Student can open a UEFN project, navigate the viewport, place a device from Content Browser, and Launch Session to playtest.

🧩 Your capstone piece: The Shell-Hunt beach level itself: terrain, spawn pad, galleon landmark placement

Wash Ashore: UEFN Editor & Creative Basics

Welcome to Verse Island! You are about to become a creator. In this lesson you will open the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), learn to move around your island, place your first devices, and playtest a working secret door. This is your playground. Let's get started.

What You'll Learn

• How to open a UEFN project.
• How to navigate the viewport (fly around your island).
• What a Device is, and how to place one from the Content Browser.
• How a tiny Verse script connects a button to a door.
• How to Launch Session to playtest your island.

How It Works

Think of UEFN like a giant toy box. You have props, buildings, and gadgets. You can put them anywhere. But they do nothing until you give them instructions.

In Fortnite, we use Devices. A device is like a robot helper. It waits for something to happen. Then it does a job.

For example, a Button device is like a doorbell. When a player presses it, it fires an event — a signal that something happened. A Lock device controls a door. It waits for instructions like Open or Close.

In UEFN, we connect devices with a small Verse script. The script listens for the button's event. When the event fires, the script tells the lock to open the door. You press the button, the script hears it, the door opens!

This is called interactivity. You are making the game react to you. It is like magic. But it is just logic.

Let's Build It

We will build a secret door. It will stay closed. It will open when you press a button.

Step 1: Open a UEFN Project

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher and launch Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) from your Library.
2. In the Project Browser, click New Project under FEATURED.
3. Choose a starter template (a Blank island is perfect).
4. Name your project and click Create. The editor opens with your island in the big center window — the viewport.

Step 2: Fly Around the Viewport

1. Hold the right mouse button and move the mouse to look around.
2. Keep holding the right mouse button and press W / A / S / D to fly forward, left, back, and right. Q and E move you down and up.
3. Roll the scroll wheel while flying to change your speed.
4. Click any object and press F to zoom straight to it. Practice until moving feels easy — you will do this constantly.

Step 3: Place the Devices from the Content Browser

1. Find the Content Browser panel (usually docked at the bottom of the editor).
2. In its source tree, open Fortnite > Devices.
3. Search for Button. Drag the Button device into your level and drop it somewhere easy to reach.
4. Search for Lock. Drag the Lock device next to a door (place any building piece or prefab with a door from Fortnite > Galleries or Fortnite > Prefabs). The Lock device controls the nearest door you point it at in its options.

Step 4: Add the Verse Brain

1. In the menu bar choose Verse > Verse Explorer, right-click your project, and pick Create New Verse File. Choose the Verse Device template and name it secret_door_device.
2. Double-click the new file to open it in Verse. Replace its contents with the script below.
3. Save, then choose Verse > Build Verse Code (Ctrl+Shift+B). Wait for the green success message.
4. In the Content Browser, open your project's CreativeDevices folder and drag secret_door_device into the level.
5. Select the device you just placed. In the Details panel, set MagicSwitch to your Button device and SecretDoor to your Lock device.

using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }
using { /Verse.org/Simulation }

# Our first Verse device: it connects a button to a locked door.
secret_door_device := class(creative_device):

    # Point this at the Button device in your level (Details panel).
    @editable
    MagicSwitch : button_device = button_device{}

    # Point this at the Lock device on your door (Details panel).
    @editable
    SecretDoor : lock_device = lock_device{}

    # OnBegin runs once when the game starts.
    OnBegin<override>()<suspends> : void =
        # When the button is pressed, call OnSwitchPressed.
        MagicSwitch.InteractedWithEvent.Subscribe(OnSwitchPressed)

    # This runs every time a player presses the button.
    OnSwitchPressed(Player : agent) : void =
        # Open the door for the player who pressed the button.
        SecretDoor.Open(Player)

In this code, @editable makes a slot appear in the Details panel, so you can point the script at the real devices you placed. InteractedWithEvent is an Event. An event is something that happens. Like a bell ringing. Subscribe means "when this bell rings, call my function." So when a player presses the button, OnSwitchPressed runs and tells the lock to open the door for that player.

Step 5: Launch Session and Playtest

1. Click Launch Session in the toolbar at the top of the editor.
2. Fortnite starts and loads your island. Be patient the first time — it can take a minute.
3. Walk to your button and hold the interact key to press it.
4. Watch the door open!

Tip: Keep UEFN open while you playtest. If you change your Verse code, run Verse > Build Verse Code again and use Push Verse Changes to update the running session without restarting.

Try It Yourself

Can you make the button close the door too — press once to open, press again to close?

Hint: Look at the Lock device's functions. Instead of Open, there is one called ToggleOpened that flips between open and closed. Change one line in OnSwitchPressed and rebuild your Verse code.

Recap

You opened your first UEFN project. You flew around the viewport. You placed devices from the Content Browser. You wrote your first Verse script and wired it to real devices in the Details panel. Then you Launched Session and playtested your island. You are a creator now! Keep building. Keep learning. Have fun.

References

• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/getting-started-in-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/starting-out-in-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/community-in-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/sustainable-stacks-lesson-plan-for-fortnite-creative
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/sdg-sustainable-cities-lesson-plan-in-fortnite-creative