Most free asset lists are a pile of links. The thing that actually catches developers out is not finding assets — it is discovering, late in a project, that something you shipped was never licensed for commercial use.
So this list is organised by licence risk rather than by asset type. Tier 1 you can build a pipeline on. Tier 2 needs checking. Tier 3 deserves genuine caution.
First: The Three Licences You Will Actually Meet
- CC0 / public domain — use commercially, modify, ship in a paid game, credit nobody. The most permissive licence that exists.
- CC BY — commercial use is fine, but attribution is required. Start a credits file on day one rather than reconstructing it at launch.
- “Free for personal use” — this explicitly excludes commercial projects. It is the one that catches people.
Check the licence on the individual asset, not the site. Large libraries mix licences constantly, and the homepage tells you nothing about the file you just downloaded.
Tier 1 — CC0: Ship Anything, Credit Nobody
These are the sources to build on. No attribution, no revenue thresholds, no surprises two years in.
- Poly Haven — CC0 models, textures and HDRIs. The single best bookmark in 3D.
- ambientCG — thousands of CC0 PBR materials and HDRIs, no account needed
- Kenney — thousands of CC0 assets: 3D kits, sprites, UI, audio. Legendary among jam developers.
- Quaternius — CC0 low-poly packs, many pre-rigged and animated
- The Base Mesh — CC0 base meshes with clean topology
- Smithsonian 3D and Scan the World — museum-quality open-access scans
Our comparison of Kenney vs Quaternius covers which suits which project.
Tier 2 — Mixed Licences: Check Every File
All perfectly usable. Just read the terms on the specific asset.
- Sketchfab — huge library; filter by downloadable and by CC licence
- OpenGameArt — community uploads, licences vary per file
- itch.io asset section — enormous, with terms set by each creator
- Textures.com — large photo-texture library with a limited free tier
Tier 3 — Audio Deserves Its Own Warning
This is the category most likely to cause you an actual problem.
Free audio sites contain uploads that people ripped from films, games and video platforms and re-uploaded as their own. You often cannot tell unless you happen to recognise the source — and “I found it on a free site” is not a defence if a rights holder comes calling.
The safest sources:
- Sonniss GDC bundles — years of professionally recorded, licence-clean sound effects, released free. Probably the most underused resource in game development.
- Kenney Audio — CC0, moderated
- Freesound — a large and genuinely useful CC library, but the caution above applies most here
Free Software — No Trials, No Subscriptions
Blender covers modelling, sculpting, UV, texturing, rigging, animation, simulation and rendering. Godot is MIT licensed with no royalties and no revenue thresholds. Beyond those:
- Krita — painting, textures, concept art
- Blockbench — low-poly and boxy modelling, browser or desktop
- Wings 3D — subdivision modelling
- Pixelorama and LibreSprite — pixel art
- Material Maker and ArmorPaint — procedural materials and PBR painting
- MakeHuman, MeshLab, Mixamo, Cascadeur (free tier), PureRef
Full breakdown in our complete free 3D pipeline guide and our free modeling software comparison.
The Sources Almost Nobody Lists
Some of the best coverage of new free tools is published in Japanese and never reaches English roundups. MODELING HAPPY updates daily and frequently covers new Blender add-ons before English sites do. 3DNCHU and CGTracking are worth following too, and BOOTH is where much of the VTuber and avatar asset scene actually publishes.
Browser translation handles all of them fine. If you only read English sources, you are seeing a filtered version of what exists.
The Asset-Flip Problem
Free assets are fine. Unmodified free assets across an entire game are what players call an asset flip, and it will cost you reviews.
The fix is not avoiding them — it is modifying them. Recolour, rescale, kitbash pieces together, and build the hero assets yourself. Use free packs for the 80% nobody scrutinises.
Keep a Licence Log
The single most useful habit: a spreadsheet listing every asset, where it came from, and its licence. Ten seconds per download, and it saves a genuinely miserable afternoon before launch when you need to assemble attributions or prove provenance.
For the full catalogue — including learning resources, communities and news sources — see our 3D resources directory, or browse free tools in the 3DxDEV Library.
