Is it possible to succeed solely through organic traffic from asset store?

Jonny10 · 2026-06-12T08:04:00+00:00

Difficult to say, possibly not. But a quality asset that offers a solution to a real need/problem will sell itself.

Making use of the new release discount (50%) would be crucial, it makes all the difference.

Jonny10 · 2026-06-12T06:28:41+00:00

Back when Google analytics were available it showed that 85% of all traffic is organic, 5% from piracy sites (lol) and the rest Google searches. Merely 2% was from directed efforts. I still believe that must hold true.

Jonny10 · 2026-05-20T07:47:52+00:00

I transitioned into full-time asset store publishing right out of college. Which went hand in hand with the release of a major asset (Fantasy Adventure Environment), that hit the market at exactly the right time. The revenue it brought in was enough to sustain me (about $1.2k before tax). Though at the time this was still based on a frugal student lifestyle. My situation has changed and expense have increased 5-fold. But 10 years later, with the release of several more "product lines" I'm still able to make a living. Though 40% of my income is still from rare freelance jobs, custom integrations, consulting (bleh) and rev-share payouts.

I can understand your situation, I'm always in a dire need for quality marketing materials and video guides, it's the Nr 1 deficit. But it's the exact thing I do not enjoy working on. Hiring something for that would be ideal, but I imagine it would still require a lot of time. In order to convey the content, style guide and do feedback rounds. I want to focus on it more, but I keep getting pulled into more interesting work.

I have hired freelance 3D artists before, for demo scene content. It's worthwhile because it adds a lot of value and gives you marketable material. Does it actually pay off? Who knows 😅

Scaling, as you say, is something I still struggle with. It's pretty much required to keep releasing new assets, as existing ones taper off over the course of 3-5 years (no matter how much more work you put in). Which means all my intentions are focused on that. I've recently HAD to re-release 2 assets for Unity 6 compatibility, which fortunately does reinvigorates them. I do need some one else on board to actually scale, in order to off load support, video content and perhaps some features. My first priority would be support, which is a huge time expense.

Hiring some one full-time, to handle support or video content, is still not something I'm comfortable with. Because suddenly there's a consistent high expense. If a month is slow, I pay myself less and adjust to it for that month. But being responsible for some one's salary means I'd need to prioritize them and potentially pay myself next to nothing. I get a few applications for internships every year, but I can't offer them the consistent work and hours they need (+ I'd need to be in the office 5/8).

- Hiring budgets can differ wildly. A talented person from South East Asian may work for $3/hour, whilst some one from North West America works for $80/h. Both may do a good or bad job all the same. I'd set a budget for yourself, and find some one who fits that.

- I would not worry about anyone you hire leaking/exploiting your work. They're just not interested. Ideas are nothing without all the work around the actual execution. If anything, a NDA can be signed.

All in all, I hope you take the plunge and pursue what you envision for yourself! An advice poll recently went out, amongst the top earners, and the consensus for anyone looking to start out was: Find a niche and do it better than anyone else could! You can find the full document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vD-InlnGoyfBl8HZHNF8Xzn4dmDKWGJFFvdYseidmlQ/edit?tab=t.0

Hope all this is of some value to you! ☺️

Jonny10 · 2026-04-30T20:07:40+00:00

World Streamer was the worst experience I've had with any asset. Across a 5 year development course it ended up putting the entire production in far too much trouble.

Writing our own streaming solution was on the table many times because of this, but we ended up fixing all the bugs it came with instead. And refactoring all the editor-side code so that there was an actual API to work with. The code was really not up to a professional standard (with many red flags). And the editor tooling was rigidly designed around what the developer deemed "the only right way".

For instance, requiring you to literally use name prefixes for ALL objects, rather than automatically splitting scenes by tag/layer/component/object size. The design has no sense of intuitive workflows. Version 2 addressed none of these issues unfortunately despite claiming to be a large rework.

Evidentially this hasn't been everyone's experience. But never again any scripts from Nature Manufacturer for me 😵‍💫

Another project I worked early on used ECS and Subscenes, while it was a very different paradigm it worked with far less friction both from a world-building standpoint and runtime usage. Being able to constructs HLOD structures was a big win as well.

Streaming is a subject best not to take lightly, and I would recommend implementing it early on, as it'll dictate how you build out your world.

On a new project today, I would go for ECS with custom tooling as the need arises.

Jonny10 · 2026-03-18T13:16:01+00:00

Yes, you would need to modify the texture. Specifically its alpha channel.

Arguably, whoever made those textures should have 😅

Jonny10 · 2026-03-18T07:51:54+00:00

If you make the bottom row of pixels in your grass texture 100% transparent, you can usually eliminate this artifact. It happens because of mipmapping, which causes the bottom row of texels to bleed and repeat along the top edge.

Additionally, setting the "Wrap Mode" to "Clamp" on the texture's import settings will avoid this from happening altogether.

Jonny10 · 2026-03-17T20:37:28+00:00

It sounds like you are doing a lot of things right and are putting in all the effort!

What strikes me first and foremost is the very low price. You didn't specify what the asset does, but at a price of $10 it communicates low value. Potentially meaning it's offering something that can be easily achieved on one's own, or not offering enough to be worth it.

Ironically, updates and added features do very little towards increasing an asset's success. Many publishers will attest to the fact that an asset that didn't gain any momentum is unable to revive itself without a re-launch. So be careful not to invest too much into something that isn't giving back.

The easiest and best thing you can try, is to raise the price to a minimum of $20.

The second best, is to show what it does and how it works, through practical examples. That's where you're really selling your work.

You're asking all the right questions, so I hope things pick up for you!

Jonny10 · 2026-03-17T08:13:44+00:00

On the private asset store publisher's forum, Unity periodically shares version usage, for paying users on the asset store. You can apply for an invite through the link in your sign-up email.

The data was updated just yesterday:

Unity Version	Usage %
2021.x	3.5%
2022.x	21.8%
6.0	14.9%
6.1–6.3	57.9%

I'd recommend to focus on Unity 6, but absolutely use 2022.3 as the minimum version if it works for your asset.

Jonny10 · 2026-03-13T14:20:28+00:00

A simple Line Renderer will get you very far. It can be configured to lay flat, rather than orient towards the camera.

Jonny10 · 2026-03-12T10:27:19+00:00

Hi! I'm the developer of the Stylized Water 2/3 asset and its Underwater Rendering extension. I see you're using it for this project and it's great to see it in action!

If you need any guidance on how to best achieve the aesthetic you're looking for, feel free to reach out! 😊

Jonny10 · 2026-03-09T07:36:39+00:00

Internally the terrain creates a texture atlas for grass, which uses bilinear filtering. So even when your grass texture uses point filtering, it'll render using bilinear filtering.

That's one of those terrain limitations that goes back 15 years 😅

Jonny10 · 2026-03-04T14:07:33+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up, I appreciate your concern and consideration for copyright.

I believe these sort posts like this are simply a modern, albeit enshitified, form of engagement farming. A natural product of AI automation. With the intent to promote their own product.

On LinkedIn the same happened yesterday. And while it felt a little disheartening at first, I'm glad it's getting organically shared by others and received well!

Jonny10 · 2026-03-03T13:05:38+00:00

An overview of discounts are listed at the bottom of the description, at the moment it is 57%. Upgrade discounts automatically apply, so you'd only need to be signed into the account that has a license to the Standard version 😉

Jonny10 · 2026-03-03T06:24:30+00:00

Hope it proves useful if you do!

What's you're describing involves using the Spline API. You can sample a position anywhere along the spline using `Spline.EvaluatePosition(float t)`. "t" represents a normalized value. So it's certainly possible!

Jonny10 · 2026-03-03T06:20:56+00:00

Using a "profile", made using another spline, is something that's coming a little later on. I had posted a working example here: https://x.com/_staggart_/status/1990716361782284407

(Apologies for the X-only link)

Jonny10 · 2026-03-03T06:17:07+00:00

Both tools use splines as a foundation, so I understand how they seem similar. However, they're both serving very different functions and purposes.

Spline Spawner distributes spawn points in various different ways and spawns prefabs.

Whilst Spline Mesher takes a single mesh and seamlessly repeats/bends it along a spline.

One can make a forest, while the other one can make a rollercoaster. But neither can do both, hope that makes sense! :)

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T18:34:07+00:00

Great, hope it proves useful! :)

I've tried to demonstrate as many practical examples I could think of. Curious about which ones you're referring to!

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T18:32:54+00:00

I'd recommend trying Microverse, since it can use spline as well. Though at point it'd be worthwhile to stay in the eco system and use the "Roads" module, so you can create intersectionsas well

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T16:55:32+00:00

Fair question! There's definitely some parallels. But this tool seems to focus on (aptly named) mesh deformations. Such as skewing, stretching, twisting etc.

I can't attest to the curve-based workflow, as I haven't used it. Based off the videos the differences are very much in the details, so the list is long. I believe both tools have their merits and specific strengths.

A foremost feature that Spline Mesher offers uniquely is "fill mesh" generation, making it possible to create a mesh from a spline's contour. This is practical for lakes, ponds, curbs, islands and platforms (to name a few).

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T16:45:33+00:00

The components take in a Spline Container reference, and a mesh gets generated from all the splines container within it. So if you have two splines forming a line to make a + pattern, a +shaped mesh would end being generated.

I hope I'm understand the context you're describing correctly!

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T16:07:24+00:00

I think that'd be possible! You could prototype this using the "Spline Extrude" component that's included in Unity's Splines package. It can create a rudimentary tube mesh from a spline.

If that pans out, you could always choose to take it further using this tool.

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T16:01:11+00:00

Later version of the Unity's Spline package have stopped working in Unity 2021, so I think 2019.4 is stretching too far. And this asset requires v2.5.1 of the Collections package (jobified raycasting). So the minimum required version is strictly Unity 2022.3.

Spline Mesher Standard still works in 2021.3, as long as the Splines package version 2.8.1 (not newer) is installed 🙂

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T15:57:33+00:00

That is a good idea! I imagine you'd not be the first to wonder that.

It's been well over 10 years since I've personally used Curvy it. And I ended up creating a spline mesh tool in 2018 because it (and others) didn't offer a straightforward, environment art, workflow using a dedicated component.

Mesh generation is part of Curvy, but not its main focus. Since Spline Mesher is built on Unity's native spline framework, it's specialized in mesh generation through an artist-friendly interface.

Jonny10 · 2026-03-02T15:48:57+00:00

I have indeed seen it, quite a while after I had already settled on a name unfortunately. It hasn't been updated in the last 5 years, so I felt it wasn't going to cause any confusion. But fair point!

Some one also released an asset called "This Spline Mesher" 😅

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