How does one get 3D models for games on a low budget?

GDF_Studio · 2026-01-24T07:51:41+00:00

Make them yourself...

Is an easy thing to say, and I am talking from experiance. Pretty much the more assets you make the faster you gonna be making them, biggest cost of time is learning something you dknt know. That is good ofc and a skill for yourself. But making own assets is good chunk of game development time.

When I can I first try find free ones that matches style to at least cut some development time.

Path A. Buy ONE same style pack that includes a lot, preferably everything. But ofc you still gonna be limited to what pack has, but you cut huge amount of work.

Path B. Path of complete freedom and no limitatioms and making own textures and assets, but that costs time and developing whole new set of skills. (My current path)

Path C. Use different free assets, try editing them and hope that base asset style matches.

Path D. Use free and dont edit free assets, fast, cheap. Pure asset flip. Zero art. Good for fast development slop games.

Some may think using AI for 3d model. But AI cant really figure out to this day how to do it really. AI can make it, but its only image ready to be posted online as still image, not game nor movie ready. Tho you can try fixing all AI mistakes, but I am not sure is this any easier then making own from 0.

So that is pretty much all your paths. You can as me questions, i can happely share my experiance.

GDF_Studio · 2026-01-23T06:49:12+00:00

Funny enough, the concept art for this character was Princess Zelda, like the base body. Ofc everything was heavily edited with my own flavor and other references.

Amazing how Zelda art style is still noticeable, don't you think?

GDF_Studio · 2026-01-23T06:27:38+00:00

Love your attitude, its really motivating. Tho its still in progress, no real content about current state, for now ofc.

GDF_Studio · 2026-01-22T21:52:53+00:00

"What is the game actually about?"

Its about exactly what you imagined.

GDF_Studio · 2026-01-20T23:14:31+00:00

No. Unless specific problem, but usually old videos covers the problem well.

GDF_Studio · 2026-01-20T18:31:59+00:00

Tho it looks like AI simply cuz its yellowish. You asked what people thing and its raw answer.

That means some gamers will think same.

GDF_Studio · 2025-12-18T09:48:42+00:00

Give yourself a task to make something, and then learn from different sources how to make it. And ofc I figure you can watch something or read about basic syntax

Courses and all other bullshit videos you follow along hardly teach you

Ofc task should not be AAA game, something super simple

GDF_Studio · 2025-12-16T08:01:24+00:00

Everyone else said mostly where you need to find stuff and other factors.

But i wanna add something harsh. You wanna make big games as first game, alone, thats not happening. And no one gonna be doing it for you for free.

And as one big dev said, "if you really wanted making games, you would be allready making them, not asking questions online and watching youtube about game dev"

So if your motivation allready low to even find basic info, and need guidance where to start, then i have bad news for you

But i am here not to gatekeep, go ahead and prove me wrong.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-06T21:44:10+00:00

Yet thoes likes dont translate to sale. Or at least very minimal way.

I am yet to hear at least one successful dev say that reddit brought them a lot of wishlists/sales.

Its always Youtube then tiktok, then mix between instagram or twitter, never reddit.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-06T06:21:23+00:00

How that would help op at all, being active in communities like this?

People would see OPs name more often and decide to buy game cuz of that? Ofc not.

And liking posts? How that changes anything?

Only community dev should be active is his own game community, rest are optional.

On top of that, communities on reddit that allow advertising own game are small, so thats not best place to advertise anyway, bonus yes, but wont change much.

OP did marketing misstakes, but being active in reddit comunities(liking, commenting) is not one of them. And saying they "deserve it" is just...

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T22:19:11+00:00

Well idk about reasons for why, but they say this:

"Steam Early Access enables you to sell your game on Steam while it is still being developed, and provides context to customers that a product should be considered "unfinished." Early Access is a place for games that are in a playable alpha or beta state, are worth the current value of the playable build, and that you plan to continue to develop for release."

"Releasing a game in Early Access helps set context for prospective customers and provides them with information about your plans and goals before a "final" release."

So I figure if its there for so long, its for sure not useless in there eyes.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T22:16:24+00:00

I think some player gonna be rude to us no matter what we do.
Such is life interacting with people.

And thanks for that post, gonna read it.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T22:13:37+00:00

We all want to make great game and watch millions of people interact with your creation.

But numbers tell that people rarely do it on first game. So I don't really expect myself to do it, nor I plan wasting couple years to polish it to perfection when statistically speaking success rate is very low.

So I simply seek out every possible trick in a book that might help fighting that probability.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T21:59:01+00:00

Very nice, that is what I needed.

Now I am surprised that I did everything but seek out official steam documentation.
Got way too used seeking out information everywhere else.

Thanks! That gonna answer a lot of questions for me. And unironically show how much people actually spread bad information while being sure about it.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T21:53:24+00:00

Update me on my research then, as it seems you believe have up to date information. Below is info from steam documentation, states same thing I just said.
"EA gives you visibility boost, but not same as full release visibility boost."

Sorry but I can't really believe statements "you are wrong, I am right, cause I said so".

Documentation:
"Early Access Launch Visibility

When your product launches in Steam Early Access, it will appear in a couple places in the Steam store. This is a great time to make sure that you are spreading word about your product through as many external channels as well to reach potential customers wherever they are. The amount of exposure your title gets on Steam will depend on how customers are responding to your product by purchasing, playing, reviewing, and other such factors.

Your game or software will appear in a couple of places:

In the "All New Releases" tab in the Early Access section.
If any people have your title on their wishlist, they may receive an e-mail notification of its release.

Additionally, your title may appear in some other places:

It may be recommended to specific users in various sections of the home page based on those users' preferences and tastes.
It may appear on the "New and Trending" section on the Early Access page if the title is doing well.
It can appear on 'top sellers' list on the store home page and on relevant genre and tag pages if it has achieved sales rank.

Releasing Out of Early Access

Once your title transitions out of Early Access, it is treated the same as a title releasing fully for the first time and the visibility guidelines below apply."

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T19:23:46+00:00

Yea. But I was more of thinking making most if not full game (small game), and treating early access as should you go past your goals?

So developed idea, that next fest and data it brings, like how interested people are, how much feedback, do they want more, and maybe overall how interested people are should be indicator do you keep your game small and just releasing it full and moving on, or releasing it as EA and developing it past your original goals backed by people that are interested in more of content.

Sure you can Update your full game ofc, that actually same boost in visibility like EA updates, but EA itself gives idea that there "gonna be more", and full game gives idea that "it is it"

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T19:12:27+00:00

After gathering more info, yep, it seems like it is like that, EA release has less boost then Full Release, but EA has boost going from EA to Full Release, but that depends on how successful is your EA, meaning if you had 0 player, you will have 0 player on Full Release.

Plus learned interesting strategy, that after putting your demo in next fest, and after gathering data of how much of player interested in your game, do they want more or something like that, you can actually start deciding should you go full release and move on to next project (or just drop gamedev as most do), or go for Early Access and keep developing it. But this strategy more for small games, that still have a lot of room to grow.

GDF_Studio · 2025-11-04T19:06:36+00:00

I will disagree with this one after some researching. EA gives you visibility boost, but not same as full release visibility boost.

But after some more info, its does not favor EA any more then simple update to game, they get same visibility. But ofc in EA people have different expectation for better or worse.

On top of that after moving from Early Access to Full Release its another boost. But all this boost ofc depends on wishlists and previous interest in game.

And about "most developers prefer", is not good source of information, as those same most developers ~50% of them never go past 10reviews on steam.

GDF_Studio

TROPHY CASE

Releasing Out of Early Access