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Hello,

Just to let people know, the Halls Mini Pack is now available in the store with shader support. There will be additional content added for this pack through the store over the coming weeks so if it is of interest, please do check regularly to see if there is anything you fancy.

I fully intend to make this Mini Pack and all its contents Reloaded compliant soon after it is released.

There is also a new monster in there, simply called 'Cave Monster' but he also uses full shaders to get a nice dynamic look. I hope to expand that line of creatures as well during the course of the next several weeks depending on my workload in other areas.


I would also like to put out the call for new or old artists to look at the store as an outlet for their media. There has not been many new submissions lately. I would like to assure artists that any E-Mails regarding the store will be answered, all submissions will be either approved or receive feedback within 24 hours. Even if you simply want to donate media to the community for free the store is a great way to do that as the media can never be lost as it can with the gradual shuffle of the forum

Signing up is quick and easy. If you are interested or just want to ask a question about it, just E-Mail me directly at store@thegamecreators.com. I regret I am unable to answer any questions not related to the store and those questions should go through the Support Mail System.

Very impressive on the cave monster as well as the minipack! Great price for the minipack as well. I'l be purchasing some TGC points with my next check to scoop them both up.

I do plan to start uploading content very soon. Free assets included.

I need to get myself on the store, how often to people purchase things from the store? I'm not trying to insult the system here but maybe the reason the store isn't used that often is because it is not profitable for the producers, maybe they don't see it as the best medium for selling their stuff. I could be wrong, I just personally have never bought anything from the store, always bought through forum posts as they provide a deeper insight into what it is that I'm buying. It's be useful if each store item had an 'item page' that could be customised by the creator and videos and pictures added etc.

What do you think chris?

Cheers
Wheatleyy

Sounds like youd like this to be developed more, Wheatleyy?:

http://tgcstore.net/browser/

For myself, I actually do use the TGC built-in store feature in FPSC from time to time.

I personally buy from the store all the time. I may put MP66 in the store soon just to give it some new content, but probably after I finish off my next pack.

@Wheatleyy
There are a few upgrades I would like to see built into the store interface but all the coders at TGC are busy with their respective projects at the moment and I`m just a humble artist. The web portal is something I would like to see developed more, but it would have to be after Reloaded has been completed at the very least.

Traffic on the store is often varied. It can be very busy one month and very quiet the next but I do feel it is an amazing resource that needs to be developed - the power to jump into it right in the middle of editing your game to pick up an item/character you want but do not have all without leaving the program is very useful and certainly easier than searching through old forum posts looking for a download link.

It is my opinion that the more artists use it to distribute their media the more people will come to use the the store as a resource... and the more people who regularly use the store as a resource will encourage new and old artists to upload new media on there. It is a good version of catch 22. The hard part is starting that ball rolling

The problem is one or two artists stuff is advertised more then others and on top of that these artists come first. Like bond ones stuff, all of his stuff comes first if you select Characters.

Try it, see what happens, his stuff is all glorified over others, and this was the main reason I stopped putting my stuff on there.
Not to be rude to bond one, this was not my intention.

THE FACT IS MY STUFF WILL NEVER BE SEEN UNLESS IT IS SEARCHED FOR,IT IS LOST BEHIND MANY MANY OTHER ONES, AND MY COWBOYS ARE GOOD LOOKING FOR WHAT THEY ARE AND DO.

Other people's models unless you are very well known are lost in the store. This is why I would rather put in a post about my stuff and sell it my self, it gets more attention.

If the store is geared for just a couple good artists, what good is it for me?

If the web portal is developed more, where as people could actually make purchases with it - then anyone that released anything in the store can promote it on the forums and link people directly to the content on the store for sale.

However I do love how the store is embedded in FPSC. Its a great way to quickly get access to content and start using them instantly. I really love that... like no wait time at all.


That cave monster looks pretty cool, Chris

@Daniel wright 2311
You make a few interesting points, but allow me to address some of your issues.



