Video: UX expert helps explain why Fortnite is such a success

Video shot and edited by Justin Wolfson and CNE. Click here for transcript.

In the world of user experience (UX) design, no challenge is bigger than the one presented by a complex, action-loaded video game. And that goes triple for a game like Fortnite.

This online-gaming sensation combines three very complex ideas-high-speed combat, incessant equipment upgrades, and a make-your-own-buildings system-into one experience. How do you make it easy for gamers to juggle so much, all while they're battling 99 other people at once? For developer Epic Games, the answer lies with a carefully designed user experience full of secrets and subtleties.

Although Fortnite gets something of a bad rap from the "curmudgeonly gamers" demographic ("The kids play it on their iPhones, so I automatically hate it!"), the game's popularity is impossible to argue with. We are firmly in the era of the battle royale, and with Fortnite currently riding high at that genre's apex, it's worth looking at how the game does what it does so successfully.

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