Hello! This is my first post in the club, and I want to dedicate it to the topic of UGC and the "lonely samurai" journey of someone who decided to pursue their dream and create content. This post is a collection of my thoughts on UGC, focusing on the material and immaterial benefits that this passion can bring if you stay committed and keep moving toward your dream, following your passion.

My personal journey into the world of art and game design is a story of self-education and hard work. Since childhood, I have been inspired by games like Warcraft 3 and Dota Allstars. When I was 14 I dreamed of working at the legendary Blizzard Entertainment — despite lacking formal education in this field and mentors, I was confident I could achieve my goal and put all my efforts into developing the skills needed for a career in the gaming industry.

I started my career at game studios Kranx Production and Katauri Interactive. At 19, I had my first approved skin in the Dota 2 Workshop. In 2016, my dream came true—I joined Blizzard. Since then, I've created hundreds of illustrations for games like Hearthstone, designed models for the Dota 2 Workshop, and contributed to projects like Marvel Snap. The Dota 2 Workshop is still my passion, and my new goal is to create 100 approved skins for the game!

Never stop creating and improving your skills—choose a direction, keep growing, and you’ll succeed! Nothing is impossible in this world, and everyone can reach their dream with effort and a proactive creative spirit!

Wishing you success and an enjoyable read, I hope my story and the thoughts I share will inspire someone involved in UGC!

What is UGC

UGC aka User Generated Content is content created by users rather than professional developers. In the gaming industry, UGC has become a way for players to showcase their creativity by creating their own items for games they love, whether they be: sets, skins, maps, mods, and even entire games. Creative freedom!

Games and Platforms

There are many games and platforms for UGC—some allow you to earn money, while others do not. This creates opportunities not just for self-expression but also for generating income. Some of them only let you upload skins, like in Dota 2, CS:GO, Rust etc., while others allow you to create entire platform-bound games, like Fortnite, Roblox, or The Sandbox.

Being a Dota 2 fan since childhood, I chose it for my creativity, it was a natural and logical step for me—I played A LOT! Dota 2 is not just a game, but a whole culture and It's an honor to be a part of it.

The options are vast, and it seems that the number of such games and platforms will continue to grow. Each person chooses the game or platform they want to work with. In an era where AI is taking over one profession after another, UGC remains a safe haven for creative people — the market size is too small to justify training AI models for it, so the sharks in suits will never fight over these pennies. However, for dedicated hobbyists, it can be a decent source of income.

More Than a Hobby

UGC is not just a source of money or creativity; it's an opportunity to bring something incredible into the world. There was a time when Dota 2 didn’t exist, there was Warcraft 3, where players created their own user generated content like — mods. One of those mods became Dota!
After years, the mod evolved to such an extent that it became a standalone game developed by Valve, a whole community of players formed around this game, and artists gained the opportunity to upload their skins into the game. Games create games!

And now, after more that 15 years, within Dota 2 itself, users can create their own content.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. The same thing happened with Counter-Strike—you do remember that it was originally a mod for Half-Life, right? The list of games that came from other games is huge: Team Fortress 2, PUBG, DayZ, Garry’s Mod, and Natural Selection 2. Perhaps one day, someone will create an island in Fortnite or a land in The Sandbox with unique gameplay, it will go viral, and it could give birth to an entirely new game genre. That’s amazing!

Teammates and Income

You have no bosses—only your goal and the hope that your work will be highly appreciated and possibly rewarded.

Some pursue their goals alone, while others form entire teams. For example, in the Dota 2 Workshop community, artists often organize small teams because it allows them to achieve results faster and showcase their work to the public. Creative work is challenging, especially when developing a game or creating complex 3D sets, so I prefer to share the workload and seek professional partners to make the journey easier.
Work in collaboration with other artists and designers is not only helps get work done faster but also brings together interesting people who, after going through creative challenges side by side, become your friends and close companions.

Some platforms allow creators to earn from the sales of created items and games. In Dota 2, artists need to create a perfect designed set that millions of players will love, while creating even a small game for Fortnite, Roblox or The Sandbox requires much more effort and skills to turn this passion into a creative business that sustains a living. But there is the fact—it’s possible to make money creating content for games and platforms, but be prepared that it’s not an easy path.

Development and Learning

Each new project is a chance to learn something new and improve skills. As a creative person, I derive great pleasure from self-improvement, and things like concept art, working with design, color, light, and form bring me joy day by day and develop my mind.

Creating a memorable character design is really requires you to stay focused and think about many aspects: the camera angle from which players will see your character, their recognizability, and how cool they feel within their own lore. This process is a great workout for the brain.

Scientists say — learning is beneficial for the brain and helps stave off Alzheimer’s disease. Well, I’ve created so much over the past 10 years that I hope it makes me immortal. Just kidding 😅

If you want to be a truly high-performing creator, you need to refine your technique, experiment a lot, learn to think efficiently, and, of course, find methods to speed up production—allowing you to bring your ideas to life quickly. The drive to work faster is important not only for concept artists, modelers, or animators. It’s especially crucial for those working on game logic, such as game designers and narrative designers.

Always strive to work efficiently and rethink your workflows. Remember, the same task can be done either quickly or endlessly.

Portfolio, Reputation and New Connections

Creating content for games and platforms can form the basis for career advancement in the gaming industry, you have to give to receive something. Regardless of whether you make money from UGC or not, you’ll walk away from this experience with — a portfolio.

