The very first idea I ever pitched for Lego Fortnite when I began on the project in October of 2022 was the Rainbow. The goal for almost all of my shipping features at that point was to create a straightforward, accessible, objective that could be respawned infinitely to entice players to venture out of their player-built villages to explore the open world.
At that time, the tone of Lego Fortnite was intended to be natural but magical, survivalist but light-hearted, grounded but hopeful and playful. With all of that in mind, I came up with the concept of a magical rainbow that spawns in the distance, culminating in a low-hanging cloud. My initial design called for a simple treasure chest to be spawned on the cloud. The idea was that curious players would try to find the end of the rainbow, build up to the cloud and find a reward waiting for them.
Eventually the idea evolved into an homage to the Lego set Everyone is Awesome. I decided to use the minifigs from the set to create an impromptu dance party. Nothing in the game's UI/UX explicitly informs players that this is an objective or that there's a reward to be found. But intrepid players can discover on their own that using any emote in their locker while standing on the cloud will earn them a special reward.
Another example of a piece of content I designed and implemented for the launch of Lego Fortnite is the Butterfly. The core idea was to lead the player on a chase, where the outcome would vary each time you found a Butterfly. Sometimes it would lead you to a Treasure Chest or a Loot Llama. At other times, it would draw you into a combat encounter which itself could be completed for a reward. Similar to the Rainbow though, the purpose was to encourage players to venture out into the unknown areas of their world and then feel rewarded for doing so.
This feature began it's life as a port of the Fortnite Battle Royale Supply Drop. The idea was simple:
- Bring the Supply Drop in with a big, noticeable rift .
- Use the blue smoke flare to draw players to it.
- Reward players with survival supplies for trekking to where the Supply Drop landed.
- Use the blue smoke flare to draw players to it.
- Reward players with survival supplies for trekking to where the Supply Drop landed.
In early 2023, I rebuilt the Supply Drop entirely, basing it in Lego Fortnite's native physics system. In the end it was as simple as attaching a Physics Crate to a Physics Balloon and letting gravity do the rest. However, getting to that point took a ton of iteration between myself and engineers on our physics team. The end result is pretty cool though. It can float down rivers, slide down hills, land on top of Lego built structures and fall to the ground realistically when the objects underneath it are removed (or exploded).
Lego recently even turned the Supply Drop into a real, physical Lego set. Pretty neat, right?
Similarly to the Supply Drop, I began implementing the Loot Llama into Lego Fortnite by executing a port of the original Fortnite Battle Royale Loot Llama. In early internal playtests, we received enough feedback from the team to necessitate a small but impactful deviation from the original Loot Llama's design. Chasing after the Llama and beating on it with a melee weapon made players feel bad for harming a cute, defenseless creature. We adjusted by making the Loot Llama stationary, allowing players to interact with it to play a short petting animation before the Llama pops and spawns the player's loot. It will still run away if it takes any damage from the player, however.