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Tools Summit: How 'Fortnite' Designers Made Their Own Tools

Eric Carter  (Principal Technical Designer, Epic Games)

Location: Room 3004, West Hall

Date: Monday, March 20

Time: 10:50 am - 11:50 am

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Programming

Format: Lecture

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: All

Fortnite's quest team was underwater, struggling to deliver to the millions of Fortnite players who expected a steady stream of quest content. In order to meet the need for faster more flexible quest development, the team empowered designers to edit their own tools using Blueprint-driven Editor Utility Widgets, which are implemented entirely in Unreal Engine's in-editor UI system. The tools were highly specific to the content Fortnite quest designers work on, and could be edited and iterated on by the very same people who use them.

This talk will explain the benefits of this designer-centric methodology, as well as how anyone who can create UI in Unreal has the skills to create powerful asset editing and management tools and solve inefficiencies in their own workflows.

Takeaway

Attendees will understand how Fortnite's design team used Editor Utility Widgets to build their own quest tools, as well as how to apply similar methods on their own games to allow designers and artists to make their own tools.

Intended Audience

This is for game designers, technical designers, technical artists, and tools programmers—especially those who use Unreal. Some familiarity with Blueprints is expected.