CooliSushi on building an RPG with UEFN
What does it take to build a fully featured RPG inside Fortnite? For Fortnite developer CooliSushi, the answer was combining a can-do attitude with the versatile toolset available in Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
Aetheria is a custom open-world anime role-playing map, formerly titled Anime RPG Tycoon, that sees players complete quests, farm creatures for experience, unlock new biomes, and battle creatures with a custom melee combat system.
This massively popular Fortnite map was created by a team of just two, who turned their idea into reality by leaning on UEFN’s core features.
Verse brings new gameplay options
Building an RPG in Fortnite means stepping out of the game’s default gameplay. To achieve this, the team used Verse, a programming language in UEFN that enables Fortnite developers to create custom game code, build unique gameplay rules, and control interactive objects in their islands.
“Verse powers our entire gameplay system and allows us to freely expand on our ideas and create something we truly wanted to make,” says CooliSushi’s Lead Artist and Game Director. “It’s a very powerful tool and it’s memory efficient. Combining Verse with Fortnite’s built-in devices lets us iterate quickly instead of having to build something completely from scratch.”
By leveraging Verse alongside the Unreal Editor’s audio framework, the team created a dynamic soundscape that evolves with the player’s journey through the world.
“Using a combination of the two creates our amazing ambience throughout the world and gives us the ability to immerse players,” explains CooliSushi.
Unreal Engine’s fully dynamic global illumination and reflections system Lumen is another powerful tool that proved invaluable, affording the ability to achieve high-quality lighting without extensive manual setup.
“Lumen is an amazing tool,” says CooliSushi. “As a small team of two, it has really helped bring our vision to life by increasing the graphic quality of our world. It helps us build out our world just how we imagined it in real time.”
The result is an anime-inspired world that feels more vibrant and immersive as players progress through their adventure.
Saving time with Fab
To achieve success, smaller teams must maximize efficiency. Time is one of the most valuable resources for indie devs, and any time you can save translates into greater productivity.
That came into sharp relief in the development of Aetheria, particularly when the team were crafting the expansive environments for the game.
“For a very small indie team like ourselves, Fab has been our go-to resource for building our world,” says CooliSushi. “We were able to take our vision further by quickly customizing ready-made assets and building upon them. This allows our creation to be truly unique and speeds up development time significantly—Fab is a lifesaver for us!”
This approach enabled the developers to spend more time crafting gameplay and refining the overall player experience.
The team had big ambitions for the game they had crafted. The goal was to support everything from high-end PCs to mobile devices and Nintendo Switch. That objective was accomplished through their use of the optimization tools in the Unreal Editor to adjust graphical fidelity without sacrificing the overall experience.
“Unreal Editor’s tools allowed us to scale and fine-tune graphic quality for each platform without compromising,” explains CooliSushi.
Small team, big dreams
Looking back on development, CooliSushi credits UEFN’s suite of tools with making the project achievable for such a small team.
“Our vision was able to come to life thanks to Unreal Editor’s tools and we couldn’t have done it by ourselves without it,” says CooliSushi. “We hope players can see what we were able to accomplish.”
Aetheria showcases how far a good idea can go with UEFN. By combining Verse for custom gameplay systems, Lumen for lighting, Fab for asset creation, and Unreal Editor’s optimization tools for cross-platform performance, CooliSushi and team created an RPG experience that feels right at home inside Fortnite.
Ready to jump into the adventure? Play Aetheria here: