Hey Everyone!

While we have been hard at work developing our flagship title Ravenwood, our team at Azure Ravens have also taken a foray into a different kind of game development. Working with a couple of our junior developers, Azure Ravens has launched its first ever Fortnite Map: Dodgeball Blitz! A fun 5v5 arena dodgeball match. And if you are eliminated, you can run the obstacle course to get back in the action or wait your time out. After finishing our launch, I wanted to talk today about some of the aspects of developing maps and game modes for Fortnite, what UEFN is, the current pros and cons of developing in it, and a hint and what is up next for Azure Ravens and Fortnite.

First, how are we able to make maps for Fortnite? Well, Epic Games recently launched the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, an editor tool built on top of Epic’s Unreal Engine Editor, with practically the same user interface and tools. This made our initial jump into UEFN very easy to adjust to, with Unreal being an editor our entire team is familiar with. As we acclimated to the new editor, there were a few new features we had to learn about and get familiar with.

One of the best things about developing maps in UEFN are the easy access to Devices and Props. Devices are like Blueprint Actors in Unreal, letting us perform a specific function or mechanic with a pre-built prefab, including a bunch of different customizable settings. This lets us quickly and easily create things like Spawners, Teleporters, Items like our “dodgeballs”, and so much more. It is also great for early prototyping and playtesting, letting us quickly get into games and see what feels good and what doesn’t. Props, like devices, are prebuilt environment assets that let us pull from the existing Fortnite environment sets, allowing us to quickly build and iterate over our level design.

Some mechanics need to be more custom than what is already pre-built in a Device, and for that, we need to write custom code to perform those functions. Instead of C++ for Unreal, UEFN uses Verse, a high-level scripting language used to create custom devices to perform certain actions. This lets us create our own unique solutions and mechanics, such as our custom HUD for scorekeeping, or triggering the obstacle course to move whenever players arrive. Below is an example of some code we wrote for when players join late and need to refresh the spawners. Verse is still early in its development, but it has been exciting to learn and develop in!

So what’s next? Well with the successful release of Dodgeball Blitz, which had over 2,500 players on its launch day, we plan to continually release updates and improvements to make this map amazing! We also are looking to expand our map, including a HUB where players can choose a variety of different arenas to play in, giving them a ton of options. We are also working on a couple more unique maps and game modes, including a 1v1 and Capture the Flag, which we are planning to hopefully launch here soon as well.

If you want to stay up to date with our Fortnite Maps, follow the link below to our Creator Portal, where we will be showcasing all of our new and existing maps. Also check out our trailer and get a copy of the map code below for Dodgeball Blitz! Let us know your thoughts and we hope you have as much fun playing it as we have had making it!

Azure Ravens Fortnite Creator: https://www.fortnite.com/@azureravens

Dodgeball Blitz: https://www.fortnite.com/@azureravens/9425-2543-3160?lang=en-US
Map Code: 9425-2543-3160

- Connor Thompson, Technical Director