s/Survivors-likes are coming out with blatant AI imagery to promote them?

I personally think Synty does great work, and they’re obviously a talented group of artists who are offering their work at a more-than-reasonable price. Even without regard for the art at hand, the cost-value ratio they’re providing for indie studios is INSANE, and it really just speaks to how UNDER-valued these artists really are! I’m stoked for Synty’s success, and a bulk of my enjoyment from the games they’ve contributed to has been aesthetic— which makes them horribly underpaid contributors, in my estimation, and the fact that they offer AS MUCH as they do without appreciation for what they’re actually providing… I don’t know, it’s just sour.

It’s a sour attitude, and it’s dismissive of reasonable concerns. I think people deserve to both know/understand where the art they consume is coming from and how it’s made, as well as provide their opinions about that process. I’m VERY glad we have warnings about AI generated content, for example, and we wouldn’t have even those modest protections/regulations if people didn’t speak up (not that OP was even being interrogative to begin with).

ALSO: Sorry to direct this “at” anyone, I’ve just been perusing these boards for a while and figured I’d say my piece.

Originally posted by Power:

Originally posted by Bot Skaven:

Love the minor hostility- Uh- no- i dont- i was just asking a question. :bad_beauty:

You shouldn't imply hostility to something non hostile. Sounds like you have a defensive attitude.

[thebigpigeon]

Originally posted by Power:

You'll find most games made by 1 or a few people use premade bought or free assets.
Do you expect 1 person to be able to code, model, paint, animate, play music, etc all on their own and manage to get a game out in less than 40 years?

Eric Barone did all the coding, models, painting, animation, and music for Stardew Valley in less than five years (and every update since). Lucas Pope started creating Return of the Obra Dinn while still working on Papers, Please, also doing everything. It's possible...

[Power]

Originally posted by thebigpigeon:

Originally posted by Power:

You'll find most games made by 1 or a few people use premade bought or free assets.
Do you expect 1 person to be able to code, model, paint, animate, play music, etc all on their own and manage to get a game out in less than 40 years?

Eric Barone learned a to make Stardew Valley and did all the coding, models, painting, animation, and music in less than five years. Lucas Pope started creating Return of the Obra Dinn while still working on Papers, Please, also doing everything. It's possible...

But unrequired. Im not sure why people expect devs to do everything by hand when premade tools exist.

When you cook a steak do you go out, find ore, build a forge, forge a knife, find a cow, slaughter, skin and dress it, drain it, cut the steak, collect fire wood . . . etc etc etc?

No. You go to a store, buy a steak, go home and use the tools someone else made for you to make something delicious. The Idea that devs shouldn't use already made things to make something cool is stupid.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by thebigpigeon:

Originally posted by Power:

You'll find most games made by 1 or a few people use premade bought or free assets.
Do you expect 1 person to be able to code, model, paint, animate, play music, etc all on their own and manage to get a game out in less than 40 years?

Eric Barone did all the coding, models, painting, animation, and music for Stardew Valley in less than five years (and every update since). Lucas Pope started creating Return of the Obra Dinn while still working on Papers, Please, also doing everything. It's possible...

More like you have little to no understanding of what actually is involved in making all the assets from scratch, particularly in 3D. If you've never actually tried it, you are unfortunately arguing from ignorance.

Stardew is a 2d game leaning hard on relatively low-res sprites. Sprites and 2D planes are, in many ways, less involved than 3D when it comes to creating/animating assets and making sure they fit properly in the overall aesthetic. You can actually work a LOT faster than in 3D, when it comes to asset creation.
This also ignoring that ConcernedApe has openly stated before that he spent 4.5 years doing 70hr work weeks to get Stardew out the door.
As for Obra Dinn, it leans SUPER hard on the stylized aesthetic. Underneath that aesthetic, the actual assets are quite unrefined and low end, and I have VERY little doubt that there ARE some 'stock assets' or reused assets from the dev's prior projects littered throughout.

Seriously, let hobby/part-tine devs cook. Stop expecting them to go all-in on running a 40+-hr work week on a project they don't expect to take off and be their forever money. Speaking from experience, if you turn it into a 9-5 grind, you stop enjoying it, and the overall quality starts to suffer. It's the rare person with the focused passion to do it all efficiently, let alone on long hours.

It makes ZERO financial sense to go all-in on game dev right out the gate, especially without a long-term stable project to keep bringing money in and allow you to quit your day job. You don't want devs having to rely on publishers and investors to keep the bills paid while devving. That's how you get utter slop with no soul.


I have little doubt that this game will get 'it's own assets' later on, once content is fleshed out. I'm perfectly fine and see no problem with stock assets if the game's loop and concept are solid enough, so long as there is at least some visual coherency, which so far this game does have. This game in particular has so much potential it isn't even funny. I'd personally love if the dev kept the clean, simple (arguably generic) graphics so that they could focus more on gameplay. That way even if the game isn't ever finished and gets abandoned, you have better bones and systems there for the community to enjoy or even build on.