diff --git a/client/Cargo.toml b/client/Cargo.toml
index 8de7ee6485..daa1c7b98f 100644
--- a/client/Cargo.toml
+++ b/client/Cargo.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ authors = ["Joshua Barretto <joshua.s.barretto@gmail.com>"]
 edition = "2018"
 
 [dependencies]
-common = { package = "veloren-common", path = "../common" }
+common = { package = "veloren-common", path = "../common", features = ["no-assets"] }
 
 byteorder = "1.3.2"
 uvth = "3.1.1"
diff --git a/common/Cargo.toml b/common/Cargo.toml
index 8a213f42bb..206194e0eb 100644
--- a/common/Cargo.toml
+++ b/common/Cargo.toml
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ version = "0.4.0"
 authors = ["Joshua Barretto <joshua.s.barretto@gmail.com>", "Maciej Ćwięka <mckol363@gmail.com>", "Imbris <imbrisf@gmail.com>"]
 edition = "2018"
 
+[features]
+no-assets = []
+
 [dependencies]
 specs-idvs = { git = "https://gitlab.com/veloren/specs-idvs.git" }
 
diff --git a/common/build.rs b/common/build.rs
index 2abf3b0af1..385f9ef7d7 100644
--- a/common/build.rs
+++ b/common/build.rs
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ fn main() {
         Err(e) => panic!("failed to retrieve current git commit hash: {}", e),
     }
     // Check if git-lfs is working
-    if std::env::var("DISABLE_GIT_LFS_CHECK").is_err() {
+    if std::env::var("DISABLE_GIT_LFS_CHECK").is_err() || cfg!(not(feature = "no-assets")) {
         let asset_path: PathBuf = ["..", "assets", "voxygen", "background", "bg_main.png"]
             .iter()
             .collect();