Alright, so here we are, 2+ years after release. Wanted to post my thoughts on the current state of the editor/game and bring attention to certain patterns that showcase the strengths and weaknesses of the editor/game. So let’s jump right in:
PROs
One thing that I have been really happy the past 3 months is that Epic has gone absolutely HAM with new props and prefabs. It’s been so crazy that I haven’t had time to document it all and place it in my furniture catalogue. And the quality is impressive, also the variety too. We are getting to a point that we have choices to build something very specific and this allows us to be very accurate with themes, mood and style. This ecosystem now has the biggest variety of props and architecture out of any UGC I 've ever worked on, surpassing Far Cry 5 editor now almost by double the amount. Incredible work there guys, this variety, quality and quantity of good visual content is what keeps me motivated.
Creator programs have been tight recently as well, with Epic prioritizing issues from the community and fixing issues that were plaguing the editor for a long time. Props to Sabrina from DevRel driving such a massive and much-needed link between Epic and creators to help communicate the issues of the platform and help each other make it great.
Lastly, thanks for all the hard work on tools and giving us feature after feature, also the brand collaborations for building content using specific assets have been great. There has never been a better time to build content that you love in UGC, and Epic is at the forefront at the moment.
CONs
Unfortunately, nothing can be perfect. If it was, Roblox and Steam wouldn’t be looking down. There are two critical issues that Epic hasn’t addressed since UEFN launch, and both have actually gotten worse since 2 years ago.
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Discoverability and survival of content: We 've lost the mindset to create to raise the bar and/or make something that is fun or full of emotion. Now it’s all about how to copy something popular and how to appeal to an algorithm. We are not designing games anymore, but formulas. And I hate it. I don’t open Fortnite anymore outside UEFN, because it’s depressing to look at Discover (and because we are prevented from doing so, such a strange change not to be able to open Fortnite when you have UEFN open, I haven’t bought a skin for over 3 months I think, cause there is no way I am closing UEFN). Nothing in there inspires me to build, nothing actually feels good. Just grind, grind, grind, for another payday. Then each new generation of creators simply lowers the bar. How come we have more tools than Creative and it feels like the content is worse than 3 years ago? Has the friction of the new tools, the engagement system or discovery caused this? I think they have, all 3 together. Which leads me to point 2:
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Lack of stability. Heck, I am even writing this because I can’t launch live edit now. Imagine making a 4-month project, you are right before release, and you can’t test your game. At all. Regardless of the platform, the project, the server region. Nothing works now. When Tim mentioned in the recent podcast that they are trying solve issues that developers don’t have to, it also means that Epic Games issues will transfer to the entire metaverse. It takes one faulty line of code to kill the entire thing in an update, the risk is too high right now. There hasn’t been a recent season update to BR that hasn’t majorly killed UEFN. QA is not catching all issues and they are certainly not getting fixed in time. I don’t have the manpower to fix old Creative levels that are completely broken now, and now I am getting DMs about my content in UEFN being broken too. How is Epic expecting to have a metaverse with this frail structure? No roadmap features have convinced me this is getting fixed, we are all running around the problem, without directly addressing it. And it’s pri 0, without the ability to play, there is no game. You will NEVER catch up to the big players if you don’t add stability. There is so much manpower needed to sustain a large project now, and so little reward from doing so. Even simple RvB maps struggle as a live service.
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The one thing that Epic has struggled as a company is user experience. It was called out in the recent podcast too, with the Epic Games Store. Flat, laggy, unresponsive menus everywhere. Sure, you are valuing performance, but at the cost of the user’s sanity and motivation. Going from Creative menus to UEFN felt like I went back in time 20 years. Deprecated designs and inefficiency everywhere. And not only that, these principles have now made their way into Creative as well, with the new content browser overhaul. Player inventory tab is not visible when pressing tab, pixel perfect actions are needed to connect things or move windows. Dropdowns of settings are clicked that contain one setting, instead of you trying to click that setting, then it gets hidden and you are struggling to change one setting. Hotkeys are inconsistent in the editor so you cant speed up your workflows. URC fires up even if you have it disabled, 5+ plugins that we never use in UEFN fire up when opening widgets or materials because it’s for brands making content in FN but hidden to us (we still wait for the loading screen though). Actions lag due to the heavy use of plugins (compared to UE), it still takes 5+ mins to test a game (if you can, cause server issues can prevent you from doing so). To me it feels we are placed at the bottom of the food chain right now, and if I didn’t love the artstyle of the game so much, I would have started to consider other options that respect my time more.
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The ecosystem is plagued by bad players. People can just straight up copy maps and get away with it, or steal them outright. Or make maps about levelling up battlepass, not games. Which can be ok if controlled, but it’s not. Battlepass XP-focused maps need to have their own row, then that behavior SHOULD NOT be allowed past that row. Also Epic yes needs to take down popular maps with high CCU if they break rules. Those players can find better content, those maps can never be what they truly like, they are just playing it cause FOMO and social pressure. Epic needs to develop an account system for players, to track scores for content they play, achievements and have rankings with their friends. Then, within maps we get to add achievements that are exclusive to our games, similar to PlayStation and xbox. What we have right now is very barebones and not actually useful for either players or creators. Oh, and clean house. Those bad players will keep getting worse if you don’t set strict rules on usage of accolades or IPs.
Back to looking at socials till servers are fixed, see you next time.