I’m just curious. I want to make a game, I’ve been learning 3d modeling, I don’t think I’m great at it as I’ve never been artistic, and I struggle particularly with character modeling. I’ve seen alot of people complain about asset flips and was just curious on what the consensus is with asset stores. I personally don’t see a problem with it, I think the problem is more with people not putting any effort behind the game design.
There’s nothing bad about using assets from a store, especially if you put in some effort to tweak them. That’s what they’re there for to help developers. Even AAA studios use store-bought assets here and there. The whole issue with asset flipping happens because a lot of people don’t put effort into making their games. And usually, when a game is bad, people naturally find more problems with it, and one of those is asset flipping.
I agree completely, I just was wonder what the general consensus was because I’ve wanted to make a game for a long time and for years, I’ve been trying to teach myself a little of everything needed but would get burnt out because I used to have the mindset of I have to do everything myself and it was just too much for me to feel like I was getting anywhere. Lately my mindset has changed and I am trying to learn UE5 more so I can make a game that plays well with the help of the asset store.
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I suppose it does depend on the assets. Be aware that, for some assets like in FAB, you want to ensure you don’t get the personal license as the license type as it may cost you later.
Similarly, when using free assets like fonts from sites like dafont, or audio from freesound, make sure you understand the license agreement associated with them. Some are often free for personal use but you have to license otherwise.
Also, if you’re using free assets, consider a donation to the creator. For example, in the 2D course there’s a whole load of awesome assets from the creator on itch.io and even though I’m not planning to create a game, I gave them a donation anyway. That way they may make other free assets.
Keep an eye out on humble bundle too - they often have different bundles of assets from Synty, Leates, Mechinegun, and many others that are an absolute bargain - you’d easily spend $1000 for them.
I’m not saying donate now, money may be tight but if your title starts selling, you should acknowledge them. even consider a small credit somethere in the game.
This is the message in the UE forum from Epic Staff - “The distinction for the two tiers is the buyer’s status at the time of purchase. In the case that the buyer’s status changes after the purchase (e.g., revenue exceeding 100K USD), they can still use the products purchased previously with the Personal license tier and do not need to upgrade to the Professional license tier. This applies equally to paid-for and free products.” Getting Personal license should not cause any trouble later if buyer get richer 
That actually makes sense. Thanks for sharing that. I always assumed that if you started making loads of cash you may have to get a new license.
See, even us TAs learn something new every day.
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I think I should add it here. I recently heard from some creators that when taking free assets from FAB giveaways, it is better to take a personal license if you are within its range and not take a professional one, no matter if it’s free. Otherwise, the account could get flagged when eventually it starts buying assets from a store in different licensing, because license
is valid for both paid and free assets same way.