Like any structured endeavor, game design and development can be broken down into several small, essential building blocks. One core aspect of the game development process is asset acquisition.

Some developers prefer to create custom visual assets for their characters and level designs. However, others prefer to reuse already created assets. But where could you possibly find high-quality visuals for your games? Follow along as we reveal some handy websites you can use.

1. Kenney.nl

Stylistic and compact are two words that immediately come to mind when browsing the Kenney.nl website. It’s the perfect platform for game developers working on projects that tend to be more stylistic than realistic.

Kenney offers model packs for mini worlds and character templates that give off a mobile game feel. The offerings aren’t limited to a single genre, and you can find useful assets for almost any type of game you can think of.

Kenney’s offerings also expand beyond fully put-together models. You can find individual building blocks on the website that can come together and elevate the quality of whatever development project you are working on.

One can find 2D and 3D assets on the site. It also offers texture packs that can help you distinguish materials from one another. The platform is user-friendly and easily navigated, with a helpful search bar and search filters.

The graphical assets offered on Kenney are not restricted to a single game engine. As such, you don’t have to worry about the files interacting negatively with your project. Ultimately, the universal nature of these assets elevates Kenney, placing it on a list of the best websites with free assets for Unity.

2. Glitchthegame.com

With game development, things do not always go according to plan. When a long-term project is scrapped, the assets are typically stowed away with the prospect of possibly featuring in another project. The team behind Glitchthegame had a different idea in mind.

Glitchthegame was intended to be an adventure title with a wonderful world and a colorful cast of characters. They even went as far as to build a system with skills, achievements, and items. Unfortunately, the project ended in 2012, and the assets were released into the public domain.

The game assets have been neatly arranged into different sections with their own web pages, most of which are available for download. Consequently, this site is perfect for developers with a similar development style to what is portrayed in Glitch. The clear asset delineation will save you time with your search, and you can typically find whatever you need in a few minutes.

What’s more? An entire section is dedicated to ideas that could have improved the game. As a result, you can take these ideas and tailor them to whatever project you are currently running.

3. Unity Asset Store

Unity is one of the popular game development engines out there, serving as the foundation for popular titles like Hollow Knight, Beat Saber, and Hearthstone. The Unity team is passionate about supporting the game development community, and their asset store is one great way they help.

The Unity asset store centralizes the hunt for decent visual, audio, and miscellaneous imports that can be used in your Unity projects. An entire section is dedicated to free assets to inspire developers to keep pushing with their projects despite any monetary constraints.

An exciting thing about the Unity store is the wide compatibility of the assets offered. You can use these assets in projects they are working on in other game engines. This is largely because most of the assets export in either OBJ or FBX, which are some of the best 3D file formats.

The Unity store is broken down into multiple sections, offering 2D and 3D building blocks alongside a wide selection of visual effects. Ultimately, a short perusal of the Unity Asset Store may be just what you need to push that large development project forward.

4. Unreal Engine Marketplace

Unreal Engine powers some of the most impressive games in the modern development landscape. However, finding the right asset to fit a game developed in Unreal Engine can be intimidating. Fortunately, Epic Games have simplified the process with the introduction of the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

The marketplace offers a long list of quality assets designed and executed by talented programmers that are intimately familiar with the Unreal Engine. It offers everything from incredibly designed game models to textures in both 2D and 3D.

Some of the available offerings are compatible with Unreal Engine 4 and 5, while some may be designed specifically for one or the other. The marketplace also features demo hyperrealistic landscapes designed and executed by the Unreal Engine team for users to play around with and experience.

These assets are created with other developers in mind and are usually intuitive and simple to incorporate into any project you may be working on. What’s more, the free section of the marketplace is vast and worth perusing. As a result, you might as well find the missing piece to a level design or inspiration for a character on one of those pages.

5. Gamefresco

Visualization is an important step in the game development process. Sadly, it is typically difficult to tell if certain assets mesh well together when acquiring them online. This is one aspect of asset acquisition that Gamefresco stands out in.

The Gamefresco website offers a long list of character, environmental, and textural figures that users can choose from and add to a collection. Once in a collection, users can easily compare assets to one another, and this helps when working with a theme on your project.

The icons offered could fit in as items, pointers, and other user interface elements. In addition, the environments are simple but detailed and high quality. As such, there is something for every developer on the Gamefresco website, all things considered.

6. GameDev Market

Gamedev Market is a one-stop shop for tons of free 2D assets. The platform also offers 3D models, but the great ones are paid for. Fortunately, the vast 2D selection more than makes up for this flaw.

The sprites are incredibly detailed, and the backgrounds could work well in any genre. It is also easily navigated with the filters that let you sort by genre, recency, and the monetary nature of the asset (paid or free). Unfortunately, you can’t sort the listings by price.

GameDev Market caters to a long list of video game genres. This includes adventure, fantasy, anime, arcade, racing, and puzzles. Finally, assets obtained from this site are public domain and do not require artist accreditation of any nature.

7. Textures.com

Textures.com is widely known in the graphic design space. It is an incredibly handy website that offers detailed texture models that can be incorporated into any graphical endeavor. Textures.com offers fundamental assets like 3D objects, ornaments, and materials. Impressively, it also offers realistic foliage, which is tough to find.

The extensive selection offered on Texture.com is a reason it is a preferred site for free blender textures. Another reason is the free resources offered on the platform.

The free page on the website offers a small sample of all the platform has to offer, such as wood-grained textures, rock textures, and more. However, there’s a limit to the number of textures a free user can download daily.

Textures.com uses a credit system for asset acquisition. Free users get free credits, while premium users get premium credits. Consequently, the number of credits allotted to a free account every day determines what assets can be downloaded by the user.

Putting the Building Blocks Together

The hunt for quality game assets is never ending and has become a core stage in the game development process. But with the handy sites on this list, half of the trouble is solved. Granted, the assets offered here are not the end-all, be-all, but they present you with a great place to start.