Who is the owner of fortnite
Fortnite Developer Interview
all right we are back here at ninjas
getting ready for the next game josh is
gonna join him they're gonna play some
fortnight and speaking of all things
fortnight we are now joined by the
worldwide creative director of Epic
Games Donald mustard Donald you've had a
busy six months here this fortnight
thing is taking on a life of its own and
of course longtime gamers know you from
your incredible work of chair and now
being over all of you know epic
fortnight is a big part of epic right
now at such a phenomena to be such a big
week for you guys what has it been like
you know you've been in the game for a
long time but fortnight has it's more
than just a game it is a pop culture
phenomenon at this point I'm sure even
your kids are that much more popular at
school now the dad works on fortnight
right they're pretty popular no I mean
we've just been just so humbled right
and excited by all the growth of the
game and the community and and and
that's really what you know III is about
for us this year is this how do we how
do we celebrate all of this with with
the players but yeah I mean it's been
pretty huh I can't think of any other
word other than Holmdel and it's
astonishing but what's been great is how
I think you guys have given back to the
community and ali-a and Vic start we're
here earlier and in just said the same
thing it's like you guys are giving all
these content creators and players so
much new stuff to play with constantly
and that is you know I know is
incredible as a player but I'm sure from
the development side it's you have to
think of the roadmap and you know
constantly there's never an off week
there's always something going on so
tell us any when you think about that I
mean you're bringing in these items like
how real-time are things happening on
the game it's pretty real-time and I
think that's what's actually so exciting
about making a game like fortnight in
2018 right because you know it used to
be that you would plan things out and
you'd work on them for years and then
you release it to players and then never
think about it again and move on to the
next thing but there were tonight I mean
we're it's it's it's as fresh as it gets
right we're making we're making tweaks
almost in real time and you know some of
the some of the items that we have
coming up over the next couple of weeks
or things that you were conceptualizing
last week Wow oh and we'll see we'll see
cool stuff happening in the community or
or cool exciting things that we want to
do and we're pivoting very
quickly to to kind of embrace the meta
that's emerging and so as a game
designer it's it's one of the most
awesome and satisfying things I've ever
seen and for me personally and for all
the team right to be able to to work on
something that's so fluid and so live
and we've got really cool plans for oh I
think you're going I mean this thing is
you've got such a great nimble team at
epic as you said that everyone can sort
of like on a dime you guys can come up
with ideas make things happen obviously
you've got these seasons as well that
are rolling out so it's kind of exciting
to think of you know season five six
seven and like how we look at the IP of
fortnight and and the seasons I mean how
do you plan this out you're thinking
obviously real-time like hey what are we
doing this week next week like how far
out do you guys think in terms of the
big beats of what you want to do with
the game so I mean we're starting to
think now about I mean so season five is
well under you know well underway being
developed it comes out in about a month
yeah I think even today players in the
release that we put out this morning are
starting to see some of the cool stuff
that we're starting to begin to tease
for what something coming up similar to
the comment you know a few what I love
is that you guys can you can tease
things and it is so real-time with that
feedback of like you know something's
coming and like you know and you must
love because I mean team see what the
community does with this in the content
creators and you surfing around on
Twitter and stuff it's like it means the
T must be giddy with all the Excel and
it's amazing and when you see stuff like
emerge like fork knife right for example
like we can just be like let's put
something in quickly and you know a week
and a half later we have the fork knife
food truck in the game and you know it's
it's really cool to kind of play with
some of these things that are emerging
but yeah I try to plan out a little bit
ahead and we've got you know some really
good ideas for a season six in season
seven and see hey and but you know we
kind of try to keep it fluid we have an
arc of kind of where we see things going
but along the way we want to be able to
react to the gun tweet based on feedback
so it's not like everything's you know
can and I said as a game designer that
must be really exciting to be used to be
said you'd spend you know years working
on something and you'd have no idea
really yeah until players got to play it
