Blog 2 - Game Assets

6) "Game assets are the "things" that go into a game. Some examples of assets are artwork (including textures and 3D models), sound effects and music, text, dialogue and anything else that is presented to the user. Sometimes the terms content or objects are used interchangeably with the term assets." from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_development

"Describes game assets, which are the collection of data files used to support gameplay such as bitmaps, models, textures, or sounds. Game assets are governed by the XNA Framework Content Pipeline."

"This section discusses how you can manage the game assets held by a game project.

Game Content Project
Describes a project type (nested within a standard XNA Game Studio 3.0 project) designed to store all content for a game application.

Adding Game Content Projects
Describes how XNA Game Studio supports the use of multiple content project folders within a game project.

Adding Game Assets to Your Game
Demonstrates how to add a texture asset to your game. The same procedure can also be applied to model and sound assets.

Game Asset Properties
Describes property settings indicating which actions the project system should perform on a game asset file of a supported type." from:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd282477.aspx"

Game assets can also be the currency in a MMO game that the players use to buy and sell items and earn real money in their real life bank account. For example World Of Warcraft Gold or Anarchy Online Credits. Examples:
http://www.playerauctions.com/ and http://www.guy4game.com/

Some Independent Game Developers create things and make them available to other users in the community for use in their games. This is mostly royalty free but the creators still want acknowledgment and credit if their content is being used by someone else.

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Game_assets

http://www.syntaxbomb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1657

http://learning-activities.org/widged/wiki/doku.php?id=en:assets:assets

7)Assets are the things used in games that make up the game, such as Graphics, Sound, Dialogue, Code etc. It can also mean people's assets within a game, such as game money that can be exchanged for real money. This isn't a game asset in the eyes of the developer, but of the player. People working on their own will count their own work as assets, for example Uni Students or Mod Makers. This might help them gain a job in the games industry by including it in their portfolio.

I think assets have different meanings depending on what role you have in game development. For example if you are working for a games development company and assets are readily available to you then you might not need to create your own and worry about copyright issues. If you are creating a small game by yourself then you will need to make your own assets such as 3D models, music, dialogue and make sure you put copyright on them if you wish to. Assets can also be used to make a living and to make some money in games. For example selling things for game money with other users in exchange for real life money is probably a more important asset than graphics or sound.