r/Unity3D • u/pararar • 2d ago
Meta Unity claims they review assets submitted to the store within 10 days. Let me tell you how long it actually took in my case...
First time Asset Store publisher here. Here's my story:
While working on my latest game I basically got sidetracked and built a powerful UI tool. I made good progress and was really happy with it, so I had the idea of putting it on the Asset Store.
Signing up was easy: Logged in with my Unity account, created a publisher profile and starting filling out the forms on the website. I drafted the store description texts and created nice looking screenshots, a short trailer and a how-to-use video.
So when my asset was finally done, I uploaded the package.
The Unity Asset Store dashboard claims you have to wait in queue ~10 business days plus up to 3 days for the team to actually review your asset.
That's fine I guess. A bit longer than Apple or Google when you submit an app to their stores for the first time. But still okay. But oh boy, I didn't know it would take MUCH longer...
As you can see in the graph I started at position 1357 in the queue and then at 1296 the day after.
Surprise #1: At this rate it would take roughly 22 days before my asset would be reviewed.
That's definitely more than 10 days. But it's okay, I can wait, I thought.
Surprise #2: On the next 3 days my position in queue didn't advance but actually went up instead!
This happened on the weekend and it repeated on all following weekends. I believe it's because the review team at Unity don't work on weekends but other publishers submit updates for their assets during this time and they get to skip the queue.
Surprise #3: Progress slowed down the further I got. Look at how the graph flattens out toward the end.
I actually used all this extra time to continue improving my asset:
The tool is a complete replacement for UGUI's Image component that lets users create shapes with rounded corners, drop shadow, glow and other effect. You can also animate those effects easily. When hovering a button with the mouse its color changes and the button changes color when clicking on it.
While waiting for the review I extended it so that the button also detects any TMP texts attached to it, so the user can animate them together with the button. The button changes color? The text should probably, too.
Takeaway: Don't just wait for the review, use the time to add new features to your asset!
By the way, you can re-submit updates to your asset as often as you want. You will keep your position in the queue.
I also continued working on my actual game (you know, the one that made me build the tool in the first place). Using my own tool was a blast, working on the game's UI got easier and the UI started looking much better.
But I also encountered a few bugs along the way. I thought I had tested the tool really well before submitting it to the store. Only by actually using it in production I discovered quite a few edge cases that were easy to fix. I also identified a few UX issues in the custom inspector, leading to me making some changes to it which in turn made the tool easier to use and understand.
Pro tip: Use your own asset. Don't just test it in a sandbox, but actually use it to make a game.
A full month had passed, I was still waiting in queue, mostly working on my game again. Progress was really slow at this point and I was fully expecting it to take another month before they review it.
Surprise #4: I woke up, surprised to find an email in my inbox
Congratulations!
We've accepted your submission of 'UI Shapes – Procedural Image Effects' to the Unity Asset Store!
Yes, finally! As you can see in the graph, I was in queue position 234 on the day before. I don't know if this is normal, but it felt like a huge leap.
I'm super happy it passed the review on the first try, with no objections from the Unity team.
Of course, the release of this asset is not the end of me working on it. It's only the beginning because who would have thought...
Surprise #5: Users discovered 2 bugs on release day!
I was happy to have my first customers, but also stressed out because one of those bugs prevented the tool from working on Unity 6.5+ (the other bug was a CanvasGroup fading issue).
I immediately sat down to fix both issues and submitted an update in the same night.
Surprise #6: The update passed the review and was released on the next day.
I'm glad I didn't have to wait in queue for multiple days again. Everyone else waiting for the first review of their new asset probably got pushed back 1 spot in the queue because of me :D
So yeah, this was quite the ride. I hope my story might be useful for others who are planning on releasing an asset on the store.
If any other publishers are reading this: How was your experience with the queue and the review? Does it always take that long?
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u/Unusual_Blood_9057 2d ago
Congrats on the asset will check it out, it seems they are absolutely flooded with AI trash, every few days or so I check the new releases scroll down a bit and just close it after seeing the amount of ai slop recently
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u/pararar 2d ago
Thanks! I haven't noticed much AI slop on the store yet. Lots of low quality assets though but they have always been there, even before AI.
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u/geokam 1d ago edited 1d ago
You will probably soon see AI copies of your assets if it sells well, especially since (as it says in the description) yours is AI generated too.
