14 DAY TRIAL // Fortnite, the upcoming survival game from Epic Games, is the perfect way to show off the studio's new Unreal Engine 4 technology, as it uses all sorts of systems that can easily be crafted with the impressive framework, according to the developer.
Epic Games unveiled Fortnite back in 2011 and, last month, it showed off the first footage of a demo for its upcoming Unreal Engine 4 technology.
A few weeks ago, the first Unreal Engine 4-powered game was unveiled by the studio in the form of Fortnite, which received some actual details about its gameplay that focused on combining combat with scavenging and crafting.
According to Fortnite Producer Tanya Jessen and Epic's Creative Director Cliff Bleszinski, the game actually started out as an Unreal Engine 3 title but, once the studio realized how complex it was going to be and how many updates the team would make for it, the decision was taken to recreate it in UE4.
"The best way to get an engine up to snuff is to ship a product on it," Bleszinski told Polygon. "It's in our best interests to us and our licensees to make this game shine and get it out the door in a reasonable timeframe so people have access to the tools."
"Fortnite morphed into this longterm thing that we're going to be investing in for years," Jessen added. "Why would we do that in UE3 when we're making this big push for UE4? Fortnite's a very systems driven game, meaning that we've got all this gameplay and fun stuff that can take advantage of the UE4 tech."
Given the array of mechanics that will be present in Fortnite, as well as Epic's desire to get the community to generate mods and new content for it, Unreal Engine 4 seems like the best choice, even if it means that, at least for now, the game is a PC exclusive.