PROJECT INTRODUCTION
On December 11 2024, Fortnite released a Early Launch of their new FPS Tactical Shooter mode, Ballistic. A week later, they introduced the First Person Camera & Weapons into UEFN, the Editor for making Fortnite Maps & Levels. Ever since then, I wanted to make my own Tactical Strategy & Shooter map. I got right into the Editor, and started learning Verse scripting, messing with In-Editor built game systems, and created one of my favorite maps ever.
PROJECT DETAILS
- UEFN Fortnite
- Total Team of 3
- Level Designer & Game Designer
- Unreal Engine 5
Welcome to Bavarian Borough, a once-peaceful alpine village now caught in the heat of battle! Attackers must infiltrate cobblestone streets and quaint market squares to plant the bomb, while defenders risk everything to protect their home. Strategy, precision, and nerves of steel will decide who claims victory in this high-stakes clash amidst old-world charm.
Key Features
- Each player gets to pick their own custom class which will give them unique and special grenades for specific tactical situations.
- Attackers must Defeat the Defenders by Eliminating the Defenders, or by planting the bomb.
- There is a total of 13 rounds, the first team to 7 wins!
- Custom UI & Custom Gameplay Systems are in to replicate the new and upcoming Ballistic Game Mode coming out for Creators soon!
RESPONSIBILITES
- Set Dressing & Level Art for making the beautiful aesthetic of Bavarian Borough.
- Scripting in C# and designing in-game events, the custom Round Timer, The UI/UX Design, as well as the Bomb Events (exploding and defusing)
- Verse Scripting, Memory / Asset Optimization, Audio Design, Lighting, Post Processing, & Fog Atmosphere Blending.
- I had to code & script an event where the main entrance doors slam and lock behind the player, causing a loud sound event as well as starting the game.
- Level Design Pureref Art Reference board
- Reviewing & updating any bugs that were happening within the level.
- Self Quality Assurance & Testing
ACHIEVEMENTS
- This is my first official UEFN Fortnite map that I published to the public!
- I learned how to do a ton of Technical Level Design scripting using Verse within Unreal Engine, gaining some knowledge into how Unreal Engine works as well with its code development.
- For an awesome start for 2025, this is my first personal project I’ve actually completed and pushed myself to extremely high quality!
PureRef Environment References
Before I started any production on Bavarian Borough, I immediately got to work in finding Enviroment references using PureRef. This allowed me to research and review a German-Village inspired themed environment and town that I was going to come up with to design an environment with. I found a town in Georgia called Helen, who celebrates and is inspired by German Village Culture and it was an amazing place to research and learn about for this project!
Whiteboards Are Awesome!!!
On Christmas, I was gifted a large whiteboard to write notes and ideas on! When Fortnite announced their 5v5 Tactical Shooter Game Mode, I immediately starting writing down notes, doing small sketches of flow maps, questions and confirmations about the Game Mode and it’s mechanics. Writing down my ideas and inspirations and notes about the flow of the level, and all my ideas entirely helped me a ton for this project.
2D Layout & Custom Map In-Game!
One of the things I found out about when it came to UEFN is you could make a custom top-down mini-map for the players. I had to do an advanced version of the 2D prototype and create a color-coded and custom map so that players could mark areas where they wanted to attack or defend. I had to make sure the map was also in sync with the players and their positions, as well as their ping locations on the map.
Setting Up The Map's Pathing With Grayboxing
Now to get Production Started, I had to graybox the pathing and flow of my level starting with some basic graybox platforms. This gave me an idea of scale, where to position the buildings on the side, and overall firing angles early on so I can balance them according to potentially crazy sight lines from players. It gave me enough room and space for motivation in what I wanted in the large gaps of the terrain for a building type. It allowed me to place specific stores, specific markets, specific house homes, and even workshops.
Mixing Village Buildings Into The Graybox
Now to get Production Started, I had to graybox the pathing and flow of my level starting with some basic graybox platforms. This gave me an idea of scale, where to position the buildings on the side, and overall firing angles early on so I can balance them according to potentially crazy sight lines from players. It gave me enough room and space for motivation in what I wanted in the large gaps of the terrain for a building type. It allowed me to place specific stores, specific markets, specific house homes, and even workshops.
Level Art Execution
With a mix of Grayboxing & Level Art, it was time to get to work in creating all the awesome details to get ready to setup for Set Dressing & The background Environment! This is the process where I add all the buildings that are unique to player callouts, player strategies, and general player pathing! This part of the process was going to be the longest process into getting the level done and finalized and it was something that I was doing for about 2 months!
Verse Scripting & Coding
After the Level Art & Set Dressing was fully complete, now was the toughest part for designing Bavarian Borough. Verse is a new-ish used for UEFN so it took a really long process to learn how to script and set things up for a custom Bomb Timer within my level. Ballistic isn’t available yet for UEFN creators, and so I was in charge of coding & scripting my own event system by scratch. I had to design the systems for the timer, the bomb’s exploding after 45 seconds, the Planted Bomb Time Remaining Timer, The Pre-Round Setup so players had time to pick and choose their preferred weapons. It was all a huge struggle but I got through it with my technical knowledge as a Level Designer!
