Assets & Resources

Where to get free art assets (models, textures, materials) for use in levels

This page lists free art assets (models, textures, materials) for use in levels.

• We only list sites with robust free download plans + generic file formats that work in most engines.

• "CC license" refers to free assets with permissive Creative Commons or public domain style licenses.

• We also list other types of resources:

  • Books: list of other level design books, with brief summaries

  • Quake resources: list of free texture .WADs and other Quake-specific files

3D models and props (free)

Site	Content	CC license?
Sketchfab	biggest selection of free low poly + realistic + 3D scan assets on internet; quality varies; make sure to filter for "Downloadable"!
OpenGameArt	lots of free models designed for games, but quality varies a lot
Kenney	the most prolific free asset creator in games; many well-designed low poly 3D tilesets
Quaternius	another prolific free asset creator, lots of free low poly 3D props and characters
Fertile Soil	lots of good low poly 3D modules / tilesets, special Unity integration but works for any
BlendSwap	free community model exchange for Blender users... it's not hard to learn how to export models from .blend to .fbx / .obj
Turbosquid	used to be the biggest stock 3D platform on the internet; still some good free stuff there

Materials and textures (free)

Site	Content	CC license?
Polyhaven	many free photoscanned 8k+ PBR materials, as well as high poly model library
ambientCG	formerly CC0Textures; lots of solid 4k / 8k materials with PBR support
OpenGameArt	lots of free textures designed for games with handpainted styles, quality varies
Texture Ninja	free photosource for 1990s-2000s retro vibe, spiritual successor since CGTextures / Textures.com removed its free plan

Prototyping blockout textures

When making the blockout, we recommend using gridded placeholder textures to prototype the level geometry. This helps establish consistent scale and metrics for the level.

• Gridbox Prototype Materials by Ciathyza (Unity)

• ProtoTools by Code Respawn (Unreal 4)

• Blockout Material by Tom Looman (Unreal 4)

• Prototype Textures by Kenney (.png)

Skyboxes

A skybox is a special type of 6-sided cubemap texture that gives the illusion of a distant sky background. Contemporary game engines usually use procedural sky shaders / skydomes, but sometimes the old fashioned ways are more effective.

Quake / Half-Life style skyboxes

• https://www.quaddicted.com/webarchive/kell.quaddicted.com/skyboxes.html

• https://lvlworld.com/review/Quake%203%20Arena%20skybox%20collection

• http://www.simonoc.com/pages/artwork.htm

2D tilesets and sprites (free)

To make 2D levels, you'll usually want a tile-based level editor. See Tools.

Site	Content	CC license?
OpenGameArt	10000+ free tileset packs and sprites, mostly retro / pixel art style but lots of variety, basically the first place to look
Kenney	smooth chunky tilesets packs and sprites, very good but also very recognizable