WEBVTT - The Epic Story of Fortnite 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.880 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.320 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:19.520 I Heart Radio and How Stuff Works and I love 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:24.040 all things tech. And you know what, many video games 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.639 never really rise to a level of notoriety that gets 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.600 them attention outside of gaming circles, you know, into the 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.600 main stream. But once in a while, a video game 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.480 does do that. It manages to burst free of its 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.839 confines and then next thing, you know, everyone knows about it, 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:46.000 or at least recognizes little elements that are common to 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.440 that video game. So games like Pac Man or Donkey Kong, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.560 lots of people know about those. Well. Recently, the video 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:57.840 game Fortnite has managed to do this and burst out 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:02.840 of those small niche adiences of video gamers. Millions of 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.959 people play Fortnite. Millions of people will watch other people 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.240 play Fortnite, either in tournaments or in live stream sessions 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.480 that sort of thing. There are hundreds of videos of 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.800 people talking about the game or doing some of the 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.880 notable dances that are featured in the game. Epic Games, 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:28.760 which developed and published Fortnite, made three billion dollars in 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:34.000 revenue in eighteen, largely because of that game. There are 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.240 a lot of stories about Fortnite, some of which criticize 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.320 how the game seemingly lifts elements from other games and 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.760 pop culture memes without compensation or credit. But where did 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.880 this game come from and how did it become so 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.200 popular so quickly? Well, I'm going to do my best 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.480 not to turn this into an episode that's secretly about 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:02.720 Epic Games, the company that aches and publishes Fortnite, but 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:04.840 it would be a good idea to get a quick 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.120 rundown of that studio and what was going on when 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:12.280 the company first announced development on Fortnite. So here's the 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.720 super quick version of Epic games history. Maybe in the 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.720 future I'll do a full episode about Epic Games and 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:23.920 will really dive into the details. But back in a 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:28.720 college student named Tim Sweeney launched a computing consulting business 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.800 called Potomac Computer Systems. It became clear that the business 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.960 was going to require more work and time than Sweeney 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.080 could dedicate to it while also doing his college studies, 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.360 So around that same time he also got interested in 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:49.440 developing games, and he created a somewhat primitive computer game 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.920 called z z T. It was a simple top down 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:57.240 computer RPG style game with as key art, and he 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.280 released this game under that Potomac computer or system's company name. 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.440 But Sweeney also released some code that made it possible 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.480 for gamers to take this game and modify it themselves. 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.600 And word quickly spread throughout the old computer bulletin board 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.600 system communities, and the game was a modest hit. It 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:22.280 actually did fairly well. The success inspired Sweeney to pursue 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.920 game development on a larger scale within the shareware community. 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.600 Shareware is a method of distribution in which a developer 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.680 allows some portion of their work to be distributed freely 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.440 as much as people like. So you can make copies, 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.880 you can give them to your friends, and there's no penalty. 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:44.240 There's nothing wrong about that. Typically this software has some 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.920 sort of limit built into it, so, for example, a 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.800 shareware game might allow you to play the first level 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.600 of that game for free, but then to get beyond 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.560 this limitation, you would actually have to buy the full game. Well, 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.160 Sweeney set out to create his own shareware company. He 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.600 also decided they needed a better name, and so he 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.400 chose Epic Mega Games, and he later admitted that he 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.440 chose that name, in part because it made people think 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.800 his company was a lot larger than just a single 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:20.120 person working out of his parents house. Sweeney began to 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.280 form relationships and work with other developers as well, like 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.320 Cliff Blazinski sometimes known as Cliffy B. He was another 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.440 young video game enthusiast who was eager to get into 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.320 that industry. Um he was in high school when he 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.960 first started to right to Sweeney and work with him. 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.200 The company would release several games over the next couple 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.520 of years, including a video pinball game and a game 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.800 called jazz Jack Rabbit that ended up being very popular. 