Building Tomorrow: The Endless Possibilities of Lego Fortnite
“We mentioned ‘let’s prepare for something in 2027’ and they accomplished it in just one year.”
This week has witnessed a surge of activity within Lego Fortnite, where numerous major game modes are now hosted. Initially, there was the introduction of a significant update for Lego Fortnite Odyssey (formerly simply referred to as ‘Lego Fortnite’) that incorporates the Storm King boss as a substantial endgame challenge, akin to the Ender Dragon in Minecraft.
In addition, there is now a completely new and distinct Lego Fortnite experience to explore: Brick Life, a vibrant blend of gameplay that resembles a family-friendly GTA Online merged with The Sims.
How did these modifications and new ideas come to fruition? And what does the future hold for the Lego and Fortnite collaboration? I spoke with Yarn Games’ EVP of game development, Devin Winterbottom, and Remi Marcelli, SVP and head of Lego gaming within the Lego community, to learn more.
How did you come up with the new title for Lego Fortnite Odyssey? And why the name Odyssey?
Marcelli: Coming up with new titles is always a bit of a challenge for The Lego Group. Lego Fortnite combines two major brands, but it’s not strictly confined to one genre. At the time we chose that name, it seemed like the obvious choice given that we were merging two well-known brands – it would have been a missed opportunity otherwise! We didn’t anticipate that we would have a series of games that could fall under that umbrella.
What we aimed for was a name that captures the genre players would expect when launching [the prior] Lego Fortnite. Odyssey was chosen because that represents what players cherish the most – the adventures. The journey gameplay is the most beloved aspect of that game, and we’ve intensified that with the inclusion of the Storm King.
We wanted to ensure players understood it was an adventure game. With Brick Life, hopefully, it’s self-explanatory – it indicates social roleplay.
Did you always intend for the Storm King to be included? For long-time Fortnite fans, it’s exciting to see him crossover from the original Save the World mode.
Winterbottom: We had a vision of what this game would evolve into. We wanted to incorporate a significant, challenging entity that players could aspire to defeat. We always envisioned it would be something along these lines.
“Everything we’ve included in Odyssey has remained in it.”
We converged on the Storm King after discussing the types of elements already present within the expansive Fortnite universe and the heritage of our game. He is intended to be the formidable challenge that we believe is essential in a game of this genre.
It’s genuinely exciting the way that mountain has emerged across your island; the biome is incredible, and he reigns over it. It’s a blend of fun, and we anticipate gamers will engage with it for many years to come.
One last point I want to stress – everything we have integrated into Odyssey has remained intact. The Star Wars content is still present, the klombos, the battle bus, the vehicles, the farming… and that is significant for us. It was challenging to introduce this Storm King update amidst a live environment where people are playing and where we have added a lot of diverse content. However, we are genuinely pleased with how it has turned out.
How have you managed to achieve that? Since the new content is not simply stitched onto the existing fabric, it must consider the history of what has been developed to avoid undermining it.
“We can’t disregard their work, their investment.”
Winterbottom: It’s complex technical work. The Unreal Engine is a crucial tool that has a lot of procedural world-building capabilities that we’ve been integrating into it over the past few years. We have been developing this technology for a while now.
When we produced the Star Wars update, we introduced a new biome separate from your island, which is a significantly more colorful endeavor. We have always aspired to alter an individual’s island dynamically, but being aware that they’ve customized it themselves – they have built structures throughout it. We can’t disregard their work, their investment. Therefore, there was extensive collaboration between the engineering and design teams to determine how to procedurally, algorithmically position the new biome and craft that structure.
We’re truly satisfied with that accomplishment; it’s not a simple task, and we seriously value players’ investment in everything they have created on that island because that reflects their game within this creation, and we do not want to compromise that. This is our approach.
What does 2025 hold for Lego Fortnite Odyssey? Can players expect a similar mix of licensed and original content additions?
Winterbottom: We just gathered and discussed this very topic! We aim to establish a roadmap that allows our teams to work smoothly, but not so much that we can’t adjust based on what players enjoy, as we value input from the community.
There will definitely be, perhaps, some additional licensed content – there will be exciting elements to provide. However, our focus is more on how we continue to enhance the gameplay experience. We haven’t merely been adding content but have been refining the gameplay mechanics this year – and we plan to do both of these things next year with Ody.