Back in middle school (2008-2011), I was in love with Roblox - I enjoyed that I could play thousands of user-generated games in an instant. Roblox is a unique online gaming platform and game creation system that allows users to design, create, and play various games created by other users. From role-playing games to first-person shooters, the creativity from the user base was endless. I also spent hours creating games of my own, although not as impressive - it was one of my first exposures to programming! There were no other games like Roblox at the time and I was unaware of the impact it would have in the future.

Fast-forward 10+ years, Roblox is now a publicly traded company, generating millions of dollars. According to activeplayer.io - Roblox averages 20 million daily users and in 2021 made $1.919 billion.

Their success can be accredited to various business practices, but the core of their success is the user-generated eco-system that is self-sustaining and scalable. It's a "for the players, by the players" model that encourages constant innovation and growth. The rocket fuel for this ecosystem was the addition of monetization for game developers, where users can buy in-game items for a game and the developer would receive a percentage - increasing the incentive for better game development tenfold.

Fortnite, another extremely lucrative free-to-play game is following suit with the release of Unreal Editor For Fortnite. Fortnite is known for its unique approach to Battle Royale, a 100-player PVP arena, where the last person standing wins. They've gone through various iterations over the years, adding new features and game modes, including Creative Mode. A mode where users create games for others to play, similar to Roblox. However, Creative Mode is still very limited, certain settings weren't adjustable, custom game logic was limited, platform limitations, memory limits, etc. The created games were interesting but always felt constrained. The release of Unreal Editor will enable users to create unconstrained and unparalleled gaming experiences similar to Roblox!

Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new PC application for designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite. With many of Unreal Engine 5’s powerful tools and workflows at your fingertips, including custom asset import, modeling, materials and VFX, Sequencer and Control Rig, you’ll have a whole new world of options for producing and publishing games and experiences for Fortnite that can be enjoyed by millions of players.

UEFN works side-by-side with Fortnite’s existing Creative toolset, and teams of creators can work together across PC and console to develop and test islands in real-time.

Also included is the new programming language Verse. It offers powerful customization capabilities such as manipulating or chaining together devices and the ability to easily create new game logic.

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/fortnite--uefn

Looking at the success of Roblox, the impact of Unreal Editor will be immeasurable. Releasing tomorrow, March 22nd, it will be interesting to see the trajectory of Fortnite and Epic Games as a whole. As a developer/digital generalist, I will definitely tinker with Unreal Editor. Follow me on Twitch - I may or may not stream my experience with Unreal Editor.

That is all I have for today, stay tuned for more mind blurbs like this. I plan on writing a random blog post every day for 100 days - inspired by Seth Godin. Day 1/100, thank you!