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.760 But things really picked up in Now This was Right 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.359 at the Dawn, a video game graphics cards, three D 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.280 game design, and first person shooters like Castle, Wolfin's Line 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.560 and Doom, both of which were from ID Software. Sweeney 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.600 and his team decided to develop their own game engine 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.799 and three D first person shooter, a game they called 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:15.640 it Unreal. It was an incredibly ambitious project, and they 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:20.280 released the game and the game engine in after several 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:24.800 years of development. The Unreal engine was an industry triumph, 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.359 easily matching up against the more seasoned id's Quake two 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:32.719 engine and the Unreal Engine would become one of the 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:37.320 standard game engines used throughout the industry. It's cemented Epic 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.200 Games as a quote unquote real video game company. Epic 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.279 would go on to release games like the Gears of 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.680 War franchise, which was incredibly successful and the company did 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.840 well in the two thousand's. Now this brings us up 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.200 rapidly as we skip over a lot of details to 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.280 two thousand eleven and the start of the story around 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:00.800 Fortnite itself. In two thousand eleven, Epic is wrapping up 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.320 on its own Epic trilogy, which has since grown beyond 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:09.360 three games, and the company was really celebrating they had 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.039 just finished Gears of War three. The first Gears of 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.320 War game was for the Xbox three sixty back in 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.200 two thousand six. Gears of War two followed in two 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.159 thousand eight, and Gears of War three finally came out 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:24.400 in two thousand eleven. The trilogy follows a human military 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.320 force fighting off an alien invasion and centers around a 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:32.279 protagonist named Marcus Phoenix, and Part three wrapped up Phoenix's storyline, 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:34.440 and so in order to create a sense of closure 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.359 and transition, the company held a game jam now, a 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.039 game jam is like a hackathon. Developers team up with 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.720 each other. Sometimes they work with people that they've never 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.360 worked with directly before. Sometimes they'll take on new roles 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.600 on the team that they normally wouldn't on a project, 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.400 So a programmer might become the art director for a 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.480 game jam. Their goal is just to create a fun 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.000 game within a certain amount of time, such as forty 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.480 eight or seventy two hours. They have to come up 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.080 with a concept developed the gameplay, the mechanics, the art, 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.320 the music, everything else, and then they show it off 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.840 to each other and it helps inspire creativity and outside 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.640 the box thinking and gives developers a chance to experiment. 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.800 Sometimes it can create the earliest version of a future game. 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.360 A short time after this game jam, some of the 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.760 Epic team began talking about a possible future game that 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:31.200 would become Fortnite. The Fortnite itself wasn't actually spawned directly 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.000 from the game jam. It wasn't one of the games 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.480 developed during that uh that that project, but the experience 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.200 of the game jam lad the team to talk about 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.800 possibilities now. The team imagined a game in which players 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.800 would control a human survivor of a zombie apocalypse, and 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.280 this would be a multiplayer game, so they could team 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.560 up with other players and increase their odds of survival. 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.560 They would traverse a world ruined by this apocalypse, and 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.160 they would other resources, scavenging and harvesting them from stuff 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.160 like trees or rocks or houses or whatever. Then they 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.680 could use that material to construct bases to protect themselves 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.960 from zombie hordes which would spawn at night. It was 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.560 sort of combining elements of several other games that already existed, 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.320 stuff like Minecraft and Left for Dead. Producers have also 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.920 cited the game Terraria as one of the big influences 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.680 in their early development. The goal was to create a 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.040 survival building game and marry it to a third person 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.280 or a first person shooter game, and make sure that 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:38.160 both of those elements were designed well and fun to play. 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.240 The view of the team was that most games, generally 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.280 in that space, we're good at one thing but not 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.600 the other thing. So building games were really good at building, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.480 but weren't so great at combat. Combat games were great 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.120 at combat but not so good at building. They wanted 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.600 the best of both. Now, there's no definitive source that 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:00.800 I could find about when Fortnite became an ef shoal project, 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.079 but it sounds like there were serious discussions around this 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:10.319 idea starting sometime in August two eleven. Initially, the thought 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.280 was to create a game with a dark, gritty tone, 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.840 really you know, kind of of of foreboding art style, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.120 But the team decided that they wanted something that would 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.079 come across more timeless, not to mention, a style that 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.319 wouldn't put as heavy a strain on computer processing power 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.679 or development time. If you make it more realistic, you've 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.840 got to figure all that stuff out, so they opted 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.800 for a brighter, more cartoonish approach. The name Fortnite came 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.800 out of an email thread where they were just debating 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.360 on what they should name this game. Since the goal 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.400 was to survive a zombie attack each night by building 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:49.920 a protective base. Someone suggested Fortnight as a possibility, and 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:54.320 it clicked, and they decided to announce the game just 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.440 a few months later after they had decided to actually 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.240 make it. This would be in December two thou eleven, 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.560 at the Video Game Awards show on on Spike TV. