In Fortnite, the developers have revealed some insights into their philosophy: They focus on the creativity of the players. They turn a bug into a feature.
Donald Mustard, the Chief Creative Officer of Epic Games, shared an anecdote that he describes as important for the development of Fortnite.
Mustard recounts that during one of the first weeks of Fortnite: Battle Royale, they noticed a bug that had never been observed before. Players discovered: They could jump on a rocket fired from a rocket launcher to fly across the entire map.
In November 2017, this became a real trend among the first Fortnite players:
Fortnite players could even send each other on journeys to get from point A to point B quickly. It was even possible to fire from the rocket.
A classic exploit, a bug that was not intended.
Let’s make a feature out of it
Thus, the bug became a feature: Epic immediately called for a meeting. They entered the meeting with the idea: “Okay, we definitely need to fix this bug.”
But then they asked themselves: “Wait, do we really need to? This is actually exactly what we want: a world you can immerse yourself in. It’s no longer a bug but a feature now.”
Turning point in development: In this meeting, they considered how to support such features in the future.
Mustard says: This moment clarified a lot for the team.
Fortnite as an adaptable platform
Fortnite was envisioned as a platform: This aligns with the core idea of Fortnite. The game was actually intended to be more of a “platform” than a standalone game. A platform on which other games could be built. Originally, Fortnite was considered a “showcase” for the new Unreal Engine 4.
Thus, it was easy for Epic to transform their “Zombie-building-survival” game Fortnite into a Battle Royale shooter. After Fortnite initially flopped, the new Battle Royale mode was developed in just 2 months with the help of the developers from Unreal Tournament.
The mode launched in September 2017, and by January 2018 it had become a massive hit dominating the gaming scene. Currently, Fortnite reportedly has about 140 million players.
Fortnite relies on the creativity of players: Epic now relies on the creativity of players, especially in the Creative mode. Mustard is amazed at what players have built in the meantime.
In the beginning, they only played internally and built small structures. Here a wall, there a ramp. They never imagined that players would become so incredibly creative with building.
Who knows what features in Fortnite originally started as bugs?
Here are examples of player creativity:
