Fortnite gameplay shown for the first time at Comic Con

Epic offered a first glimpse of Fortnite’s gameplay at San Diego Comic Con. The show’s tone was extremely casual. Bleszinski was there, as well as a selection of high-ranking Epic officials, and they all seemed incredibly stoked to not be developing another grim, gun-metal dudebro shooter. (Bleszinski actually showed off some early Fortnite concept art, which was barren and apocalyptic, as an example of what they were trying to avoid once they pivoted to the sprightly look it has today.) Looking back, it’s surprising to note that through all the uncertainty over the course of Fortnite’s development, the overarching structure stayed pretty consistent. In the tech demo we saw, players harvested raw materials to throw up fortified homesteads, blueprinted out on an invisible grid. Did Epic think those creative building tools would be used in a bloodthirsty deathmatch? Probably not, but these ideas still paid off eventually.

This was also where Bleszinski said Fortnite would be a PC exclusive, and that Epic were overjoyed to be coming home to the platform that raised him and the company. Oops!