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.880 Well at that point, the team had only been actively 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.320 working on the game development for three weeks. There was 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:15.400 no game yet. Cliff Blazynski, now the design director at Epic, 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.680 took the stage for the reveal. The announcement included a 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.720 video showing off the idea for this game, with characters 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.440 rushing into a town to scavenge, then heading back to 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.000 build a tower base just before a group of zombies 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.680 would attack. The whole thing was a cinematic It was 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.800 not gameplay. There was no game to show off at 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.679 that point. It was just the idea for a game. 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.280 A year later, Epic would be a very different company. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.760 A three thirty million dollar investment would hand over a 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.560 significant but technically minority stake of ownership of the company 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.280 to a Chinese conglomerate. Game designer and self promoter. Cliff 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.400 Blazynski would leave the company, and the Fortnite game would 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.720 undergo some changes early in its development. I'll explain more 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.160 into the second, but first, let's take a quick break 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:13.360 to thank our sponsor. Okay, time for a quick check 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.280 in with Epic Games. Circa mid two thousand and twelve, 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:22.000 Fortnite was now well and truly in development, and the 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.120 company projected a release date sometime in two thousand thirteen. 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.280 The public knew about the game thanks to those two 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:34.640 thousand eleven Video Game Awards announcements, and Cliff Lazynski was frustrated. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.800 He was finding it difficult to convince people that his 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.520 ideas for new games were viable. And then you have 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:47.360 a Chinese company called Tencent Holdings Limited make a huge 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.120 deal that Epic just couldn't refuse. Ten Cent, and a 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.440 press release on Epic Games as website was described as 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:59.960 quote a leading provider of Internet and mobile and telecom 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:05.360 munications value added services in China end quote. Today it's 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.280 the world's largest gaming company, as well as a contender 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.440 for one of the top social media companies in the world. 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:17.000 Since its founding in it has had a long history 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.640 of investing in other companies. It's much better known in 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.360 China that is in the United States. But trust me, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.080 this company is a huge deal. It was during this 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:32.120 time that several important people left Epic Games, among them 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:36.319 producer Rod Ferguson. He left Epic to go work on 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:41.480 a game called BioShock Infinite with Irrational Games, and Cliff Blazynski, 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.920 who felt he had hit this creative roadblock at Epic 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.360 and he wanted to try his hand at creating his 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:52.200 own studio. That story is a pretty fascinating one in 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.240 its own right, and someday I'm going to have to 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:58.600 talk about his experiences and what happened, because it was 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.719 one of those tragic stories of failure in tech that 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.920 I think still sting a lot of people to this day. Anyway, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.120 their departures gave the gaming community concern about the future 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:18.160 of Fortnite. Everyone identified these guys as being leaders. This 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.839 was in a time when some game developers were very 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:26.680 public figures like Cliffy B, and they were sometimes known 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.520 for living like rock stars. Cliffy B certainly embrace that 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:35.280 lifestyle and that portrayal, so a lot of people thought, well, 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.240 without them there, what's going to happen to this game? 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.680 Who is still at Epic Games that can help this 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.800 project stay on track? Now, I think this is one 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.400 of the big problems with the cult of personality mentality 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.240 in general, not just for video games but for everything, 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.600 because it tends to put all the focus on one 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.880 or two rock stars, and it ignores the hard work 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:02.000 and contributions of countless people who makes stuff possible. And 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.560 so typically this means we have a unrealistic view of 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:11.080 what's happening the people who are rock stars are in 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.080 fact remarkable. For the most part, they are talented people 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.520 who do a lot of work. But it still does 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.360 the rest of the team a disservice to assume that 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:23.440 if someone person leaves, the whole project's going to fall apart. Still, 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.160 the departures were definitely an issue that the game development 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.640 team had to take into account. Meanwhile, the three thirty 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.440 million dollars that ten Cent provided to Epic gave them 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.120 plenty of safety net for what the company planned to 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.480 do next. While still developing games, Epic prepared to make 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.040 a big shift in how it generated revenue. One of 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.720 the most lucrative assets the company had was its Unreal 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.600 Games Engine, which many other developers would rely upon when 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.360 they were building out their own games. Traditionally, a company 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.320 would have to pay a subscribe shin fee for the 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.520 use of the Unreal Engine. Epic released Unreal Engine four 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.360 in March two thousand fourteen, and a year later, Epic 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.240 made it free to download. The plan was to step 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.360 away from focusing only on triple A titles from big 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:19.640 publishers and to leverage the growing community of smaller developers. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.880 The new revenue generating strategy was a royalties agreement, so 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.840 instead of a set monthly subscription fee, companies would pay 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:32.000 out five percent of royalties for any commercial application of 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.440 the Unreal game engine that earned more than three thousand 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.960 dollars per quarter. So if your project didn't earn at 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.720 least three thousand dollars per quarter, you weren't charging anything. 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.720 This was part of a major shift in the video 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:50.120 game industry as a whole. Back to Fortnite, it didn't 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.880 take long into the development process for the designers to 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.480 realize that they needed more elements to make the game 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.880 they wanted to create. Originally, they thought about making a 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.880 building game and releasing it super fast, But while testing 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.160 and building the game, they realized that they needed some 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.440 more components to make the game fun. To play an 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.080 important element in any video game, As it turns out, 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.120 some people tend to forget that. During the development process, 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.680 they decided they needed some stuff like progression, in which 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.120 players are rewarded for doing well in the game, maybe 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:28.560 a skill tree, or being able to improve items and equipment. 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.960 The game had a sort of RPG component to it, 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.320 and so the company began to seek out developers who 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.359 had worked in that space because they didn't have expertise 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.600 in RPGs and they wanted to find people who could 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:44.280 contribute to the game's development. With that in mind, and 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.520 the release of Unreal Engine four changed things for the 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.280 development team as well. Initially they had been using Unreal 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.920 Engine three. They chose to abandon that and go with 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.760 the latest version of the game engine, which meant some 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.280 of that early work needed to go as well. They 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.000 had borrowed a lot of assets from a lot of 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.520 their earlier games games like the Gears of War franchise, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.280 while all of that needed to be tossed aside, they 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.359 had to redevelop things. All of this meant the game 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.640 was taking longer to finish than the team had initially planned. 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.679 One of the big game elements that emerged during this 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:24.359 turmoil was the actual building mechanic in the game. Initially, 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.440 the idea was that building structures in the game should 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:31.840 include some sort of mini game or extended activity, such 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.919 as maybe just standing in place and holding down a 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.920 button as the structure goes up. So imagine that you're 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.400 trying to build a wall, and you start, you pick 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.200 the wall from your list of options, and you see 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.720 an outline on your screen, you place the outline where 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:49.679 you want to go, and then you hold down a 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.399 button while this wall starts to assemble. The team figured 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.080 out this wasn't very much fun and it was antithetical 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.199 to the fast pace of a shooter. If you have 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.960 a fast action game, you can't have your back turned 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.600 to all the action and try to build a wall. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.639 So the decision was made that game characters would have 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.480 schematics that would allow them to build certain structures, and 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.879 all they would have to do is select the appropriate 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.719 schematic and the location for the build, and then hit 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.320 a button and that was it. It would just build itself. 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.320 The game would construct the structure for you, assuming that 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.199 you had the raw materials necessary to build whatever it 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.520 was you wanted to build. You meanwhile, could run along 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.040 and you could build the next section, or shoot enemy 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.280 players or actually, at that time, it wasn't even enemy players. 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.359 It was uh enemy AI because it was a p 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.800 v or player versus environment game, so players could spend 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.240 less time building individual components like a section of a 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.920 floor or a wall, and they could build entire bases 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.960 very quickly, like within a minute or so. Those environments 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:01.119 were also destructible. The pre existing and vironments were destructible. 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.280 The stuff that players built were destructible, So anything that 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.400 you saw in the game, you could, in theory breakdown 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.280 or it could be destroyed by the enemy forces attacking you. 