Prop Hunt 101: How to Build the "Who's Who" in Your Island

So you want to build a Prop Hunt map? Great. But right now, everyone is just a blank slate. You can’t have a game of cat-and-mouse if everyone looks like a default skin and no one knows who’s hunting and who’s hiding. It’s like trying to play a match where half the team is invisible and the other half doesn’t have guns. Chaos, sure, but not the fun kind.

In this tutorial, we’re going to fix that. We’re going to set up Teams (so we know who’s on which side) and Classes (so players can pick if they’re a Hunter or a Prop). By the end, you’ll have a system that automatically sorts players into their roles and teleports them to their starting zones. No more guessing games.

What You'll Learn

• Team Settings: How to tell the game "These players are Team A, those are Team B."
• Class Designers: How to create specific roles (like Hunter vs. Prop) that act differently.
• Class Selectors: The UI device that lets players actually choose their role before the match starts.
• The "Setup" Function: A Verse function that ties it all together when the round begins.

How It Works

Think of your game like a lobby before a Battle Royale match. Before the bus drops, you’re just a player. Once the match starts, you’re assigned a squad, and maybe you pick a loadout. In UEFN, we do this with devices and a little bit of Verse code to make it happen automatically.

1. Teams vs. Classes: What’s the Difference?

This is where beginners get confused, so let’s use a game mechanic to clear it up.

• Teams are like your Squad. If you’re on the Red Team, your teammates are Red. If you shoot a Blue player, it’s friendly fire (usually). Teams are broad categories.
• Classes are like your Loadout or Role. In a Prop Hunt game, being on the "Hunter Team" isn't enough. You also need to be in the "Hunter Class" so you get a gun. Being on the "Prop Team" isn't enough; you need to be in the "Prop Class" so you can turn into a chair.

In our game, we have two Teams: Team 1 (Hunters) and Team 2 (Props). But we also have two Classes: Hunter and Prop.

• A player on Team 1 should be in the Hunter Class.
• A player on Team 2 should be in the Prop Class.

The Class Designer is the device that defines what a "Hunter" is (what gun they get, what they look like). The Class Selector is the button on screen that lets the player click "I want to be a Hunter."

2. The Scene Graph: Where Do These Devices Live?

In Unreal Engine, everything is an Entity (an object in the world) with Components (properties attached to it). Think of an Entity like a Player Character. The Components are things attached to that character, like their Health, their Skin, and their Inventory.

• The Team Settings device is like the rulebook. It lives in the world (usually hidden) and tells the game "Team 1 is Blue."
• The Class Designer is like a blueprint. It doesn’t do anything until a player uses it. It says "If you are a Hunter, you get this gun."
• The Class Selector is the UI widget. It’s the button you press.

We need to place these devices in our level. Don’t worry about the Verse code yet; first, let’s place the hardware.

Let's Build It

We are going to set up the infrastructure for a Prop Hunt game. We need:

1. Two Team Settings and Inventory devices (one for Hunters, one for Props).
2. Two Class Designer devices (one for Hunter Class, one for Prop Class).
3. Two Class Selector devices (the buttons players click).

Step 1: Place the Devices

1. Open your Level Editor.
2. Go to the Devices tab.
3. Search for Team Settings and Inventory. Place two of them.
   • Tip: Put them in a corner where players won’t stand on them. They are just logic boxes.
4. Search for Class Designer. Place two of them.
5. Search for Class Selector. Place two of them.
   • Tip: These will appear on the player’s screen. You can position them in the "World" to define where the UI appears on the screen (bottom left, top right, etc.).

Step 2: Configure the Team Settings

Let’s make Team 1 the Hunters and Team 2 the Props.

1. Click on the first Team Settings and Inventory device.
2. In the User Options panel on the right:
   • Team Name: Type Hunters.
   • Team Color: Pick a color (maybe Red).
   • Team ID: Leave it as 1 (default).
3. Click on the second Team Settings and Inventory device.
   • Team Name: Type Props.
   • Team Color: Pick a color (maybe Green).
   • Team ID: Leave it as 2 (default).

Why this matters: This sets up the scoreboard. When you look at the end-game stats, you’ll see "Hunters" and "Props" instead of just "Team 1."

