THE STORY OF HOW IT CAME TO BE,

AND THE STORY OF HOWI PRETTY MUCH FUCKED UP ITS PRODUCTION

MATUMIT SOMBUNJAROEN2015/05/08

ZADE: Action FrameWork

Initial Notes

This slides have some negative talks on Unity Asset Store

—However—I am well aware that

most of the faults are from my own judgement

What is ZADE Action Framework?

It is a Unity Asset for Prototyping Action Game Available in Unity Asset Store- Soon to be release as Open Source

- As soon as I finish updating it to support Unity 5.x- + As soon as the Web Developer finish the new Web Page for me

NEW HOMEPAGE+ TEST WEBGL

ZADE Action Framework: EULA

Once release in the official Website

1. The Assets is licensed under Creative Common 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

2. You have to, CREDIT the Homepagewww.zodiac-alliance.com

How did it started?

It all started when,after nearly a year of works,

GDD got approved, but when it came to funding discussion

I failed to get funding from the Investor

Thus, after a consideration,I decided that if it would take another year for a

business talk,I’d rather spent my time building a project instead.

The Early Process

Initially, It was planned out as a Simulation Game with SD CharactersÞ After several testsDue to personal funding, To Save up Asset Resources, it got turned into an Action Game+ To be able to utilize and recycled Motion Data,

More realistic Proportion got used

WHAT I FUCKED UP NO1

During really late test cycle,I realized that I couldn’t make a fun game out of it

What I should have done

<= Stick to Simulation Game, which I have more expertize in

<= Doing lots of test and made a proper GDD in the earlier cycles

Unity Asset Store

After Basic Characters Control was completed,I decided to sell some motions and character control scripts in the Unity Asset Store-- Initial Version was call ZADE: Mecanim Character Controller<= Initially It sold reasonably well for the personal income standard for my region- Thus, I decided to invested more time in expanding it

WHAT I FUCKED UP NO2

Later on, Maintenance cost of the AssetsOutweigh the Income

What I should have doneStop there, and get back to main game Production

The reasons will be explain in further slides

Asset Store Marketing

Regardless of what people are trying to tell you,Simply putting Asset in Unity Asset Store, do not make it sell,

As a Product, Proper Marketing and Advertising is needed,Which I have failed to do properly

Horizontal Development

Instead of using Time resources on the Main Game, I kept adding endless new features to answer customers’

demandsEven when I don’t need them in the Main Game

Action FrameworkExpanding

Framework features

Main Game ProductionWhat I have done

What I shouldhave done

Support Maintenance Cost

Because the Scripts have to be readable by other users,I was unable to do various Production Shortcuts,

Which is understandable by me,And have to put my Assets in creating Support Resources as

well

Upload times

Because Asset Store require author to upload all Assets in a single go,

Large Asset size + Regional Slow Net Speed + Random Net Disconnect

Cost days just to Upload the Assets**Work flow has been improved in the latest version of Unity**

Free Upgrades

Due to how Unity Asset Store work,User who purchased the previous version of the Asset

get all later upgrade for free,There is no further income from returning customers

**Unity has now provided a new upgrade plan for Asset Authors**

V2.440US$

V3.080US$

Brought hereCool!

Free Upgrade!

WHAT I FUCKED UP NO3

Spending times making Assets for Demonstration Purposes

What I should have done

Just use what I have my hand on

Bottle Neck Issue

Due to Unity Asset Store’s EULAI was unable to utilize Assets from Other Sources,

As such, everything included in it have to be tailored-made

What I have done

Scripting

Create Assets

Scripting

Create Assets

Income from Asset Store

Pay Other to Create Asset

Income from Asset Store

Pay Other to Create Asset

What I could have done

If I didn’t care about selling things in the Asset Store,I could have just brought cheap motions from Mixamo,

SFX from other Asset authors, and so on

WHAT I FUCKED UP NO3

Piracy!!!

It got Pirated

I tried contacting Unity Asset Store,They Do not reply

And I have to file all Copyright Infringement myself

Credit Card Counterfeit issue

User got the AssetVia Asset Store

I received income

A month later

Some kind ofFraudulent occur

Unity do Cash Backon my account

Asked Asset StoreOn what happened to

The Asset User obtained

No Reply fromUnity Asset Store

Reallusion MarketPlace

Reallusion have Asset authenticity systemto provide unauthorized Asset usage

Unity Asset Store would gain a lot from doing the same

Talking about Support

The Guy at Allegorithmic is awesome!He contacted me to give support

simply when I tweeted that I got a problem

To Summarize What I should have done

Test Early

Prioritize on the Main Game ProductionStick with the original Plan to used Cheap Purchasable

Assets

Prioritize to make a Game that I have expertize oninstead of focusing on Production Cost

Sell only what I can maintainIf I am going to sell it, do proper advertising

Decision to goOpen Source

Simply speaking

It’s because now I have another full-time job.Thus, I can no longer do a full time work on it.

Also, because I had promises to customersthat I can no longer make,

I decided to give it awayso that other people can freely work on it,

Also

By Providing it in my own Web Page

I can provide updates in small piecesinstead of going one full chunk

And, I can provide only Scriptsinstead of having to provide and integrate

Custom made Assets in the Package

And

Unity 5.x included Upgrades that made some workflow obsoleteUnless Constant Upgrade can be done,

The Asset could be remove from the Asset Store

A Final Note

To The Creator of Project Nimbus,I am aware that what you said included my Project,

YOU ARE 100% CORRECT,I am not angry about it

Project Nimbus

Project Nimbus is available in SteamJust to make things certain,

nobody asked me to do advertising for him