You may have noticed islands appearing on the Homebar. Here’s why:
We’re experimenting with displaying islands from Epic’s Picks in the Homebar. Our goal with this test is to introduce more players to the very best content you’re creating and to feature more unique games in the Homebar.
Islands are algorithmically placed when they meet a combination of criteria (CCU, session length thresholds, and more).
The test has been running for two weeks and on Monday the first island was triggered for placement.
We’ll evaluate the success of the test by monitoring player engagement but we’re also curious what you think—so let us know!
dont like it, the top perforing island are already always at the top. now they gonna be even more at the top so smaller island get less chance to be discovered.
Not sure why there should even be a difference between epic picks and homebar, why isn’t epic picks already there? They should be the most innovative and epic-curated maps which you would want to get people to play to expand away from just the basic maps.
I think Homebar should just be Epic Picks. The popular maps get pretty much every single other top row and we want to celebrate the actual best of uefn. It’s like when the Academy Awards tried to make a most popular award, its silly because they got their reward with their box office already.
I have put a ton of work into a map and I’m pretty nervous that without having a playerbase thats following me my map will be dead on arrival because I won’t have the plays to get into the algorithim. I dont know much about how this all works but this seems to be a step away from helping new maps get any play to even be considered for homebar.
This a really great idea only if all maps from epic picks can have a fair chance at being there. For example, it would be amazing to rotate each map from epic picks in the home bar even for just an hour during the whole week because I feel if they’re selected to be in epic picks in the first place it means it’s great content and should be highlighted no matter what.
It’s a super important row in discovery for small creators and innovative maps, they should be rewarded I think.
The one issue I see right now is that we have nothing to base what that CCU, session length, or any of it should be.
Algorithm pushes are way too unpredictable, the fact I get a push for 3 hours in a day, and barely get told what stats I need to improve in order to increase my chances on the algo isn’t great.
Would be nice to have more transparency regarding to what stats we should be aiming for.
So basically lets make more red vs blue maps with ai generated slob to stand any chance. The system is awful and needs a full overhaul if you value creativity and experienced modders.
I really like this idea, would give more visibility to islands selected and playtested by epic. The current homebar choices just favours already popular maps so this is a very welcome change. As others have said, would be nice if it gave all epics picks maps at least a day in there.
I do like that Epic keeps on experimenting with new ways to get more creators seen. I understand that most islands that perform well will go to the top since it’s the best experience for the user and the platform. I also love the idea of giving Epic Picks more attention. I look at Epic Picks as the section Epic wants to see the ecosystem become. And giving those maps a chance with homebar, even if just for a little bit, is huge! This can give the map creator the exposure they need for a well thought out map and possibly help push the next genre or fad.
I do agree with some of the comments that all epics picks maps should rotate in and out of home bar. Even if just for a bit. It would make trying to innovate and get into epics picks a lot more desirable.
I’d like to see something like an Epic’s Notes added to Epic’s Pick map descriptions. These could highlight for players why Epic selected the map, what’s innovative or unique for the FN community.
I think this could help many of the players understand devs technical and artistic efforts, which often need a bit more time and thought to appreciate and enjoy, vs the immediate dopamine hit type of maps that tend to be most popular.
Epic Pick’s is just a group of 4-5 30 year old Epic employees that are picking a few maps a week that they think are cool (nothing wrong with that at all!!). My point being is that it may not be a proper reflection of what players in the ecosystem actually like to play.
I just think that the MOST powerful tab in Discover should always be chosen by the players (algorithmically), I can see a handful things going wrong when a small small group of 4-5 people are picking and choosing what gets that insane amount of exposure.
I do think Homebar there could be some room to adjusted the algorithm to give newer maps (that players absolutely love) a space in the homebar over those same 4-5 old 1.0 legacy combat maps that have dominated all the discover tabs for years…
In my opinion the Epic’s Picks and or Spotlight area in the discovery should be hand picked by a human or a team of humans not “an algorithm” because as many of us have said before: i create an awesome , fun map and then… nothing . we cant get people to even try it because nobody ever knows its there!
Great to hear about new ways to have islands boosted and making epic picks rightfully more important. However, you wrote here “the test has been running for 2 weeks…” but the first time an Island got placed in the Homebar was this week. So is this not something that will happen each week? You mentioned ‘triggered for placement’ - does that mean a certain metric has to be met by those Epic Picks map to go into the Homebar?
Is Homebar the row of Islands just below the ‘ready’ button in the lobby? I checked a few minutes ago and I didn’t see any Epic’s Picks islands on there.
Also, I don’t fully understand how this is supposed to help newer creators get seen, or at least me, I have had a map submitted for Epic’s Picks since November and I have gotten no disclosure at all about my game’s progress. I apparently haven’t even been featured once for that game since I sent it.
This is completely false. I have had a terrible experience. I never even bothered with UEFN due to the sheer amount of trash, ip theft, and racism on the front page. I didn’t even know the creative tools were this robust. And i would have never checked again if I wasn’t already a creator elsewhere.
That elsewhere I have tens of thousands of players, years later. Here 0. New maps are not shown and low effort garbage is incentivized. It should be demonetized red vs blue etc. Like ye make tiktoks, youtube shorts but no pay. It’s low effort that drives away creators and players alike.
Thank you for the clarification on this!
I’m looking forward for this type of communication to undertand more where you guys want to go with this ways to promote content.
So us, builders, can focus on this type of content as it’s greatly rewarded.
This is a good way to drive attention on quality, originality, and innovation that has interest for you.