
There are many ways to make a living in game dev, the obvious one is selling games, but becoming an asset publisher is also a valid path!
You can make either visual assets, or you can make all kinds of tools to help developers make their own games.
However while it's definitely a viable path, do keep in mind how it's basically just as crowded as Steam. Don't expect to just put up a random Low Poly pack and suddenly make $10,000, that likely won't happen.
The Asset Store doesn't have a robust discovery algorithm like Steam, so it requires a lot of marketing on your end which is quite difficult to do. Asset marketing doesn't really have wishlist or any of that Steam marketing meta.
You need something very special to get a ton of visibility, or you need a following to market the asset. That's how I was able to find sucess with my Toolkit asset, cmonkey.co/toolkit it was because I spent the last 8 years building an audience. Without it I don't think it would have found success, even if it was as useful as it actually is.
On the Asset Store it is very important to find success right at launch. You need to sell enough copies to have your asset rise above the rest in order to be invited into future sales, and that's where you actually make money.
And just like with Steam you need to think of a marketable idea, you need something that developers actually need. They probably don't need yet another Low Poly Weapon pack, there's already thousands of those. So think of what unique visual assets or tools might developers need, and then find a way to reach those developers.
So it is a viable path that you should know about and maybe experiment with, but do be aware it's not easy. Best of luck!

English


