A successful brand game in the Fortnite universe – firsthand

Lena created the game Gold Gondola Adventure, a Fortnite island (5184-8107-1604), which you can try for free and experience the adventure that the Gold Gondola brings to Zlatibor. How Lena came to cooperate with Gold gondola, a Zlatibor tourist attraction and explained to them that video games are the perfect medium for their promotion, read in the interview we had with her.

SGA: You graduated in software engineering, so perhaps it was to be expected that your work would be related to a programming language. Why did you turn to UEFN and Unreal Engine?

Lena: Unreal Engine and UEFN have finally given me what I’ve been looking for my whole life, which is the ability to combine the technical with the creative. I’ve been missing a visual component in my work for a long time, and working in these programs has made up for it. As a Software Engineer, I have a good base and that helps me a lot in my work, and I also use my programming knowledge in UEFN itself through its Verse programming language.

SGA: Unfortunately, it’s not easy to quickly get a job as a junior in a gaming company. Do you see working in UEFN as a possible alternative or even a completely new and different career path?

Lena: Honestly, I started making my own games in UEFN because I couldn’t get a job at a gaming company. I’m not the type to sit around and wait for something to happen, so I took matters into my own hands. UEFN gives you the chance to make your own game, publish it and even make money from it. You can be your own little studio, and you’re constantly improving your skills and learning new things while you work.

SGA: How difficult was it for people from the world of tourism to even understand your proposal for cooperation?

Lena: It was really important to me to introduce them to the world of video games, what Fortnite is, how massive that ecosystem is and what potential a branded game has. I thank them for giving me the opportunity to introduce them to that world! When they saw the examples and what it could look like, everything clicked.

SGA: What was it like making a game for clients who weren’t gamers? Were they still able to contribute to the project in some way?

Lena: It was so much fun! The clients initially told me what they thought was important for the brand to be in the game, and I came up with the initial idea based on that. We also had a brainstorming session where they came up with additional suggestions and I implemented them so that they made sense for the gameplay.

For example, it was very important to them that, in addition to the gondola ride itself, the souvenir shop was also promoted with their authentic souvenirs. I translated this into a game mechanic so that players do different quests and receive Gold Coins, which are the currency in the game, and then exchange those for souvenirs identical to the ones from the real store, which are equipped on the player’s skin as a back bling backpack. The cool thing is that players can compare themselves with friends: who unlocked which souvenir and, of course, more expensive souvenirs show that the player completed the quests better and more successfully. The souvenir shop in the game is modeled after the real one, which was especially fun to work on!

SGA: It must have been a special challenge to translate a real space into the Fortnite environment, or is it just an illusion?

Lena: Hahaha, you’re not wrong! The terrain sculpting and blockout phase was really demanding because the entire map had to be proportional. Due to the gameplay, the map couldn’t be copied 1:1, of course, so I had to remove some parts, but in a way that wouldn’t be noticeable. That was especially challenging for me, because I’m from Zlatibor and I know the terrain almost by heart.

SGA: As far as we know, UEFN has very transparent metrics for each island – would you highlight some that you are proud of?

Lena: I’m very proud of the playtime, which is on average about 20 minutes per player, and we had peaks that exceeded an hour of average playtime. This tells me that people are having fun and that they are interested in exploring. Also, after the first update, I saw a serious increase in the number of players, precisely because of small changes that made a big difference.

SGA: Why is it important to update and improve games of this type?

Lena: Updating UEFN games is crucial because the Fortnite Discover algorithm favors updated islands: when you release a new update, your map gets additional impressions in the Discover tab and can return or climb in the rankings. In the case of Gold Gondola Adventure, it’s great that we can insert seasonal novelties and follow real events, so the game remains interesting and current.

SGA: When it comes to UEFN islands, marketing may come into play even more so after the launch. What have you done in this regard so far and what other campaigns are you preparing in the future?

Lena: To promote the game, we hired the popular YouTuber/TikTok artist Vicostein, who introduced the game on his channels, and then we organized a live play session with him in the center of Zlatibor. Visitors could win tickets for a gondola ride depending on how they completed the challenges in the game. In addition, the game received a lot of media attention: almost all relevant portals wrote about it, and it was also presented on several television channels. In the future, we plan additional influencer collaborations and seasonal campaigns that will accompany new game updates.

SGA: Lena, we are so glad that we finally sat down to talk about this game, which has already been covered by so many media outlets! We hope that all of this is just an extremely successful beginning.

Lena: Thank you very much! I also hope that this is just the beginning and that Gold Gondola Adventure, as well as my future UEFN projects, will continue to grow and attract new players. This project has shown me how creative ideas can come to life in the Fortnite world and how much room there is for further expansion and innovation.