Unity has today launched the Unity Icon Collective which collates a number of assets created by industry professionals that can be used for any project.

Publishers and artists are said to be hand-picked by Unity to make these assets, from characters and environments to art and animation.

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz, Unity Asset Store creative director Alitt Khaliq said the scheme is an answer to calls from the developer community for higher-quality assets on the Unity Asset Store.

The first release from the Unity Icon Collective is named Volume #1@ Buried Memories - Yggdrasil. It's based on the work of Johnson Ting, who has worked on the likes of Gears of War 4 and 5, Halo 5, Resident Evil 7 and Horizon: Zero Dawn.

It also features:

• Character art created by Mufizal Mokhtar, Senior Art Director on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Environment art by Callum Tweedie-Walker
• Animations from Cyrus Lam, Animation Director on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Music by Nathan Cleary, indie games composer
• Sound design by Pinewood Studios’ Head of Creative Audio Glen Gathard
• Cinematic Art by Matteo Grossi, who has worked on Star Wars: Battlefront, Need for Speed, and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

The Icon Pack costs $249.99 (but is free for Unity Pro users), while a character pack is available at $99 and an environment pack can be picked up for $149.

Ready-made

“The Unity Asset Store provides creators with a variety of assets that can be used and modified within their own productions,” said Khaliq. “The Unity Icon Collective assets are no different in this regard.

“The Icon Pack consists of a diorama of a scene, built from the ground up to be highly modular and flexible, providing everything creators need to make triple-A quality projects, and includes character models, animations, environments, music, sound, camera, timeline, source files, trailers, and concept art. These packs are ideal for independent developers seeking to create high-end games.

“While the Icon Collective packages are focused on gaming, they can easily be used for any interactive media like a short film. They can also be used as materials for educators to support their courses in game art and animation.”

Khaliq said however that it's up to the developers, where large or small, whether and how they want to customise these assets to fit into their own game worlds.

“The Icon Collective offers a foundation for creators to build the worlds they want to, saving them time, yet allowing them to flex their creative muscles just as they would with other assets in the Asset Store,” he said.

“With the introduction of the Unity Icon Collective, we are expanding the range of assets currently available to creators, but still providing the same creative flexibility as before.”

The artists, animators and designers that form the Unity Icon Collective have been promised “supplemental income” for their work.

More specifically, Khaliq said each member of the team would receive a payment from Unity to cover their time and also a royalty percentage on each unit sold.

“These packages take a significant amount of time and precision to create, so it’s important that the artists are compensated,” he said.

Unity will have a presence at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019, which takes place on January 21st to 22nd. Former Unity boss David Helgason will also be at the show as a speaker.