Disclosure: Some links below are affiliate links and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this page, this is at no cost to you.
I’m not a licensing or Legal expert, please always check the licencing terms for the assets you are looking to use; if you are usure, contact the distributer and ask for permission for what you intend to use it for.
Licensing types
It’s amazing that we have so many people sharing their work for others to use; however, it’s important to respect the terms of use, and ensure that you comply with copyright laws.
When looking at assets on a store, it should display its licensing type.
But what do they mean? Can I use them in my project? Do I need to do anything?
Well, it all depends on the type of licencing and what the creator says it can be used for.
The Licence type Determines how an asset can be used, modified, distributed, and sold.
Let’s break down some of the types:
| Licence Type | Permissions |
|---|---|
| CC0 | Allowed to copy, modify, distribute, and use for work or commercial purposes, all without asking for permission. |
| CC BY | Allowed to Distribute, Remix, Adapt in any medium or format. Commercial use allowed Credit must be given to the creator |
| CC BY-SA | Allowed to Distribute, Remix, Adapt in any medium or format. Commercial use allowed Credit must be given to the creator Adaptations must be shared under the same terms |
| CC BY-NC | Allowed to Distribute, Remix, Adapt in any medium or format. Non-Commercial use only Credit must be given to the creator |
| CC BY-NC-SA | Allowed to Distribute, Remix, Adapt in any medium or format. Non-Commercial use only Credit must be given to the creator Adaptations must be shared under the same terms |
| CC BY-ND | Allowed to copy and distribute in any medium or format in unadapted form only Commercial use allowed Credit must be given to the creator |
| CC BY-NC-ND | Allowed to copy and distribute in any medium or Format in unadapted form only Non-commercial use only Credit must be given to the creator |
For More information on Creative commons licence check out this link:
Other Licence types
Royalty Free:
Allows multiple uses for a one-time fee, without additional fees.
May be subject to specific usage conditions, always check the licence agreement.
Specific licence terms:
Some companies or distributers may have created their own specific terms and conditions, for their assets.
It could also be a great idea to keep a record of the assets you use, where you got them from and the licence type and usage conditions; just in case you get any queries.
No one wants an unintended copyright or legal lawsuit. Always check the terms of usage.
Game Assets
Assets are digital content or components used within a game; it's a wide range of elements that contribute to the overall visual, audio, and interactive experience of the game.
Sound Assets
Free sound - containing over 650,000 sounds; Free Sound aims to be a huge database full of audio snippets, sample recordings and other sound files licenced under creative commons licencing.
Pond 5 – Pond 5 has a massive range of royalty free music and sound effects.
Free Font Assets
Dafont – looking to add some cool font to your project? Dafont has over 89,000 fonts! However, always check the licencing terms if you are looking to use this in a commercial project.
3D Assets and Textures
Poly haven – Poly Haven is amazing as it’s a free public library of HDRI’s, textures and 3D models for anyone to use; it’s CC0, meaning you can use for anything without restrictions.
Synthystore – Polygon style UI, Animations and models
Shared Textures – Shared Textures is another great free public CC0 library of high quality textures and 3D models.
2D Game Icons
Game Icons – Looking for game Icons for your user interface? Game icons is a great place to grab them, with over 4000+ and you can even customise them in the web browser as well.
All licenced under CC-BY.
Material Assets
Free PBR – Free PBR, or Physically-Based Rendering materials offer the metalness/roughness as well as the metallic/smoothness workflows. These 2K texture maps can be used in Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender and many other 3D, Game Design, and CAD solutions.
If you want to use them for commercial purposes, you only need to pay $25 for the entire 500+ files!
Ambient CG - over 2000+ materials and textures under CC0 License.
All-rounder asset sites
Itch.io – Yes Itch.io is mostly known for its games, but it also hosts other creator content like game assets as well!
Open Game Art – 2D, 3D music textures and sound effects.
GameDev Market - At first glance, it seems there is not much more than basic low poly 2D assets and files, but once you have a look around you may be very surprised at the high-quality content on here.
It hosts 2D & 3D Assets, audio sounds effects and more.
Including characters, environments, objects, textures, Vegetation, and vehicles.
Craftpix - Craftpix has free and premium game assets including, Icons, sprites, tilesets, GUI, characters, backgrounds game kits and more.
Kenny - Kenny has some great CC0 assets for you to use, but also some really cool tools to create models, images and even has starter kits for your Godot projects.
You can even buy the All-in-one game assets for $19.95 on Itch, which includes over 40,000 Game Assets.
Reddit sub thread – People on this forum regularly share their assets and links to get them, it’s great to check on there every so often, you can find some hidden gems.
Game Engine Specific
Unity Asset Store
If you're using Unity, you should check out the asset store. Unity has a vast store of over 87,000 assets including:
- 3D
- 2D
- Tools
- Audio
- VFX
- Templates
- Addons
- Essentials
- Decentralization
- Quality assets
- Over 11,000 five-star assets.
- Rated by 85,000+ customers.
- Supported by 100,000+ forum members.
- Every asset moderated by Unity.
- Look out for Discounts on bundles and assets.
- Usage: Usage rights may vary depends on different assets and designers. Therefore, before you download the files double-check the license and usage rights on each product page.
- Here are the top free from the Unity Store:
Unreal Marketplace
If you are using Unreal Engine, you should check out the asset store.
Unreal Marketplace is now on FAB: https://www.fab.com/
Don't forget to check their 'Free for The Month' section, for free assets each month!
Unreal Marketplace has a store of over 35,000 assets including:
- 2D Assets
- Animations
- Architectural Visualization
- Blueprints
- Characters
- Code Plugins
- Environments
- Epic Content
- Materials
- Megascans
- Music
- Props
- Sound Effects
- Textures
- and more
Game Maker
Game Maker website has plugins, assets, and more and has 163+ free assets you can use in Game Maker.
Roblox Studio
Roblox has a built-in marketplace inside of the Roblox studio programme containing:
- Models
- Plugins
- Audio
- Images
- Meshes
- Videos
- Fonts
In order to really get the most out of Roblox Studio, here are some of the plugins I highly recommend:
- Part to terrain
- 3D text
- Auto scale
- Building tools by F3X
- Archimedes
- Geom Tools
- Brush Tool
- Tool Grip editor
- Be aware, some things in the market place are free and some cost the in game currency called Robux.