Stop Yelling at Players: How to Use Billboard Devices for Clean Onboarding

So, you've built a crazy obstacle course. It's got grapples, boosts, and traps that turn players into confetti. But the problem? Nobody knows how to play it. They're just running into walls, dying immediately, and leaving negative reviews because they think your island is broken.

You don't need a novel to explain the rules. You need a Billboard.

Billboards are the in-game equivalent of a friendly NPC waving a sign that says "This Way." Instead of dumping a 500-word text file on your players, you use these devices to pop up quick, readable instructions right when they need them. In this tutorial, we're going to build a "Chaos Lobby" where players get clear, styled instructions before they spawn into the madness. No more confusion. Just clean, readable game design.

What You'll Learn

• The Billboard Device: What it is and why it's better than a wall of text.
• Visual Hierarchy: How to use size, color, and font to make sure players actually read your instructions.
• The Scene Graph Context: Where billboards live in the game world (spoiler: they're just props with brains).
• Building a Tutorial Zone: A step-by-step guide to setting up a "Welcome to Hell" onboarding area.

How It Works

Think of a Billboard device like a digital poster board in a school hallway, but one that follows the player's gaze or sits stubbornly on a wall until they pay attention.

In Fortnite Creative, a Billboard is a specific type of Device (a game object that has logic or behavior, unlike a simple static prop like a rock). Its primary job is to display text. But it's not just a sticky note; it's a customizable UI element that exists in the 3D world.

Here's the deal with the mechanics:

1. Character Limit: You've got 150 characters. This is your "storm circle" for text—keep it tight. If you ramble, you lose.
2. Persistence: Unlike a floating chat message that disappears in 5 seconds, a billboard stays there. It waits. It judges. It persists until the player moves on or the game ends.
3. Styling: You control the font, size, color, and outline. This is crucial. If your text is white on a white wall, you're not onboarding anyone; you're playing hide-and-seek.

The Scene Graph Connection: In Unreal Engine 6 (and Verse), everything is part of the Scene Graph—a hierarchy of all objects in the world. A Billboard is an Entity (a thing that exists in the world) with a Component (the part that handles the text rendering). When you place it, you're adding a node to this graph. It has a position, a rotation, and a scale. Treat it like a prop that you can "talk" to via its settings.

Let's Build It

We are going to build a "Pre-Game Instruction Zone." Imagine a safe starting area where players spawn. We want to show them three things:

1. How to move.
2. What the goal is.
3. That they are about to die if they aren't careful.

Step 1: Place the Billboards

1. Open your island in UEFN (or Creative Mode).
2. Go to the Devices panel. Search for Billboard.
3. Place three billboards on a wall or floating platform near your spawn point.

Step 2: Customize the Content

Click on the first billboard. In the Details panel, look for the Text field.

• Billboard 1 (The Basics):

  • Text: Move: WASD | Jump: Space | Interact: E
  • Text Size: Large
  • Text Color: Bright Cyan
  • Outline: Black (Thick)
  • Why? High contrast. Cyan pops against most walls. Black outline ensures readability even if the background is messy.

• Billboard 2 (The Goal):

  • Text: Goal: Collect 10 Coins to unlock the exit.
  • Text Size: Medium
  • Text Color: Gold
  • Outline: Dark Brown
  • Why? Gold matches the "coin" theme. Dark brown outline keeps it readable.

• Billboard 3 (The Warning):

  • Text: Warning: Floor is lava. Literally.
  • Text Size: Small
  • Text Color: Red
  • Outline: Black
  • Why? Small text feels like a "secret" or a warning. Red signals danger.

Step 3: Positioning Matters

Don't just throw them anywhere.

• Place Billboard 1 at eye level.
• Place Billboard 2 slightly higher, so they look up to read it.
• Place Billboard 3 near the edge of the safe zone, so it's the last thing they see before the "lava" starts.

The Verse Connection (For the Future)

While you can set this up entirely in the editor, Verse allows you to change these billboards dynamically. Imagine if, after collecting 5 coins, the text on Billboard 2 changed from "Collect 10 Coins" to "5/10 Collected." That's Verse. But for now, static billboards are your best friend for clean onboarding.

Annotated Example: What's Happening Under the Hood

Even though we're using the editor, understanding the "code" behind the billboard helps. Here's how a Verse script would interact with this setup (conceptual):

using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }
using { /Verse.org/Simulation }
using { /UnrealEngine.com/Temporary/Diagnostics }

# A Verse device that holds a reference to a billboard_device
# placed in the editor, then updates its text at game start.
chaos_lobby_manager := class(creative_device):

    # Wire this to your Billboard device in the UEFN Details panel.
    @editable
    MyBillboard : billboard_device = billboard_device{}

    # OnBegin fires when the game session starts.
    OnBegin<override>()<suspends> : void =
        # billboard_device exposes SetText() to update the displayed string.
        # The string must be 150 characters or fewer to match the device limit.
        MyBillboard.SetText(WelcomeMessage())
        # note: billboard_device does not expose a rich TextStyle struct at
        # runtime; font, color, and outline are configured in the editor
        # Details panel, not through Verse API calls.

WelcomeMessage<localizes>() : message = "Welcome to the Chaos Zone!"```

**Walkthrough:**
*   **Entity Reference:** We grab the specific billboard object from the world.
*   **Component Update:** We change the "Text" property. In the editor, you do this with a text box. In Verse, you do this with code.
*   **Rendering:** The engine takes that text, applies the style (font, color), and draws it on the screen.

## Try It Yourself

**Challenge:** Create a "Haunted House" onboarding area.

1.  Place a Billboard at the entrance.
2.  Set the **Text** to something spooky (under 150 chars).
3.  Change the **Text Font** to something weird (if available) or just use **Bold**.
4.  Change the **Text Color** to a pale green or ectoplasmic blue.
5.  Add an **Outline** that is *white* (if your background is dark) or *black* (if your background is light).
6.  **Test it:** Play your island. Does the text pop? Is it readable from 10 meters away? If not, adjust the **Text Size** or **Outline Thickness**.

**Hint:** If the text is hard to read, it's usually because the contrast is too low. Make the outline thicker or the text color more saturated. Don't be shy with the outline—it's your best friend for readability.

## Recap

*   **Billboards** are your go-to for static, persistent in-game instructions.
*   **Keep it short:** 150 characters max. If it's longer, split it into two billboards.
*   **Style matters:** Use high-contrast colors and outlines. A pretty font is useless if nobody can read it.
*   **Placement is key:** Put instructions where players naturally look.

Now go forth and onboard your players without driving them insane. And remember: a well-placed billboard is worth a thousand angry Discord messages.

## References

*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/using-billboard-devices-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/using-billboard-devices-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/onboarding-players-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/onboarding-players-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/pinbrawl-in-fortnite-creative