How to Turn Your Game Asset Spreadsheet into a Structured, Searchable Catalog

Your spreadsheet got you this far

Most game studios track cosmetic assets in a spreadsheet, and for good reason. You can set one up in an afternoon, everyone on the team already knows how to use it, and it will hold any shape of data you throw at it.

The limits show up later. A spreadsheet cannot enforce a consistent structure, attach a texture file to a row, control who edits the price column, record who changed a value last Tuesday, or show you a 3D model.

PolyDrobe reads spreadsheets and writes them back. You import what you already have, add the structure and the media the sheet could never hold, and export to Excel or JSON whenever a downstream tool or a partner wants the data in a grid. Your sheet stays in the workflow as an output, and stops being the only copy of the truth.

What a structured layer adds

Once your asset data lives in PolyDrobe alongside the spreadsheet, your team gets:

Variant hierarchy. A hoodie with five colorways is one asset with five variants. You stop duplicating shared data across five rows or cramming colorways sideways into columns. Each variant carries its own thumbnail, texture, price, status and rarity, and you can query all of them.

Media on the record. Thumbnails and texture files upload to the variant they belong to, so a Google Drive link can never rot out from under you. Attach a .glb or .gltf mesh and PolyDrobe renders it in a 3D viewer in the browser.

Enforced taxonomy. You define categories, rarities, statuses and tags once in project settings, and every asset and variant picks from those values. A typo like "Lengendary" can no longer sit in the sheet breaking your filters from the inside.

Role-based access. Owners manage settings and team membership. Editors create and update content. Viewers read the catalog for QA and stakeholder review, and viewer seats cost nothing on any plan.

Activity history. Every change is logged with the user, the timestamp and a field-level diff. When someone asks who changed the price of this variant, you answer in one click instead of scrolling a spreadsheet revision log.

Full-text search. Find any asset or variant by name, description, tag or metadata, then stack filters for status, rarity, category and release version to build a view like "Epic-rarity variants in Review for Release 2.1".

How the import works

The Data Exchange page handles the import, and it shows you what it will create before it commits anything.

Step 1: Prepare your spreadsheet

Most sheets need a little cleanup first. Focus on three things:

• Consistent naming. Pick "Tactical Helmet" or "Helmet, Tactical" and apply one convention throughout.
• Valid classification values. If your sheet has a Rarity column, make every value match what you will define in PolyDrobe: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, rather than "super rare" or "gold tier".
• One row per variant. If you keep one row per asset with colorways as columns, pivot to one row per variant with a parent asset name column.

You do not have to restructure the whole sheet. The importer maps columns to fields, so an imperfect spreadsheet still imports once you map it.

Step 2: Set up your project taxonomy

Create the project first and configure the classification system in Project Settings:

• Categories: Headwear, Outerwear, Accessories, Weapons, or however your team groups items
• Rarities: Common through Legendary, with colors and priority ordering
• Statuses: Concept, In Progress, Review, Approved, Released
• Tags, currencies and releases: as your pipeline needs them

Do this before you import anything. The importer validates every record against your taxonomy, so a category or rarity has to exist before a row can reference it.

Step 3: Export and import

Export your spreadsheet to Excel (.xlsx) or JSON and upload it on the Data Exchange page. The importer then:

1. Parses every row and maps columns to PolyDrobe fields
2. Validates values against your taxonomy and flags unknown categories, rarities and the rest
3. Previews what it will create, errors included
4. Lets you fix the errors and re-upload, or commit the valid records

Import large catalogs in batches. One category at a time lets you check each batch before you move on.

Step 4: Add what the sheet could not hold

With the base data in, add the parts that were impossible in a grid:

• Upload thumbnails and textures to each variant
• Attach mesh files for 3D preview
• Set precise statuses for pipeline tracking
• Invite the team and assign roles

Your catalog is now searchable, filterable, media-rich and access-controlled, and it still exports back to a spreadsheet on demand.

Keeping spreadsheets in the loop

Data Exchange runs in both directions:

• Export to Excel when a publisher wants asset data in their format, when your analytics team wants raw numbers for a pricing model, or when a partner studio needs a deliverables list.
• Export to JSON when a build pipeline, a CI system or a custom tool needs structured data.

Every export reflects the current state of each asset and variant, including status, price, rarity and metadata. Your spreadsheet becomes a downstream artifact, which means it is accurate on the day you generate it.

Some teams keep a Google Sheet in sync with a periodic JSON export, for stakeholders who think in grids. That works. The sheet needs to come out of a catalog rather than serve as one.

When to make the move

Move when you start feeling the friction: duplicate rows, broken image links, names that do not match between tabs, prices that disagree, and new hires asking which spreadsheet is the current one.

The free plan covers 1 project, 3 members, unlimited assets and 100 variants. That is enough to import a real slice of your catalog and judge whether the structure earns its place before you pay for anything.

Key takeaways

• Spreadsheets make a fine starting point and a useful output format, and PolyDrobe reads and writes them both ways.
• The importer validates every record against your taxonomy before it commits, so bad values never land in the catalog.
• After the import, add what a grid cannot hold: media, 3D previews, role-based access and activity history.
• Export back to Excel or JSON whenever a downstream tool or partner needs a sheet.
• The free plan is large enough to run a full import pilot.