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 Art References For The Environment
Ever since I took the CGMA Course for Level Design, I’ve been a big fan of using Pureref in gathering references of building architecture, art references, and more. For this project, I gathered a ton of references and ideas that the team was talking about. There were a lot of Anime Horror references like Jujutsu Kaisen, Dandandan, and much more. I mixed in a little bit of real-life Japanese Haunted Asylums as well to get a solid idea for the direction of the environment.
Verse Scripting & Coding
For the Search & Destroy mode, I wanted to convert and design the game mode system to be very similar to the Tactical Game Mode, Ballistic. I had to go through and code new Verse Devices throughout the Island in-order to accomplish this. There was need of a custom Round Timer that I had to code to work with all of our UI Widgets & Blueprints. There were a ton of custom events that I designed in code and it turned out to be amazing with the custom round timer, as well as the custom bomb countdown timer!
Custom Map In The 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.
Whiteboards Are Awesome!!!
During Christmas, I was gifted a Large Whiteboard for me to write notes and a bunch of things on. I specifically used my new Whiteboard to write down amazing notes about the Fortnite First Person Mode, as well as Ballistic and its rules and gameplay. It let me write down my schedule as well fun little level design sketches to inspire me to keep me focused on what I should be working on for a day on the map itself.
