The game makers who found careers as asset store creators

theverge.com:

When Jonathan van Immerzeel goes on vacation, he packs a decidedly unusual suitcase. In addition to sunblock, swimming shorts, and a passport, the intrepid creator takes a drone, green screen, and audio recording equipment. This is so that he can document every aspect of his surroundings, usually untouched wilderness, in as much high-fidelity detail as possible.

He does so in the name of research, seeking inspiration for his next hit shader, essentially a program that renders graphics, which he then publishes on the Unity Asset Store. In fact, van Immerzeel, maker of “Stylized Grass Shader” and “Stylized Water 2,” says that creating these tools for game development, understanding the minutiae of nature, and translating that into virtual form, has helped foster an appreciation for the actual great outdoors. “My eyes and ears have to be open to new information, paying attention to what many people would consider the weirdest things,” van Immerzeel tells me over Zoom. “That’s just part of the job.”

For the past five years, van Immerzeel has made a living creating tools for the Unity Asset Store, an online marketplace for users of the Unity game engine. It’s jam-packed with thousands of virtual objects, some beautifully made, others less so, thrust together as if a high-end department store and thrift shop occupy the same beguiling online space. You’ll find 2D and 3D models as well as tools, scripts, and shaders (what van Immerzeel makes) — essentially anything you can think of that brings a video game to life. If you’ve never checked out an asset store before, it’s worth spending a few minutes perusing its virtual aisles. You might begin to imagine, for example, a group of Elden Ring-esque undead characters roaming an