A proper guide to game asset management

While developing a game, you may have noticed that your assets folder starts to resemble a digital garage sale, depending on the complexity of your project. You may find models mixed with audio files, textures next to old UI sprites from three months ago, and all with file names like "character_final_final_v2.fbx."

Welcome to the wild world of game asset management ! Don’t worry; you’re not alone. Whether you're working alone or with a team, it's important to get a handle on your game assets early on. In this article we will cover the following topics:

1. File sharing - sharing file with your team members
2. Metadata - attaching additional information to your assets
3. Version control - collaboration with team members
4. Usage of AI - auto tagging and image search
5. Integrations - integration in game engines and 3D tools
6. Compatibility - ease of integration with your tools and server infrastructure.

1. Cloud file sharing

For small projects, cloud storages like Google Drive can be sufficient, but it only allows you to organize in hierarchies. It lacks cross references and version control.

For one of my past projects, our two artists used a few dedicated Google Drive folders for concepts and engine ready exports. After the producer and game designer reviewed each asset, they moved it to the export area. There, either the programmer or the level designer imported the asset into the Unity project structure and committed it to the main repository.

While this worked well for us due to the simplicity of the project, it could have become confusing and inefficient quite fast if the project had a higher number of assets and a bigger team. In that case, we would have needed proper game asset management tools.

2. Importance of Metadata (Tagging, Licensing, Annotations...)

Dedicated game asset management tools, such as Anchorpoint or Perforce Helix DAM, offer proper art management features on top of the version control system. These features allow developers to tag assets with metadata, such as the custom tags, date, creator and more, which in turn makes it easier to track and manage assets throughout the development cycle.

Since cloud storage services like Google Drive can only share files, not properly manage them, you won't get far using only folders and naming conventions. This is where dedicated digital asset management (DAM) systems come in.

DAM systems were initially developed in the 1990s to address the challenge of storing and organizing digital files, particularly for media, publishing, and print companies that needed solutions for managing large libraries of videos and photos.

By the mid-2010s, these systems had expanded their capabilities to include almost all digital asset types, such as images, videos, audio files, PDFs, and text-based documents. Today, not only are DAM systems used for managing digital assets, they are also used for fostering collaboration across companies.

One of the major advantages of using tags is cross-referencing files. For example, if you search the tag "NPC," you will see all the assets tagged "NPC." This helps organize and find assets quickly, since long file names and deep folder structures can be difficult to browse.

In addition, you can use these tools to add tasks and descriptions, as well as define licensing for certain assets. This will help you track license terms and avoid potential copyright issues.

Good metadata helps you understand an asset's context, usage, and history. This could include:

• Tags or labels (e.g., "jungle", "UI", "enemy")
• Descriptions of intended use
• Author/creator information
• Licensing or copyright info

If you don't have much experience with digital asset management (DAM) tools, you can start with Adobe Bridge, which is free and allows you to manage your asset libraries using the XMP format.

XMP is used in various file formats, including PDF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, WebP, TIFF, Adobe Illustrator (.psd), MP3, and MP4. It stores information about changes made to an image during post-processing. This information can be saved as a separate XMP file, also called a "sidecar" file. The downside is that it has limited file compatibility and is difficult to use without dedicated apps. This is especially true due to the extra sidecar file, which can be lost during transfers.

3. Version control

Having a repository with a backup and version history is helpful even if you're working alone. It gives you a clear view of the development process and it will help you track changes to files, revert to previous versions, collaborate without overwriting work, and avoid data loss.

The purpose of version control systems is to allow multiple team members to collaborate on a project without risking overwriting each other's contributions.

• It maintains a complete record of all changes, providing a clear overview of the production process.
• It offers backup and recovery, allowing you to revert or reset to earlier versions when necessary.
• You can use file locking to prevent conflicts.
• With a basic CI/CD pipeline, your cloud host can build, deploy, and announce new versions to your team members.

In addition to version control, apps like Anchorpoint offer many extra features, such as file reviews. With these, you can view a file's history and add comments for developers. You can also convert files to different formats, such as .png or .mp4, and create referenced material files. This feature allows you to reference a master file instead of manually changing each instance in Unity, Unreal, or other engines.

4. Proper usage of AI

Some game management tools offer AI scripts that can automatically tag your assets. For example, you can use OpenAI’s GPT-40 minimodel to create a searchable asset library in Anchorpoint. The model will add tags specific to your assets and detect whether an asset is a sprite, texture, bicycle model, etc. The model can also scan folders and add tags that summarize their contents.

For those with security concerns, you can write or modify the AI to use only the file path and name. Then, the AI will be able to tag files based out of context and a prompt. This process will also benefit your asset library by making it more searchable.

Another use case for AI is image searches. When you need an old file from, say, your huge 2020 assets library, you can use AI to scan the exported image. The AI will search the library, find the source image, and locate similar ones, saving you time.

5. Integrations to game engines and 3D DCCs

Integrating game engines and 3D digital content creation (DCC) tools with game asset management systems is critical to maintaining smooth workflows and minimizing file shuffling and human errors, such as entering incorrect data, misplacing files, or forgetting to update records.

It's important to have thumbnails (textures and models) and metadata for each asset in your tools for quick review. Most importantly, your tools should integrate with popular engines and, where possible, with 3D DCC tools. With Anchorpoint and similar apps, you can commit directly from engines like Unity and Unreal. The main app stays in the background to handle more complex operations.

Based on the API, you should also be able to write scripts. For example, you could write a script that imports materials directly from the app into your Blender scene.

6. Compatibility to your IT infrastructure and tools

Game asset management apps should be compatible with your storage(cloud or personal servers) and able to quickly generate thumbnails for your asset library. Imagine all the popular texture and model formats.

Before implementing or purchasing a new digital asset management (DAM) tool, consult the IT department to determine whether it can be used with the company's current infrastructure of servers. Does the onboarding process require a lot of implementation work, or is the tool already compatible with the current infrastructure?

For example, if you already have a Microsoft system that uses OneDrive for assets, a game asset management system like Anchorpoint can use it. You won't need to maintain another server for your assets or migrate elsewhere. The same applies if you already use Git and have developers who use and maintain a Git server. You can reuse that with Anchorpoint without setting up another server that needs to be updated and maintained.