Building the Asset Layer Creator Hub

Turning Apps into Living Ecosystems

Client: Asset Layer

My Role: Lead Designer

Tools: Figma, Mixpanel, Zoom for User Testing

Asset Layer Website: AssetLayer.com (Must Create Account and Sign-in to View Creator Hub)

Part 1: What the heck is an Asset Layer?

App development has traditionally been a closed-loop system, where developers create content and players consume it. Asset Layer set out to change that. Asset Layer helps developers accelerate their apps (typically games) into full ecosystems with exchangeable assets, boosting retention, monetization, and user acquisition.

To bring this vision to life, Asset Layer needed a Creator Hub—a centralized space where creators could submit, manage, and track their contributions with ease. Asset Layer has a rich and diverse feature set (shown below), a strength that also can lead to complications. The challenge was designing an interface that served both developers and independent creators, ensuring seamless collaboration between them.

Part 2: Who are the stars of our show?

To deliver the right tools to the right users, we need to understand who they are. Asset Layer’s user base naturally falls into two distinct groups. Let’s meet them:

App Owners

These are the developers building and managing games on the Asset Layer platform. Their needs included:

  • A way to curate and approve third-party content.

  • A streamlined process for integrating creator assets into their games.

  • A system to manage multiple applications efficiently.

Creators

These are individuals contributing assets, artwork, and extensions to games. They needed:

  • A frictionless submission process for uploading their content.

  • Clear tracking of approval status and feedback from game developers.

  • Easy access to resources and documentation to get started.

By understanding these two groups, we ensured the platform would be powerful yet approachable for everyone involved

The adjacent diagram breaks down the hierarchy of key features for each user group. Creators fall into two categories: Developers, who build mods and extensions, and Artists, who submit assets and collections to apps.

Note: A “Collection” refers to a group of assets that can be either identical or unique.

Step A. A Centralized "Home Base" for Creators

The first step was creating a dashboard that provided an at-a-glance overview of key information:

👩‍🏫 Guides & resources – Tutorials to help creators get started quickly.

🗂️ Projects – A clear view of which projects the creator is contributing to.

📥 Recent activity – Quick access to submitted assets, approvals, and pending actions.

This ensured that, whether a user was a first-time creator or a seasoned contributor, they could navigate the platform without confusion.

Part 3: Designing the Experience

With our user insights in place, we mapped out the core experience of the Creator Hub. The goal was to remove barriers and make participation effortless.

Step B. A Streamlined Submission Process

Submitting assets needed to be as simple and intuitive as possible. We designed a step-by-step submission flow that allowed creators to:

⬆️ Provide Assets - Upload assets in multiple formats.

📂 Organize Submissions - Categorize their content properly.

📄 Provide Context - Add metadata and descriptions for developers.

This approach eliminated friction, allowing more creators to participate with minimal learning curves. The image below shows the final screen in the submission process.

Step C. Giving Developers Control Over Content

To ensure quality and alignment with game design, developers needed control over what gets added to their games. The Creator Hub includes:

👍 A review & approval system where developers can accept or reject submissions.

💬 A messaging system for direct feedback between developers and creators.

📚 A content library where developers can browse and manage third-party assets.

By providing these tools, the Creator Hub becomes a bridge between creators and game studios, ensuring smooth collaboration.

Key Considerations in Our Process:

Due to the limited time and resources of Asset Layer, we had to be sure that this design was built to last. This meant an additional focus on:

Lightweight, scalable designs – Suitable across a number of devices and screen resolutions, kept flexible to accommodate future feature expansions.
Rapid iteration – Used Figma to build design components and test quickly.
Close collaboration with developers – Ensured feasibility and smooth implementation.

Our process allowed us to move fast while staying user-focused, making adjustments based on real-world testing.

Part 4: Designing with Efficiency: The Process

Working within a fast-paced startup environment, we needed to balance ambition with practicality. We focused on lean design principles to ensure speed without sacrificing quality.

Competitive Analysis: Learning from Existing Platforms

Before finalizing our approach, we analyzed existing UGC (User-Generated Content) platforms in the industry. While there were a few too many takeaways to list here, I’ve included some of the major platforms we looked at:

Steam Workshop – A well-established marketplace for modders, but with complex integration for developers.
Roblox Creator Marketplace – A thriving UGC ecosystem, yet limited to their proprietary game engine.
Epic Games Creator Economy – Strong incentives for creators, but a lack of a centralized dashboard experience for tracking contributions.

Check out some of my extended research findings here.

How the Creator Hub Stands Out

Unlike these platforms, Asset Layer's Creator Hub focuses on multi-game compatibility, frictionless submissions, and direct collaboration between developers and contributors. By removing unnecessary complexity, we ensured more creators could get involved—without a steep learning curve.

Part 5: The Outcome / How’d we do?

In just a few design sprints, the Creator Hub went from initial concepts to high-fidelity designs, creating a foundation for an interactive, community-driven app ecosystems. Post-implementation, this led to a large uptick in the amount of users on our platform, as we 10x’d the total apps in the few weeks after launch.

What This Means for our Users:

😀 Easier integration of user-generated content – Apps evolve with fresh, community-driven updates.

🏋️‍♂️ Empowered creators – Artists and designers can contribute directly to the gaming industry.

💪 Stronger game communities – Developers and players engage in a more collaborative experience.

By placing creators at the core, Asset Layer successfully launched a tool that transforms static enviroments into living, breathing worlds, powered by community contributions.

Part 6: Final Thoughts and Looking Ahead

The Creator Hub is just the beginning. With the foundation now in place, Asset Layer is exploring ways to:

📈 Expand support for more content types.
💰 Introduce monetization opportunities for creators.
🤝 Further streamline collaboration between game developers and contributors.

As the industry shifts toward more open, creator-friendly experiences, Asset Layer is positioning itself at the forefront.