Fortnite

Epic Games

Educational Game Design Intern

Game Designer (Contract)

I spent the summer of 2023 working for Epic Games as an Educational Game Design Intern in the Fortnite Ecosystem. I created templates islands and other example game designs in Fortnite Creative aimed at teaching creators how to use the system to create engaging game experiences. I also worked with new music devices to create a template island with an adaptive soundtrack, and my work released in November of 2023. After my internship, I began working as a contract Game Designer, and have continued this work since.

Contributions

I collaboratively brainstormed, prototyped, created, and tested a multiplayer third person experience in Fortnite Creative that educated creators on engaging multiplayer design using tanks.
I independently brainstormed, prototyped, created, and tested a single player heist game with an adaptive score.
I created and documented "Design Examples" that demonstrate unique uses for different Fortnite Creative tools as well as core design principles.
I worked with numerous contributors company-wide to ensure projects were completed to a high standard of polish.
I engaged with the 10+ person education team in frequent meetings to maintain our Agile production schedule.
I collaborated with designers and programmers to identify innovative design solutions for a number of different games.

Design Examples

One of my responsibilities is creating Design Examples, or bite-sized tutorials showing off interesting design ideas that can be implemented with Fortnite Creative devices. Some examples of my work include:

Yacht Heist Template Island

At Epic, I used new Patchwork music devices to create an Island with a fully adaptive score. The Island and supporting tutorial documentation were aimed at teaching creators about fundamental adaptive music principles as well as good practices in game design and development. The tutorial documentation can be found here, and my presentation of the Island can be viewed in the video to the left (my presentation begins at 1:14:23). A deeper dive into the design of the adaptive music system and how it enhances the player's experience is below.

Core Music System

The core music system of Yacht Heist was designed with simplicity in mind and the main goal of teaching the user about vertical and horizontal composition in games as well as giving players a more cohesive and engaging gameplay experience. As the player sneaks through the yacht, the Sneak Base Loop plays a low, simple drum beat, bringing a light tension to the gameplay. If the Guards are Alerted to their presence, the Sneak Alert Layer is vertically added in, bringing more groove to the drums as well as additional bass and synth lines (1:16:15 in the Patchwork Stream) to add more energy and urgency. When the player successfully takes out the guards or escapes into another area of the ship, the Sneak Alert Layer is removed again to bring the energy back down again. This pattern continues until the player Steals the Jewel, triggering a horizontal transition to the Escape Loop, a dynamic, drum and bass-inspired track that scores the player's dramatic escape (1:17:34 in the Patchwork Stream). This system successfully rides the line of creating interesting and engaging adaptivity in the score to enhance the player's experience without unnecessary complexity in implementation, making it an effective and useful tutorial for the Fortnite Creative community.

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