There is not really any direct advertisement done...the 'Featured Item' changes around once a week to give some items a little more exposure. If you feel you have an item off the main pages that deserves a little TLC please E-Mail me and I`ll check it out and put it on the list.


The secret of this is all in the keywords. You should try to use as many keywords as you can to properly describe your models. If someone is searching specifically for cowboys then all your models come up. A more generic search of characters and they don't.


Its a great idea to sell it your self through the forums... but it is also true that the more ways you have to sell your stuff, the more chances you have that someone will see it and buy it. The front page of the store features 'New Releases' that show the last 40 models approved. These typically have a cycle time of 40-60 days depending on how fast new content is added (which is currently slowly). Under the previous administrator you would often find a submitted model would go without approval for days (sometimes longer) reducing the time it was on this page, but I approve/check models every day so you are more likely to have your models on the front page for at least a month.


There is no direct favoritism. I want the store to be geared for every artist who wants a platform to showcase their artwork and put it out there for people to enjoy. In order to do this then all artists need to submit stuff every now and again to keep things rolling along. Bond1 for example had a back catalog to upload and so he has plenty of things in various areas and themes so he will appear on most popular searches. Newer artists without so many things may take a little time to build up that catalog but if you keep it fresh and varied then eventually you will too.

Final Thought?
Selling stuff through the forums is a great way and if it works for you then that is cool.... but seeing as the work has already been done there is no harm in; after a few weeks of sales simply uploading to the store to appeal to the market that does not read the forums and simply makes games with stock media and store stuff. Just use more keywords to expand your search hits and enjoy the time in the 'New Releases' pane and occasionally the 'Featured Item' tab.


@Teabone
I would also like the Web Portal to be developed more.. hopefully it will be addressed in 2014. Currently you can advertise on the forums (http://tgcstore.net/browser/product.php?product_id=17136) but the person would have to goto the store manually to buy it.

Thanks also for the comment on the Cave Monster. I only recently started turning my hand at organics and am still learning


Once again - any questions or comments E-Mail me at store@thegamecreators.com or reply here .

I have a few issues with the store myself....but first:

Nice model! I don't have all that much experience with organic stuff myself and its always interesting to see what others are doing in that regard.

Now about the store:

I bought a whole bunch of stuff on it but I dont sell on it either.
I find it has a few major flaws that keep it from attracting more people. Its far from my intent to hate on the store in any way, and I'm sure you guys put in a bit more work once reloaded is out so here are my thoughts on whats wrong:

1. Its too FPSCreator centric. Everything is geared towards FPSC. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and artists like "erart" make some very "non-fpscish" stuff, but I see how this could scare away customers from other engines or simply people working in Dark Basic.

Its true that many of these assets are affordable hidden gems that many developers, especially those working with UDK or UNITY where 3D assets are viewed to be much more expensive could greatly benefit from it...but the issues lies withing "hidden" gems which leads to

2. Not enough quality control. I'm all for supporting new artists but a lot of stuff in the TGC store just doesn't hold up (in my opinion...you guys do what you think is best for the store) or the icons and preview images have below average quality and presentation. The layout, look and some of the models and media that are being sold give it more a feeling of "yard sale" rather than "store". This might scare of more seasoned and non community modelers from selling their stuff on there.

3. There should be more support for selling bundles and packs. Why not? I have far more interest in the FPSC Modelpack Collection thats easy and approachably sold on the TGC website than most items in the store. There should be more support for bundles, minipacks and discount-bundles

4. Having more categories of stuff would be neat. Why not having Dark Basic users selling codesamples and homemade engines. Why not having more support for tools (doomster alone could flood that cathegory with handy stuff) animations, texture-packs, sounds, music, maybe even portfolios for freelancers (that might be blown out of proportion...just saying though)

5. In the end, its the presentation that bugs me most. I feel a lot more intrigued to browse the unity asset store than the tgc store, simply because it looks and feels better.

