Fortnite's Walking Dead Game: A New Era for Game Development

The gaming industry has been navigating through turbulent times with layoffs, studio closures, and dwindling funds. Enrique Fuentes, CEO and co-founder of Teravision Games, felt this turbulence acutely when his team launched "Killer Klowns From Outer Space," an asymmetrical horror game inspired by the 80s film. Despite positive reviews, including a 7 from IGN describing it as "as silly and entertaining as the movie that spawned it," and garnering hundreds of thousands of views on trailers, Teravision found itself in a precarious situation post-launch, mirroring the broader industry challenges.

"As you know, 2024 was a pretty tough year for the whole industry. So it was a little bit slow for us to close our next project," Fuentes explains. Despite collaborations with giants like Disney, Nickelodeon, and Xbox, securing a follow-up project proved challenging. With time pressing, the studio, comprising veterans with 20 years of industry experience, turned to a novel approach: creating games within Fortnite. In less than a year, Teravision released three Unreal Engine for Fortnite (UEFN) games, with their fourth game, "Courtyard King," launching today, leveraging the official The Walking Dead content pack in UEFN.

Developed in collaboration with Skybound, co-founded by The Walking Dead's creator Robert Kirkman, "Courtyard King" is a King of the Hill-style multiplayer PvPvE game set in the iconic prison from The Walking Dead. Players battle each other and NPC zombies for control of the territory. The game utilizes official The Walking Dead assets, including character models of Rick Grimes, Negan, and Daryl Dixon, and incorporates a narrative crafted by Skybound's writers.

"Instead of a multi-year project like Killer Clowns From Outer Space, these are projects that we could put together in weeks or months," says Fuentes. "We have worked with big brands in the past... and UEFN was something that we were experimenting with... but we never imagined that was going to be the route where we're going to be engaging with a company like Skybound. But I mean, UGC, it's one of the biggest things in gaming right now."

User-generated content (UGC) is at the forefront of gaming trends, particularly through platforms like Fortnite. While UGC typically refers to content created by players, professional studios like Teravision are exploring this new avenue. Fortnite's Unreal Engine 5-based tools were ideal for Teravision's experienced developers.

"It made sense because we come from an engineering background and it was a platform where we could experiment in and assume some of the risk," Fuentes explains. This approach led to the creation of "Havoc Hotel," a roguelike shooter where players fight through hotel levels, earning currency to buy more powerful weapons. The series' success, particularly with "Havoc Hotel 3," has kept it among Fortnite's most popular games.

Teravision's game designer, Martin Rodriguez, notes that transitioning from Unreal Engine to UEFN was smooth and advantageous. "For us, it just removes some of the work that we would've done otherwise and allows us to focus on just making better games and explore different new creative ideas," he says.

While the engineering team adapted well to UEFN's tools, the game design team faced unique challenges. Games like "Havoc Hotel" started as experiments but evolved into standalone experiences. Teravision's creative director, LD Zambrano, observed that UEFN games differ significantly from traditional games. "A traditional experience we have had designing other [non-UEFN] games is where players relate through objectives that entice cooperation and competition, right?" Zambrano says. "In [UEFN's] case, we have found that even though those objectives are still relevant and we still can use that game design sensibility and bring them there, I found that there are a lot of experiences that are very popular within the Fortnite ecosystem that are kind of just context."

Zambrano likens UEFN games to a schoolyard, where players create impromptu games that may not have clear objectives but foster engagement and friendships. This context-driven approach is evident in "Courtyard King," which is an infinite game without a final winner. Players can join or leave matches at any time, switch teams, and engage in dynamic interactions, including betrayals, which resonate with The Walking Dead's themes.

"Players can drop in and drop out whenever they want. They can even change teams whenever they like, which generates situations for betrayals. Maybe you enter a party with your friend, but then in the middle of the match you don’t tell him and change teams. Which is very Walking Dead-like," explains Fuentes.

Is this a sustainable model for game developers? While it positions them within the ecosystems of larger platforms like Epic Games or Roblox, it offers a way for studios to experiment without exhausting their resources. Access to a vast player base and major IP assets like The Walking Dead presents significant advantages.

"We can actually assume the risk as an indie developer in [UEFN]. Because last year, we couldn’t even think about starting a three-year project. We could do something in a few weeks with a smaller team and that completely changes the paradigm for a new developer. This is now a viable model where you can actually support an 80-person studio like we do, and we can assume the risk," Fuentes says. "It’s something that if you have the right ideas, the right creativity around it, if you understand the market well enough and you have the right thinking, execution becomes possible and it doesn’t take years, it actually takes weeks, maybe months. I think this is a dream come true for indie developers."