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.680 Players would harvest resources from structures, so you could run 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:18.840 up to a house and just start whacking at it 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.879 with like a pick axe and start taking materials. That way, 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.960 enemies can knock structures down, and that Bick needed a 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.040 lot of talent to work on the game to create 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:31.240 all the structures and elements in those destructible environments. So 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.240 if you thought, well, we're gonna have a house here, 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:41.800 what sort of stuff goes in the house? Bookshelves, couches, television's, radios, microwaves, refrigerators, stoves, 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.280 all these sort of things were assets that had to 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.159 be built in the game, so they started hiring people 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.040 to build those assets. As this was happening, the designers 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.760 began to shape the game to make it more cartoonish 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.720 and the Fortnite aesthetic began to emerge. Designers began to 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.200 create progression strategies for tools in the game game and 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.960 incorporated more science fiction elements into the design, and the 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.760 general philosophy was that no idea would be outright denied, 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.520 but the team would deliberate on which elements should receive 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.000 attention first, and the plan was to continue this process 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.520 once the game hit release, it would get updates for 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.320 as long as people were playing the game. The developers 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:24.719 would listen to the community of players, and the community 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:28.720 would tell the developers which elements they should focus on next, 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.359 and they would provide more content. That was the plan 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.760 well from the earlier stages of development. The plan was 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.040 to make the game an ongoing projects, so this was 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:41.480 not something new. This was something they had thought about 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.520 for a while. In fact, there were announcements that Cliffy 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.120 b had made before he left the company about how 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.600 the company was going to act as kind of like 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.680 a dungeon master or game master for role playing game. 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:57.280 They would create new scenarios, tools, monsters, challenges, that kind 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.080 of stuff for the community. All that was decided on 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.600 while the game was still being made. The Epic team 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.320 in North Carolina was in charge of the project, but 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.119 they also worked with satellite offices in Seattle and Poland 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.879 to bring it all together. I watched a great video 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.359 from Game Informer that published in April two thousand fourteen, 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.119 it's available on YouTube, so if you go and search 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.040 for Fortnite and Game Informer, you should be able to 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.560 pull that video up. And they mentioned that the game 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.040 development team around that time was around hundred ten people. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.719 The video of gameplay in that interview literally polished. This 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.439 was two thousand fourteen. Interestingly, the game wouldn't actually launch 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.800 for three more years. Epic held a closed alpha test 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.040 of the game on December one, two thousand fourteen. Only 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:47.160 a few thousand people could participate, and it was meant 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.040 to give Epic feedback on how gamers played the game 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.040 that they had designed and what they might have to 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.880 fix or tweak based upon actual people playing the game. 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.520 A second closed alpha test followed in March two thousand fifteen, 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.040 and the plan then was to open up a beta 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:05.199 test in the fall, but instead Epic chose to go 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.240 with a closed beta, meaning it was invitation only. They 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:12.840 limited the participation to around fifty thousand players. It wasn't 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.160 until July two thousand seventeen that gamers at large finally 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.800 got their hands on Fortnite. Even then, the game was 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.879 released in early access, and it wasn't the version of 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.960 Fortnite that everyone tends to talk about today. I'll explain 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.200 more in just a moment, but first let's take another 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:41.840 quick break to thank our sponsor. So why did it 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.439 take so long for Fortnite to launch? If that documentary 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.800 back in two thousand fourteen showed gameplay that looks almost 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:52.200 identical to what the game is today, what was taking 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.560 so long? Well, part of it was that Epic was 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:58.560 developing the game as a service. The original plan was 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:01.800 to release Fortnite as a free to play game and 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:04.959 then include content that players could only access if they 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.440 paid for it, so you would have in game purchases. 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:10.520 You would be able to play the game for free, 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:12.840 but if you want some of the bells and whistles, 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:15.000 you would have to cough up dough in order to 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:19.680 get it. Also, Epic began work on another title around 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.000 that same time called Paragon, and the two games were 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:27.199 competing for in company talent and time and resources, so 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:30.920 when the game did release in early access, it required 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.480 would be gamers to pay for that privilege. By the way, 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:38.240 Paragon would end up being released first, and then Epic 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:42.160 would focus on Fortnite, and then eventually Epic would shut 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:47.360 down Paragon. It was a project that did not did 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:49.840 not meet the success that the company had hoped for, 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:54.359 so the early access version of Fortnite was called Save 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:58.200 the World. This was pretty much what the original concept 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:02.240 had been years earlier. Players would gather resources and use 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:05.320 those resources to build forts and then defend those forts 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:09.200 against zombies. The company said it intended to offer Save 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.440 the World up as a free to play game sometime 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:16.600 in two thousand eighteen. This was in two thousand seventeen. 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:20.159 Skip ahead now it's early two thousand nineteen as I 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:23.520