Introducing Banana Defense, our new Fortnite game 

Who is General Banana? Visionary strategist. Defender of the realm. Leader of men. 

Except, unfortunately, he is none of those things. 

Craven, selfish, mad with greed. Like Caligula’s horse, General Banana is not worthy of the rank bestowed upon him. Everyone in his kingdom knows this except him. For he is also a narcissist, delusional about his own divine anointment. 

He sees himself as brave, even heroic, yet at the first whiff of confrontation he retreats to his chamber, orders his own protection, and screams like a newborn babe. 

Now, the duty to protect General Banana has fallen upon you. Just don’t expect him to fight with you… 

What is Banana Defense? 

Banana Defense (island code 4708-1640-1360) is Room 8 Group’s new game in Fortnite Creative!  

In Banana Defense, 1-4 players must work together to protect General Banana. To be victorious, players will need to set traps, place turrets, upgrade weapons, and defend General Banana from 10 waves of increasingly strong enemies—and a powerful mini-boss. The more players on a team, the harder the game.  

Why we made it 

The goal was simple: to have some fun making a good UGC game in Fortnite, sharpening our Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) expertise in the process. We wanted to better familiarize ourselves with the process of developing, maintaining, and improving a Fortnite island so that our partners know, should they decide to explore UGC or if they need assistance with UEFN, we’re on hand to help.  

How we made it 

To make the game, first we researched what genres work well in Fortnite Creative. Banana Defense is hero defense. We originally considered making a standard tower defense game, but after playtesting some existing Fortnite islands we felt hero defense would simply be more fun to play. For this, we took some inspiration from Orcs Must Die!.  

Then came development itself. At this point we created a test island so our team could stress-test the limits of UEFN and experiment with what can be done in the engine.  

After initial market research we spent about three months making Banana Defense, starting with designing the level from scratch (well done, team!): 

Then came time to experiment with features to add to our game, such as different types of weapons and enemies (there are six enemy types). We added a shop feature where players can spend coins on traps, turrets, weapon upgrades and more at vending machines.  

Once the foundation of Banana Defense was set, we chipped away at making the level feel balanced, tweaked enemy pathing and AI, and generally improved the gameplay experience. We also added extra elements, like music (which, given the grandeur of General Banana’s palace, had to be epic).  

Most enemy behaviors were taken from the Fortnite engine and adapted, but we coded some enemies ourselves, such as Bombers. 

Why experience using UEFN is crucial for making a Fortnite game 

While UEFN, the engine that powers Fortnite UGC, is a custom version of Unreal Engine, it is considerably different to use.  

More assets are pre-established in UEFN than in Unreal Engine, which makes life easier in some ways but harder in others. Devs have less flexibility to make or balance assets to their preference; they have to work more rigidly within UEFN’s boundaries. For example, we couldn’t adjust the damage of weapons, so choosing which should be available to players—not to be too weak or too strong—was a challenge.  

To make a good game in Fortnite, experience using UEFN is essential, for a few reasons:  

• UEFN’s programming language, Verse, is different from Unreal Engine’s (C++); 
• in Fortnite, most core mechanics (like movement) are already set up, which while convenient also comes with limitations because it lacks flexibility; 
• Fortnite already has AI implemented because the game is already written, which means you don’t need to program things like enemy paths—but it also means you can’t program, and this can prove challenging if you want to make subtle changes.  

How to play Banana Defense 

Just go to Fortnite Creative and use this code: 

4708-1640-1360 

We just hope you’re braver than General Banana…