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5 Min
We bet you are familiar with Fortnite or have at least heard about it. The game was announced back in 2011, but only in 2017, was it released by Epic Games for early access. Almost immediately, the popularity of Fortnite skyrocketed.
Early on, a huge role in getting Fortnite momentum played on Twitch. In 2018, Fortnite overtook League of Legends as the most-viewed game on Twitch. It was a big achievement that drew the attention of the gaming community but didn’t last too long. Today, League of Legends is #2 of the most-watched games on Twitch, and Fortnite is #8.
Recently, Fortnite made some noise in the news outlets as they successfully organized a whole virtual in-game concert of Travis Scott, announced a collaboration with Balenciaga, and started a quite an entertaining trial with Apple. But the main reason why Fortnite has been driving the attention of people outside the gaming industry is the fact that the game has some aspects of the metaverse, e.g., its unique world, communities of gamers presented by avatars, and economy. Even more so, the Fortnite developers are thinking about implementing NFT and building their own metaverse in the near future. So, what is Fortnite and what made it so popular?
The plot in the game starts with a purple storm that surrounded the Earth and turned 98% of the population into zombies. Surviving people unite in groups, build safe forts to shelters from the influx of brainiacs (so-called zombies), rescue loners in distress, and collect useful items.
To complete missions, players form a group of four heroes. It is possible to play with fewer people or even alone, but in this case, it is much harder to perform tasks. The heroes are divided into several basic classes: constructor, soldier, ninja, and traveler. Each hero has his own advantages and special role in the team.
The story is divided into missions scattered across the map of the four regions covered by the storm. Each mission has a level of difficulty and a set of objectives, for the completion of which players are rewarded with experience and valuable prizes. The missions are mainly devoted to researching the storm and finding out the true cause of its origin, expanding the protective energy dome over the headquarters, obtaining new technologies, and, of course, saving the survivors.
The gameplay is divided into three stages. The first stage consists of gathering resources, rescuing survivors, and completing various side-quests. For this, the players receive awards and medals of honor at the end of the mission. The second stage is the construction of a protective fort, which is built around some important research equipment, a crashed drone with valuable information, a launching rocket with a satellite on board, or anything else. The important thing is to do everything possible to protect some object from methodically advancing brainiacs. And the third stage is the battle with brainiacs trying to break through the defenses.
The extraction of resources has the same principle as in Minecraft: using a pickaxe, players destroy objects that might contain useful resources and other elements. The main resources are wood, stone, and metal. They are the basis of lifesaving buildings, including floors, security fences, walls, ceilings, stairs, and more. However, there are a lot of other resources in the game, such as coal, copper, quartz crystals, various spare parts that fall out of cars, and other machinery. They will be useful for crafting weapons and ammunition.
Brainiacs know how to destroy buildings. If one of the fortresses is damaged, players must fix it before the brainiacs attack the fort. Moreover, using traps can noticeably slow down the brainiac horde and help in battles.
By increasing levels, the player earns points to unlock new skills, perks, and abilities. Players can level up not only the heroes but also, for example, weapons.
Fortnite offers players a choice of three separate modes. The first one is Fortnite: Save the World. This mode offers a cooperative open-world survival simulation game in which players are encouraged to fight brainiacs. Save the World has been released on Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Another mode is Fortnite: Battle Royale. In this mode, 100 players must battle each other until only one survives. After the launch, Fortnite: Battle Royale became extremely popular, turning into a cultural phenomenon. In October 2018, the mode reached 78.3 million monthly players and 350 million registered users as of May 2020.
The last mode is Fortnite: Creative. This model is a sandbox in which players can build various structures, similar to Minecraft. Both Battle Royale and Creative have been released on handheld game consoles such as Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.
The Fortnite game has great potential, and we are not only talking about game development. As was mentioned before, games such as Fortnite give us a representation of what the metaverse will look like in the future. That is why the interest in such projects will only grow and set a standard for metaverse development.