Make It Move! A Prop Mover Adventure

Do you want to build a secret door that slides open? How about a giant fan that pushes players around? In Fortnite Creative, we can make static objects come to life. We will use a special device called the Prop Mover. It acts like an invisible hand that pushes, pulls, or spins any object in your island.

What You'll Learn

• What a Prop Mover is and how it works.
• How to set the Distance and Speed of a moving object.
• How to make objects move back and forth.
• How to connect devices so things happen at the right time.

How It Works

Imagine you have a toy car on a track. You can decide how far it goes. You can also decide how fast it zooms. The Prop Mover does the same thing for game objects.

In the game world, objects are called Props. A prop can be a chair, a wall, a tree, or even a whole building. The Prop Mover attaches to one of these props. When you tell it to move, the prop slides in the direction of the arrow.

Think of the settings like a recipe:

• Distance is how far the prop travels.
• Speed is how fast it gets there.
• Path Complete Action decides what happens when it reaches the end. Does it stop? Or does it go back?

We will also use Events. An event is like a trigger. For example, when a player sits in a chair, that is an event. We can link the chair to the Prop Mover. So, when the player sits, the secret door opens!

Let's Build It

We are going to build a simple "Secret Door" system. When a player steps on a button, a wall will slide away. Then, it will slide back to block the path.

Here is how we set it up in UEFN. We will use two devices: a Prop Mover and a Switch.

Step 1: The Moving Wall

1. Place a Prop Mover device in your island.
2. In the Details panel, find the Prop Reference. Select a wall prop to move.
3. Set Distance to 5. This means it will slide 5 meters.
4. Set Speed to 2. This is a nice, steady slide.
5. Set Path Complete Action to Ping Pong. This makes it go back and forth!

Step 2: The Trigger Button

1. Place a Switch device next to the wall.
2. We need to connect them. In UEFN, you can drag a line from the Switch to the Prop Mover.
3. Connect the Switch’s On Activate event to the Prop Mover’s Start function.

Now, when you press the switch, the wall moves. Since we chose "Ping Pong," it will slide open, then slide closed automatically.

Here is a look at the logic in Verse. Verse is the language we use to write custom rules. It looks like this:

// This is a simple Verse script for our Secret Door

# Create a variable for our Prop Mover.
# A variable is like a labeled box for data.
my_secret_door: PropMoverDevice = PropMoverDevice{}

# Create a variable for our Switch.
my_button: SwitchDevice = SwitchDevice{}

# This function runs when the button is pressed.
# It is an "Event Handler."
on_button_press(): void =
    # Tell the door to start moving.
    my_secret_door.Start()
    
    # Optional: Play a sound here!
    # my_secret_door.PlaySound()

In this code, my_secret_door is our box. We put the Prop Mover device inside it. When on_button_press() happens, we tell the door to Start(). The Prop Mover knows to slide the wall.

Understanding the Settings

Let’s look at the most important settings again.

• On Player Collision Behavior: If the moving wall hits a player, what happens?
  • Continue: The wall keeps moving. The player just gets pushed.
  • Stop: The wall stops if it hits a player.
• Player Damage on Collision: Does the player take damage? Set this to 0 if you want it to be safe.

Try It Yourself

Now it is your turn to be creative!

Challenge: Build a "Push-Back" platform.

1. Place a Prop Mover on a flat platform.
2. Set the Distance to 10.
3. Set the On Player Collision Behavior to Stop.
4. Set Player Damage to 0.
5. Place a Timer device. Connect the Timer to the Prop Mover.
6. Set the Timer to trigger every 5 seconds.

Hint: Watch what happens when a player stands on the platform. Does it push them gently, or does it stop dead? Try changing the speed to see if it feels smoother.

Recap

You just learned how to bring your island to life!

• The Prop Mover makes props move.
• Distance and Speed control how it moves.
• Events like Switches and Timers tell the mover when to act.
• You can use Verse to write custom rules for your devices.

Keep experimenting. Try moving a chair, a tree, or a whole house. The only limit is your imagination!

References

• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/chair-device-design-examples
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/create-a-parkour-elimination-race-in-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/using-speaker-devices-in-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/fall-guys-designing-an-obstacle-course-in-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/36-30-fortnite-ecosystem-updates-and-release-notes