Hello Fortnite developers,
At Unreal Fest Chicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbZzMOQIXdU, I talked through the goal and direction for Discover: every time a player opens Discover, they should find something worth playing. I wanted to share a few steps we’re taking to help us get closer to that goal.
On October 15, we’re rolling out a redesigned Discover that helps your islands stand out. We’re also continuing to ramp up our efforts to prevent duplicative content from entering the ecosystem.
More details on the redesign and spam enforcement below.
Discover Redesign
We’ve been rolling out changes [ Discover update: Elevating quality and matching players to content they'll love ] over the past few months, and starting October 15, players will begin seeing a redesigned Discover experience in Fortnite. This will be a phased update that will come to more players over time.
We’re updating Discover’s design with a richer presentation that gives players more info about your game at a glance, helping them decide what to play next. The tiles and modules that make up Discover will be considerably more expressive, with autoplay video, a cleaner logo treatment, new tile shapes, and more.
Here’s a closer look at how the redesign gives your games a more dynamic, more expressive presence.
Video-based island previews
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Hero carousel. An edge-to-edge, video-fed spotlight at the top of Discover with multiple rotating spots.
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Epic’s Picks and video on hover. The curated row becomes reactive and more eye-catching, with tiles that play a short muted clip of your trailer when a player hovers over them.
Richer tiles and presentation
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Separate art and logo: A layered composition of clean art with a transparent logo, assembled on the tile at display time so your logo stays sharp at any size.
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Portrait tiles and Top 10: A new, larger tile shape for Discover, used in a ranked row of the top 10 islands in Fortnite.
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Gameplay video on your island details page: You can now add a muted gameplay video alongside your screenshots and trailer, and most rows route players to that page before the Lobby, so more people will see it.
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Like percentage on tiles: Quick social proof for players that they should check out your island.
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Highlights on tiles: New and Updated callouts on tiles that signal freshness to players, driving adoption of new islands and bringing players back to old favorites.
How to prepare
Upload new asset types in the Creator Portal http://create.fortnite.com/
We’re introducing four new asset types:
- A gameplay video for your island details page.
- Two portrait thumbnails, one with art and logo in one flat image, one art-only.
- An art-only landscape thumbnail.
- A transparent island name logo.
Adding these new asset types to your island will be required for the new rows and placements, including the hero carousel, Top 10, and Epic’s Picks (apply here: https://creative.fortnite.com/).
If you don’t upload them, your island won’t be shown in these placements and rows.
The island trailer is now labeled Trailer in Creator Portal, with the new Gameplay video as a separate upload. The trailer video is required for placement in the hero carousel, so upload a trailer if you don’t already have one.
See the table below for details. Please note that Discover is a living surface, and that these asset requirements will change over time as rows and tiles continue to evolve.
For full specs, safe areas, and per-tile guidance, see Making Thumbnails and Videos. Making Thumbnails and Videos in Fortnite Creative | Fortnite Documentation | Epic Developer Community
To upload, head to the Creator Portal. https://create.fortnite.com/
Review your thumbnails
Starting October 15, Content Pre-Checks will review all thumbnails against the best practices detailed in How Discover Works. How Discover Works in Fortnite | Fortnite Documentation | Epic Developer Community Check your thumbnails now and replace any that need it. This will apply to thumbnails already published as well as new submissions.
For new submissions, you’ll receive a warning in Creator Portal during the publishing flow if your thumbnail doesn’t follow best practices, but you won’t be blocked from publishing. For thumbnails you’ve already published, you’ll receive a notification if one doesn’t follow best practices. Thumbnails that don’t follow best practices will affect your island’s Discover ranking.
Important: When creating promotional materials, only use Outfits or other items that Epic owns, or that you have permission to use. This means you should not use characters or items from other companies unless you have permission. You can find examples of approved Outfits here. Asset Library - Fortnite | Promoting Your Experience
Spam Enforcement
Since March, we’ve removed more than 81,000 spam islands, and recently we began rolling out new improvements to our spam detection systems.
We’re now using more signals to better identify duplicative content, and catch developers using alternative/connected accounts to avoid bans. This enables us to remove more spam and spammers from the ecosystem in our ban waves, and in our latest waves we removed 44,535 duplicate islands and 707 accounts belonging to bad actors.
Spamming is against the rules (1.9.1) and will result in your islands being removed and your developer account being permanently banned (including any alternative/connected accounts).
Preventing spam is not a one-and-done fix. Every time we close off one method, spammers start looking for new exploits. We’re going to keep stepping up spam detection and enforcement to keep pace.
Looking ahead
We’re excited to see these updates roll out to players, and we’ll continue to evolve and improve Discover to give your island the best chance of connecting with an audience who’ll love it. Appreciate your feedback and your patience as we keep working to make Fortnite better for developers and players.