UGC as hobby helps to develop your portfolio and It’s truly worth it. It makes you as a creator more visible. That’s incredibly valuable and respected because the fact that you were able to create something without a guaranteed financial reward already makes you a valuable professional. You know how to work not just for a reward, but with enthusiasm. People love enthusiasts and always choose them over opportunists.

When AI is taking over jobs and competition is incredibly fierce, it’s even more important to approach your portfolio wisely, and UGC is a great opportunity to work on it. When your project is connected to a specific game, whether Dota 2, The Sandbox, or Roblox, you’re not only building your portfolio but also your social capital. The friends you create your games or assets with today might work in studios tomorrow and could hire you. This happens. Not to mention that art directors value not just artists, but those who can communicate with colleagues and have experience in teamwork.

Successful participation in content creation helps build "a name" in professional circles. Reputation isn’t something you earn quickly; it’s like compound interest in a bank that grows your capital over the years. This topic deserves a separate article.

During the process, you can find like-minded people and potential partners for future projects. Value your friends and colleagues, maintain, protect, and develop your reputation!

Competition

Competition is probably the toughest aspect of working with UGC. The more popular a game or platform is, the more people want to contribute. This is particularly evident in Dota 2. The Dota 2 Workshop community has grown to incredible proportions over the years, and only true professionals can succeed here. I know many examples of people who spent years creating assets without visible results, but eventually succeeded and secured themselves for many years to come.

Your success depends on a game or platform and your strategy. Remember that if the game or platform is popular, one thing will remain unchanged — high competition.

However, I don’t think competition is a problem. Competition is more of an advantage because the higher the competition, the more valuable the reward and the higher the quality of content. A platform cannot be appealing with low-quality content, right? Competition is really cool; it develops our skills, makes the content more attractive to players, and that means players fall more in love with the game. It’s that simple!

Any UGC community should respect its platform and the players of that platform. I love playing quality games made with soul, and I’m sure you do too. Millions of players around the world are not much different from us, so pour your heart into your creations so players can enjoy them!

And don’t be afraid of competition. Competition is our teacher.

The future of UGC

The UGC oriented platforms can be the next evolution of the gaming industry—Game Development 2.0—where engines are becoming more accessible and a ready-made audience already exists because the platform has taken care of the marketing and has a lead game product. UEFN and Fortnite are a great example!

In the context of the platform, I particularly like The Sandbox’s Game Maker approach. I like that assets can be created really much faster than in traditional 3D—no need for UV unwrapping, really quick animating, easy game integration, and instant testing. This speeds up iteration dramatically. In Blender, modeling, unwrapping, and rigging a single asset can take days, whereas in The Sandbox, you can do it all in just one day. That’s incredible! With such efficiency, it’s only a matter of time before more studios start developing within this ecosystem.

However, there is still a lack of mechanics in Game Maker and no games in The Sandbox that make you want to come back due to the lack of replayability like in Fortnite. This is an issue that the company will need to solve.

The UGC Platforms open up new opportunities for talented and dedicated people striving for self-expression and Income. AI has entered our lives and greatly accelerated development. Creating 2D graphics has become much easier; Steam and the Epic Store release dozens, if not hundreds, of games every day. It’s likely that in the next year or two, when AI reaches generative 3D, the number of games will increase even more.

UGC platforms could become a haven for those who don’t have large resources for development and don’t want to compete with thousands of studios on Steam. There’s a lot to think about.

Tao of UGC

Tao (道) is one of the most important categories in Chinese philosophy, literally meaning "the way." Just like in the series The Mandalorian.

If you’re unsure whether to connect your way with UGC, I recommend trying your hand at creating assets at least once. Many fear wasting time, but even failure is valuable experience. Yes, you can always find stable contract work or join a studio, but UGC is for those willing to take risks and dedicate a few weeks of their life to creativity.

A Story of Risk and Success

I have a story that I always share when discussing motivation. A few years ago, I set myself the goal of creating 30 assets for Dota 2 heroes within a year. In the end, I only managed to create 16. The biggest surprise for me was that I lacked 3D artists from our community to execute the project. Out of 32 active 3D artists I surveyed, only 10 were willing to work with me, as everyone else was already busy.

The Dota 2 community is small; I don’t know exactly how many of us there are, but it’s probably no more than 500.

I decided to try working with a beginner artist. Among those who didn’t meet the required level, there was one guy who showed promise, even though his skills were average. He worked as an electrician for $250 a month but pursued 3D modeling in his free time.

His first asset was honestly terrible, and I was on the verge of giving up on our collaboration. But his persistence and willingness to redo his work won me over. He firmly said, "We need a win!" And he was right. In the end, we created several skins together. It was a start!

Even though he was good at sculpting, he didn’t get a single asset accepted in the first three years—but that didn’t break him. He kept working, got a job at a game development studio, and reached his goal. In 2023, we made a couple of assets together, and he was finally accepted into the game. From this project alone, he earned at least 200+ times his monthly electrician salary.

This is a great example of how self-belief and persistence can lead to incredible results.

For me, UGC has been a pathway into the world of game development. I've been able to create all the conditions necessary to become a financially independent developer.

At the core of my beliefs is a simple formula: risk + persistence = success. This principle works not only in UGC but in any other field as well.

If you have the chance to create something, contribute, and take a risk, do it at least once. UGC is a world of possibilities open to everyone, and it can change your life.