The TGC store has many good and a bunch of truely great and very affordable models. We'd see them in far more games if it would be more approachable and less of an insiders tip.

@DanielWright: I just searched for "cowboy" in the store and found your characters right away.
However, as I have mentioned above, they are presented in a very nonflattering way. If I click on the sheriff character, I get some dark and underproduced FPSC shots. I get to see a muzzleflash that emits behind the characters hand that obscures the entire character in the first shot, and I can see in all other screenshots that your chars have oversized hands with the guns awkwardly floating in them.
Your characters might not be ready to use in every game right "from the shelve" but they make good base props that only need few tweaks for a decent western game. You however shine a spotlight on their shortcomings which will scare away potential customers.
Also, I emailed you.
Just my thought on this

Those where just things I had in mind about the store. ...but well! I might sign up later today anyway



-Wolf

I agree with Wolf concerning presentation of models in the TGC Store, there are two things happening here.

Its up to the artist to post screenshots and write up their description of media. Daniel does have a point that the more popular artists will be looked at more often (which raises sales and therefore keeps their work at the top of the best sellers page).This is not because they are promoted by TGC, it's because some artists are simply better at presenting their own work.
By posting frequently on your work in progress and even giving out free samples of good quality media, an artist raises their profile around here, bond1 is a good example of this as is Errant. So folks know what they are buying. It's should also be recognised that they do high quality work all the same and this will always sell in quantity.

If the store isn't doing well in attracting custom then thats going to affect all vendors, if an artist is new to the store then sales are going to be low at first even in a good economic climate, this brings me to the second point. TGC don't pay out till your invoice payment reaches $100, with TGC taking 50% that means you have to sell $200 of media before seeing any payment to you. Many of us sell our work in the store at a very low rate so this doesn't help either when you need to sell more to make a payment. There is no incentive for the artist.
I suspect many artists, particularly new ones to the Store don't see any return for a long time, if at all, on their work. The only way to get your 20 bucks or whatever you have in the account is when you close it out.

If the store isn't artist friendly and because of this artists aren't uploading new media more regularly, then it's no surprise really that it's dying on its feet.

I will be honest, it's just not worth my while to keep on top of it.

This is not about quality or quantity, this is about every ones stuff in the store.

Not just mine, I was using me as a example,a bad one? well, just a small one.'

I think points are being missed in my last comment.

The point was ALL CONTENT should be mixed in and not all together.

Bond one stuff is the first always when you click on Characters, all of his stuff to page 4 I believe.

there are a lot of people with a lot of stuff, there stuff is not the first.

only bond ones models are featured in the main picture also,no one else.

This is not only about me, many people have more stuff then me and there also left out of the promotion pictures and the first on the list.

Do not believe me?

go here http://tgcstore.net/browser/listings.php?category=2

bond ones stuff on the promotion models picture and also all of his stuff first all the way to page 5.

So yes, every time every day I click it it never changes, ever.

This was my only point, no offense to anyone, truly. just my 2 cents.



I have been in the store for 2 years now or so, and never received one payment.

5 dollars or ten or 20, money is money.

Thats true, they should be mixed at random everytime one clicks "characters". If the user wants to, he should be able to sorty by popularity, but it should not be default.

The web portal needs to be completed and put somewhere on the front page of the TGC webpage. Once that happens I think we'll see a lot more traffic to the store. It be awesome if this is done sometime around FPSC-R's release.

for the character search results I don't think there's anyway to really get yours to appear any higher than bond1's. Since most of his models are popular because they have been mostly all featured in official TGC model packs. For example if you look at the list of publishers TGC is at the top even though its constructed in an alphabetical list. Be nice if everything conducted in a search gave random results... would help us as artist get some better attention.

I too have recently started getting into organic models. As can be seen in the attachment. work in progress model - hope its not too nude for presentation here. I'm pretty good at scripting too; even though we are heavily limited with FPSC. I hope to create some awesome high quality stuff for the store, with FPSC-R in mind as well.

Awesome I'm purchasing points asap!