Something that I frequently get asked from people is often how do you find asset flips, so I figured this would be a good starting point (thanks to people on Twitter for deciding this one as well)


Allow me to give a brief introduction as to what an asset flip is as believe it or not, still to this day people get confused and/or muddled with what it actually is. A number of video game engines, particularly Unity and Unreal have asset stores in which people can purchase assets created by third parties to use either in their commercial product, a basis/foundation for you to further develop on top of or something that you buy in order to broaden your knowledge of how these are created, for you to later use that knowledge in future projects. Assets come in all shapes and sizes, they can vary from just simple models or environments to "complete" projects, and I use the word complete in air quotes because often those completed projects are often buggy and sometimes aren't fully optimised, mainly because they aren't meant to function as games, but again as a foundation.

Now, there isn't necessarily anything wrong with asset usage generally, however, due to the openness of the Steam market, it has allowed developers to buy either a bunch of models/environmental packs etc., leave them unchanged, stick them in a game connected with some basic code and just put up a lazy attempt at a game. However, in other cases, which is what Sentinels mainly points out on, is that there are developers that purchase full projects from these asset stores and place them on Steam.

Now you might be thinking "isn't it illegal to be posting up someone else's work on Steam?" It is, but asset flips don't actually fall under any legality or even any form of rule violation. The reasoning behind this is because when the creators of these assets post these to the asset stores, they somewhat have less ownership of their creation in a way. A better way to look at it to make it more simple is this, the creator of the asset is selling it as that, an asset, something that you can edit, change or even just load up in the Unity engine. It is only if the assets are redistributed with this same purpose (being an asset) will it fall under a rule violation. The developers that often post these assets to Steam are selling it not as an asset, but as a game. So if you want, you can sort of think that these guys are altering the asset in someway, but not physically, but rather more in the intended use part. These rules go into application as soon as the asset creators post their games up to asset stores, once purchased, an agreement is set up where the assets can't be redistributed anywhere, but this is where the legality changes. The ASSET part isn't being used, it's the GAME aspect, which is the one part of what makes this process 100% legal.

Sentinels primarily shine a light on these kinds of "games" for a variety of reasons. Firstly, we believe that consumer awareness is a must, now more than ever with the large influx of titles onto the store daily, and it's best for consumers to enter as informed as possible before making a choice on their purchase. Secondly, while there are some people that may praise asset flips, we don't necessarily think that the praise should deservingly go to the guy that posts it onto Steam, but rather, the one that made it. These two reasons is why we include links to the asset packs themselves, so consumers can see the pack themselves and know it for future reference, people know where to go to if they do like what the original creator did and not the random flipper that put it on Steam. In addition to this, we primarily see this being especially important within early access projects, where developers may post a "completed" project under the early access banner, often since these developers don't necessarily have much experience with making games themselves, they post the game up how it was when they got it from the asset store, and then deflect any criticism back saying "it's early access." Oftenly, if you see an asset flip being posted up to Steam's early access, from my personal experience, chances are the game isn't going to be finished, because the developers lack the knowledge to actually go further forward with development. Those that do have the knowledge would have tweaked the kits before posting to the store because first impressions are also essential in Steam's climate.


This is probably the one question I get asked the most with regards to this aspect. I'm mainly going to be referring to the "complete project asset flips" since that's what Sentinels primarily focuses on.

Sometimes, you can actually spot hints on the store page that can possibly lead to the game being an asset flip. Really, what I often do is I go to the store page, I look at some aspects on the page, and I ask and answer myself some questions:

1) Watch the trailer. How well edited is it? Is it just uncut gameplay along with something that looks relatively simplistic in design? How well is the developer playing "their own game?" Oftenly if the game is an asset flip, the "developer's" lack of know-how of how the asset actually function can be showcased in the video. If they play their own game poorly, and these are the guys that developed it with all the supposed knowhow of the ins and outs, would they actually be the developer if they played the game well for their trailer?

2) Look at the screenshots. Are there any shots where you can see a game engine editor at any point? The laziness with the screenshots where it shows the developer lacks the know-how to crop out parts of the engine that they're for their promotional material often hints at a further layer of laziness.

3) Read the description. How well detailed is it? Is it just a few lines long with not much detail put into it or thought?

With aspects like this with one or more of the things listed above meeting the criteria, it may arouse some suspicion.


This next part can vary in difficulty at times. When I and others are finding assets, it varies from just taking a few seconds, to upwards of half an hour.

You can obviously use any prior obtained knowledge of asset kits and relate the game back to ones you may have seen and think to yourself and check if they match any asset kits that you've previously come across. You're also more than welcome to browse Sentinels' backlog of asset flip coverage, our curator page actually has two lists so far dedicated to it:

List #1
List #2

However, if you don't think that you recognize the kit the "game" may be using, there is a few things that you can do to check.

Here is a link to the Unity asset store[www.assetstore.unity3d.com], while it's not the only source of asset packs that are being uploaded to Steam, it seems to be the most prominent place to find them. I will include links at the end of this how-to to other known areas complete projects are posted and then reposted to Steam, but we'll use the Unity asset store as an example.

Now, what you want to do, is you'll want to check out the "game" you think is an asset flip by rewatching the trailer/looking at the screenshots. Look at what the game actually is. Is it a runner? Shooter? Exploration? Sandbox? While you can look at more details to possibly further narrow your search down (e.g. does the "game" have zombies in it?) the base genre is really the core thing that you need. What you want to do once you've gotten the base concept of the "game" down, you'll want to head to the asset store, and then type that genre into the search query, and then filter your results by clicking on the part next to the search bar after the word has been searched and change the search query from "all assets" to "templates." From there, you can browse the asset packs that come up in your search query, until you come across one that resembles the game you found. Next, do a quick comparison, and then if it matches, bing you've found an asset flip.

Now, not every asset flip is going to follow the trends listed here, but as with how asset should be used, this shouldn't be followed through 100% but just to be used as a foundation for future asset spotting.


Let's give you some quick tests to see if you are able to locate some asset kits. I highly recommend this be done in a web browser where you're logged out of Steam, as it's possible if you're a member of this group that you're following our curator, and we tag most/all the asset flips we come across, which would sort of nullify the point of the test if you just had the asset kit one click away. I'm going to post links to 5 different Steam games, 3 of them are asset flips, and 2 of them aren't. Your task is to use some of the tips listed here and to locate the asset kits on some of the asset flips, while also identifying which games are the "real" games:

https://steamhost.cn/app/696460/Pixel_Traffic_Circle_Rush/

https://steamhost.cn/app/769980/Lock_Her_Up_The_Trump_Supremacy/

https://steamhost.cn/app/704440/Nimble_Fish/

https://steamhost.cn/app/809460/Earth_Muncher/

https://steamhost.cn/app/763760/My_Coloring_Book_Food_and_Beverage/

Sentinels happily accepts games that you have found to be asset flips, feel free to either comment them on the group's front page or go to the game sharing discussion thread and post it there. If you have any questions or you feel there's something I left out, feel free to comment down below with questions, or additional stuff you've found that you might want to see added to the guide.

Links to asset distributors:

https://assetstore.unity.com/
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace
https://www.scirra.com/store/
https://www.sellmyapp.com/