and now I mean some and sometimes are
things where I'm sure you you make those
changes then you tweak things or dial
things back and people would give me a
feedback right in real time about
weapons feel
no we definitely don't always get it
right but that's kind of our that's kind
of our goal is just to keep it fluid and
keep it fun and when we're not afraid to
just try stuff and we know that if we
dial it too far or don't go enough like
the community will tell us and we'll and
we'll dial it all in together and just
keep it keep it fun and then you do
crazy things like fan oohs from that
Avengers crossover I know we got the
panel at the Coliseum on Wednesday with
you and guru so that's like when people
saw that like I can't believe this
actually happened I couldn't believe it
actually happened I mean it was what it
was and what a dream right I mean like
to be able to I'm such a huge fan of the
Russo brothers and a marble and a disney
and all you know everything that they're
doing and so yeah when when the Russos
called us up and said that while they
were editing infinity war right they're
like you know between you know breaks
we're playing for tonight and we just
thought wouldn't be so cool to do
something and so it was just it was
incredible to be we just we started
brainstorming and a few hours later you
had the idea for the Thanos LTM and that
was three weeks before it actually came
out Wow we we were like let's do this
crazy thing and everyone I mean everyone
at Disney and Marvel and epic we all
just piled onto it and in three weeks we
turned it from a crazy phone call that
into a thing that everyone was playing
how often you think that kind of stuff
will happen was that a really special
kind of one-time occurrence or do you
know didn't feel the other kind of cool
cross though is that's in your plans
like you know where that goes I mean I
think just like with a lot of things
it's it's us experimenting with stuff to
see what what do what if players like
right and and it seems like that people
love the famous event so I mean I think
if there's other things that make sense
or for the Fortnight brand and for you
know other brands then no we're open to
exploring all sorts of cool stuff I'm
sure I'm sure a lot of people are
calling last time we saw you was a gamer
Awards when we were talking a big
fortnight announcement there you know
and we talked a little bit about you
know cross play and the idea of people
being able to play with their friends
you know cross all these devices then
you add it in mobile which was insane
you can play you know mobile versus Xbox
and then you know PC and things like
that I think people still are wondering
you know when are you going to sort of
fully unify everyone all these platforms
across all the console platforms
PC mobile is that's still your goal but
are we any closer to that right now
so cross-play is really important to us
and players love it you know like right
now console players can can cross play
across like you said like cross PC and
across mobile across Mac and we're
working with our partners to take it
even further
let's hope we'll get there one day look
at there all right well it's been an
amazing success story for a night just
keeps going you got the pro-am tomorrow
hundred folks of course ninja Marsha
many others competing for charity right
yeah that's what's so exciting so we
have the celebrity pro-am tomorrow it's
it's 50/50 celebrities and fifty pro and
stream game streaming gamers and they're
gonna be competing for a three million
dollar charity pot that they can donate
to the charity of their choice and we're
just we're so excited about it we're so
excited for the celebration that it is
for our fans in fact I even brought you
yeah as her like we have all sort of
stuff we're gonna be giving away at the
party and at 3:00 this week so I brought
you a fortnight boogie bath bomb a bath
bomb tonight after you know eight hours
of stream that's right you know and then
I also brought you one of our super
limited edition yes Bush pins so yeah I
figure you seem like a bush camper I'm
wearing my PlayStation shoes I can put a
Bush pin on it's right right so it's
cool I love it notes I mean he said the
phenomenon of the merch and everything
it's so cool and what I will say is I
think it's nice to see you guys giving
back to the industry in the community
with the charity tournament even being
here at e3 has been a big party a big
booth I love that a game like this is so
successful epic and you have been in the
industry for so long it's nice to have
you guys here at e3 celebrating what
fortnight has not only brought to gaming
but brought to the entertainment level
thank you and for us and it's all about
the players and we just couldn't be more
grateful to all of you players thank you
so much for all that you've done for the
game well I know how hard you guys work
to give back to the players so there's
lots more to come hopefully we'll see
you tomorrow I guess the pronoun yep
Donald thank you so much I gotta put my
pin on mister