Step 3: Configure the Class Designers

Now we define what a "Hunter" actually is.

1. Click on the first Class Designer device.
2. In the User Options:
   • Class Name: Type Hunter.
   • Class ID: Leave as 1.
3. Click on the second Class Designer device.
   • Class Name: Type Prop.
   • Class ID: Leave as 2.

Note: In a full game, you would drag and drop items (like the Shotgun) into the Class Designer’s inventory slots. For now, we’re just setting up the names.

Step 4: Configure the Class Selectors

This is the button the player clicks.

1. Click on the first Class Selector device.
2. In the User Options:
   • Class ID: Set this to 1 (This links it to the "Hunter" Class Designer).
   • Label: Type Select Hunter.
3. Click on the second Class Selector device.
   • Class ID: Set this to 2 (This links it to the "Prop" Class Designer).
   • Label: Type Select Prop.

Step 5: The Verse Code (The Glue)

Now, let’s write a small Verse script to make sure that when the round starts, the game knows which players are in which team/class. We’ll create a function called SetupTeams.

Create a new Verse device in your level (or add this to your existing script).

# This is a simple script to demonstrate team setup.
# In a real game, this would be part of a larger game loop.

# We define a function that runs when the round starts.
# Think of this like the "Start Match" button on the map.
OnRoundStart := func():
    # This line is a placeholder for where we would actually
    # assign players to teams based on their class selection.
    # For now, we just print a message to the debug log.
    print("Round started! Teams are set up.")

    # In the full Prop Hunt tutorial, this is where you would
    # subscribe to events like "PlayerJoined" and "ClassSelected"
    # to move players to their starting zones.
    
    # Example of what the next step looks like (conceptual):
    # hunters := GetPlayersOnTeam(1)
    # props := GetPlayersOnTeam(2)
    
    # Then you'd teleport them!
    # For each hunter in hunters:
    #     teleport(hunter, hunter_spawn_point)

Wait, why is the code so short?

Because Verse is powerful, but in UEFN, a lot of the heavy lifting (like actually assigning the team) is handled by the Devices we placed above. The Verse code is the director. It tells the devices when to act.

In the full Prop Hunt template, the SetupTeams function does more:

1. It waits for the round to start.
2. It looks at who clicked "Select Hunter" or "Select Prop."
3. It moves those players to the correct Team and gives them the correct Class.
4. It teleports them to their respective spawn points (so Hunters don’t spawn inside a chair).

Try It Yourself

You’ve got the devices in place. Now, let’s make it interactive.

Challenge: Add a Prop Mover device to your map. Create a "Hunter Spawn" zone and a "Prop Spawn" zone.

1. Place two Prop Movers. Name one HunterSpawn and one PropSpawn.
2. In the Verse script, try to find the function that handles player joining.
3. Hint: Look for a device called Player Joined or similar in the Devices tab. Connect its "On Player Joined" output to a Team Settings device.
4. Goal: Make it so that when a player clicks "Select Hunter," they are moved to the HunterSpawn Prop Mover.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t work the first time. Debugging is just like respawning—try again with a slightly different strategy.

Recap

• Teams are your squads (Red vs. Blue).
• Classes are your roles (Hunter vs. Prop).
• Team Settings define the team names and colors.
• Class Designers define what the class is.
• Class Selectors are the buttons players click to choose their role.
• Verse is the director that ties it all together, ensuring players end up in the right place with the right gear.

Now you have the foundation for a structured Prop Hunt game. Next, you’ll want to add the actual gameplay loop (timers, eliminations, and maybe some chaos buttons). But for now, celebrate: you’ve just built the infrastructure that makes multiplayer logic possible.

References

• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/prop-hunt-04-setting-up-teams-and-classes-in-unreal-editor-for-fortnite
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/prop-hunt-05-game-loop-and-round-management-in-unreal-editor-for-fortnite
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/uefn/verse-prop-hunt-template-4-setting-up-teams-and-classes-in-unreal-editor-for-fortnite
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/uefn/verse-prop-hunt-template-in-unreal-editor-for-fortnite
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/prop-hunt-03-playing-effects-on-idle-players-in-unreal-editor-for-fortnite