Fortnite creators are making studios to build ambitious — and branded — worlds

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge

Last year, there was a partnership with high fashion house. There is a collection of skins that are available to purchase, as well as a zone where players can visit. It looked like a city square dropped into the game, but it was actually a recreation of a store.

It feels like something from the Battle Royale game. It was made by three full-time creators of the game, who formed their own company to make in-game worlds for brands.

According to the creator of the game, the fact that he can build games with a team of almost 10 is impressive. My parents wouldn't think that would be a thing.

The company Beyond Creative was founded by Weber and two other people. The company says on its website that it builds unique experiences in the video game. The clients ideas are brought to life using the powerful platform. The company has an impressive list of clients including the National Football League.

There are other companies doing this kind of work. Three groups of people are working in full-time remote teams. The movie The Northman is the basis of an in-Fortnite game. Alliance Studios has worked on a lot of different things. A recent concert featuring Brazilian rapper Emicida took place in a series of shifting virtual locations and was worked on by Zen Creative.

Making the Creative maps has proven to be very profitable for businesses. Simon Bell, co-owner and art director at Alliance Studios, said a contract can range from four to six figures. Depending on what the team needs to do, projects can last from 2 weeks to 6 months. According to Alliance Studios co-owner and creative director, it is a very successful avenue for them.

The creators can command large contracts because of the popularity of the game. In an interview with Fast Company, Tim Sweeney said that half of the play time by users is in content created by other people. The person who declined to be interviewed was the publisher of the game.

The creators rely on income from the support-a- creator program. People can enter the item shop with a creator code if they are a qualified group. Purchases made while the code is active support the group. The creator codes can be used in both stores.

Since they have to find ways to convince people to enter the code, the creator codes can be an inefficient way to make money. There is a prompt at the beginning of some maps that will allow you to use the code. creators don't get a lot of the money 5 percent of the value of in-game purchases made using the Creator Code is earned by creators in the game.

There are a couple examples of how the payouts might work in the FAQ.

WILL THIS PROGRAM MAKE CREATORS RICH?

Please expect modest results. The amount you earn scales with the number of players who choose to support you. A Fortnite example: If your in-game supporters spend 50,000 V-Bucks in-game, then you would earn $25 USD. An Epic Games Store example: if your supporters purchase $100 of games, you’ll earn $5 (at the base Epic-funded rate).

To take money out of the system, you need to have made $100 in a year.

Brand deals seem to be a better way to build a business for creators. R-leeo Maoate is a director at Zen Creative. There are times when we don't get as many people playing our maps as we would like. We don't use Support-A-Creator. Brand deals are more important to us.

Some teams wished they had more ways to make money. The only way for creators to make money inFortnite is through the Support-A-Creator code, but competitors like Meta and Roblox allow creators to make money by selling virtual items.

Maoate talked about how your experience can affect the game. He said that you have to be on the main front page to make money.

It seems like we are still in the early days of the game. The mode was released in December of last year, but it is updated frequently to add new tools and features. Johnny lohe, one of the co-founders of Alliance, told me about a recent addition to the company. Many groups I talked to referred to the upgrade as Creative 2.0

In the review video for Unreal Engine, there is a brief glimpse of the improved tools in 2020. The tools that our developers use to put the game itself together are the same tools that are used by us. We want to give you the same kind of power, the same toolset, that we used to bring to you season after season. The script language that was demoed could be used to modify the Creative experience even more.

Sweeney told Fast Company that the tools could arrive soon. The Unreal Editor will be released later this year so that anyone can build high-quality game content and code without having to pay for it.

Based on comments from Sweeney, there are hints that more monetization tools may be introduced by the company. The creator economy version 2 and 3 of the game are already being worked on. There will be a lot of changes throughout the year.

He followed up with a suggestion that the company has bigger plans. He said that the road to the open metaverse was a long one. The next few steps will be nice, but not the holy grail.