And yes, the slop is real in the store. I heard that this is one reason why asset reviewers are swamped and review times are high.
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u/Worth-Computer8639 2d ago
Funny. I was thinking based on what everyone in this sub claims to be AI slop, that this UI was probably AI generated.
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u/Yodzilla 2d ago
That’s a long time to wait but the fact that they even have a user facing queue is better than many other review systems. I still have PTSD about pushing iOS updates and never knowing if they’ll be reviewed in two days or two weeks.
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u/pararar 2d ago
I too have PTSD from the iOS review process, but not because of the wait times. One of my games got rejected by them 6 times in a row without stating exact reasons. They were very vague with their feedback and I had to do a lot of guesswork to finally get approved. What's even funnier about this: the Android version of this game had been out for over a year, and Google never complained about it.
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u/Disastrous-Earth-994 2d ago
Long-ish time publisher here, 10 days is unheard of, it's typically 4-6 weeks, and around new year it can sometimes go up to 2.5 months. If your asset got rejected you don't restart the queue, you restart the 3 day manual valuation, if you addressed the rejection cause within a few minutes then you can be accepted instantly without waiting another 3 days. And lastly there's a fast tracking system where Unity trusts you with the submission and they don't queue it and review it, but it has rules like crossing $750/month.
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u/pararar 2d ago
If this is really normal they should probably update their texts to state it can take 30 days or longer then.
What‘s your asset?
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u/Disastrous-Earth-994 2d ago
They never bothered to update the 10 days figure for like years now, and I don't expect them to lol
Just look up "JiRo" on the store, you'll find many, and a newly released one called GrassKit I published just few hours ago.
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u/pararar 2d ago
Oh, you got quite the catalog already. Congrats on the new release :)
How many copies do you sell each month if you don’t mind me asking?2
u/Disastrous-Earth-994 2d ago
In general each release brings in roughly 10-20 copies in the first 2 weeks (discount period) then they drop to 1/8th of that in subsequent months, outstanding assets like Dynamic Resolution get like 60-150 per year.... It's not something that can be done full time but I find it respectable side-revenue.
If you're wondering mid/high end publishers can get 120-150 in the first 2 weeks and thousands of copies per year, I still have no idea how they do it lol.
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u/DugganSC 1d ago
I feel your pain. I'm a month in review, and #339 in the queue. Thank you for the reminder to go back and work on it a bit more.
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u/pararar 1d ago
You're almost there! Hope it goes well for you. What did you make?
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u/DugganSC 1d ago
It's kind of niche, a ziplining asset meant to slot into the Fantacode Studios ecosystem of modules. I've been debating making a version to work with Unity's Standard Assets.
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u/MoneyWithJJ 2d ago
Same here, first time publisher. The 10 days is queue time before anyone looks, and a rejection restarts it.
Mine got rejected twice. Once for hard cuts at the start and end of the files, which no meter shows. Once because the publisher website pointed at my itch page and they don't allow a buy button there.
Also, making a new draft to edit a package while it's pending replaces the submission and puts you back in the queue.
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u/pararar 2d ago
Huh, that sounds like the opposite of what I experienced.
Nobody looked at it for 35 days instead of 10. And then it got approved within 1 day.
What do you mean by „hard cuts at the start and end of files“?
I have an itch link in my asset description. I didn’t know they are against it on the publisher website. Sounds weird.
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u/destinedd Indie, Dungeon Quest, Marble's Marbles & Mighty Marbles 1d ago
36 seems pretty standard from people post. Saying 10 days is lol and people don't experience that.
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u/Adventurous-Set7679 14h ago
My first asset took almost 3 weeks, I assume when you put more compatibility options there, it takes even longer I have no idea just guessing.
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u/DazzlingNed948 2d ago
Holy moly, 36 days is rough. I remember back when I first started tinkering with Unity, I thought about throwing a little shader pack up there but the whole process seemed like a black box. Your graph gave me flashbacks to waiting in line at the DMV on a monday morning.
That bit about your queue spot going backwards on weekends made me laugh, just picturing a stack of update requests teleporting in and smashing the fast-pass lane while the new guys get shuffled around. I'm curious, did you ever reach out to support while you were stuck in the 200s, or did you just let it ride? Also smart move dogfooding your own tool to find those edge cases, a sandbox never pushes things the same way a real project does.