Pirate Outpost
Role: Level Designer | Team Size: Solo | Engine: Unreal Editor for Fortnite | Jul 2025
Overview
For this project, I wanted to create a POI utilizing Epic's UEFN. The goal was to gain experience with this version of Unreal and to make a fun open world POI. The theme of this island is pirates. The main area is centered around a small outpost/town, and inside, players can find: taverns, shops, bunk houses, markets, and a jail. Around the exterior portions of the outpost, there are some older fort ruins that the pirates have taken over and are utilizing for defense.
For this island, I utilized various prefabs that were available within UEFN. Many of them have been modified to work with the space I created. Any and all assets present are created and owned by Epic Games.
Island Gallery
Design Intent
Verticality
In this project, I wanted to make verticality a priority so that players would always be fighting on multiple levels without needing to spend lots of resources building their own spaces. When starting this island, I began blocking out the verticality on a larger scale. I wanted there to be a larger building (the fort) on the highest plane with a pathway looping around the back of the lowest part (the town). This way players would, on a larger scale, spiral their way up the island.
Moving into the town itself, I wanted to continue the verticality on a smaller scale in order to separate the town into different combat zones. On the lowest level, there is the dock and ship which provides players entering this space with a literal uphill battle. Players can utilize the market tents or the lower bunkhouse for cover. The next section is the main market and tavern area. This space has a few different buildings that players can duck into as well as multiple options for flanking around the edges instead of running through the more open market space. The last section of the town is located on the right side of the island and is the highest location in the town space. This area provides more linear combat from the base of the clock tower over towards the outdoor gathering space near the fishing shack. There is scattered cover along the path here as well as buildings on either side that players can use to escape.
Player Pathing
As this island was built with the mindset of a battle royal POI, I wanted to make sure there were plenty of pathing options for players so they could choose which way to come at any situation. This takes into account both overarching paths such as how players can get from the town to the fort, as well as more second to second gameplay with paths that allow players to flank around enemies they spot.
