Day One in UEFN: From Empty Editor to a Playable Island

Welcome. You are about to make a Fortnite island.

This is the post we wish we had handed to ourselves on day one. No jargon avalanche, no skipped steps, no "as you can see in the screenshot" without a screenshot. Just the path from "I downloaded UEFN" to "I am standing inside my own island in Fortnite, and a friend can join me." Most of you can finish this in under an hour.

If you are coming in totally cold, here is the shape of what you are about to learn:

Install the editor and sign in with the right kind of Epic account.

Open a starter project and learn the four panels you will actually use.

Place two devices and connect them so something happens when a player walks into a trigger.

Push a build to Fortnite and join your own island as a real player.

That is it for day one. Combat, Verse code, art polish, and economy design all come later. The only goal today is the loop of change something, push it, see it in-game, change it again. Once that loop is comfortable, everything else is just learning more devices.

Through the rest of this post we will lean on a few terms. If anything looks foreign, the Mapwright glossary has plain-English definitions for every word in italics or backticks.

Step 1. Install Unreal Editor for Fortnite

UEFN runs through the Epic Games Launcher. You probably already have it if you play Fortnite. If not, install it from epicgames.com and sign in with the same Epic account you play Fortnite on. Two-factor authentication needs to be enabled before Epic will let you publish anything, so turn that on now. It saves a real headache later.

In the launcher's top-row tabs you will see "Unreal Engine." Click that, then "Library," then the small "+" next to "Engine Versions" and pick the latest UEFN release. Install it. The download is large (think tens of gigabytes) so this is a great moment to grab a snack. While it installs, also check that your Fortnite client is up to date in the launcher's Fortnite tab, because UEFN and Fortnite need to be on the same major version for your builds to work.

When UEFN finishes installing, launch it. You will see a project picker. Do not start with a "blank" project for your very first session. Pick Blank Island from the templates instead. Blank Island gives you a tiny piece of ground to stand on with the right project settings already configured for Fortnite, which removes a class of "why does nothing work" problems that blank UE projects can have.

Name your project something memorable. You will see this name in the editor, in your file system, and on disk for years. We like the format firstname-projectname, like riley-trial-island, because it sorts well and stays unique when you have a dozen of them.

Step 2. Learn the four panels you actually need

UEFN has a lot of panels. On day one, you only need four. Find them and ignore the rest until they become relevant.

Viewport. The big 3D window in the middle. This is where you fly the camera around with right-click + WASD, just like in any 3D editor. Hold right-click and roll the mouse wheel to change fly speed. If your camera is whipping across the world like a fighter jet, drop your fly speed.

Outliner. The list of every actor in the level (top right by default). Every device, mesh, light, and player spawner that exists in the world is in this list. When you cannot find something in the viewport, find it here, double-click it, and the camera will fly to it.

Details. Right below the Outliner. Whatever you have selected, this panel shows you its options. Devices in particular have entire forests of options here. You will spend a lot of time in this panel.

Content Browser. The dock at the bottom. Everything that exists on disk in your project (assets, devices, materials, blueprints, Verse files) lives here. The Content Browser has a search bar at the top. When in doubt, type what you want.

If any of those four panels are not visible, the Window menu in the top menu bar will let you re-enable them. Layouts can be reset under Window > Load Layout > Default Editor Layout.

Step 3. Place a Player Spawner

Before you can play your island, you need at least one player spawner. Without one, Fortnite cannot decide where to drop you in.

In the Content Browser, search "Player Spawner Device." Drag one into the viewport. Drop it on top of the floor of Blank Island. You should see a small icon for it.

Press the Launch Session button at the top of the editor (it looks like a play icon and is labeled "Launch Session" or similar in the toolbar). UEFN will spin up a local Fortnite session and put you on your island. Walk around. You are now standing on something you made. We promise this feeling does not get old.

Hit Escape and choose to leave the session, which returns you to the editor.

Step 4. Make something happen

A static piece of ground is not a game. Let's make a device react to the player.

Drag a Trigger Device from the Content Browser into the level. Place it somewhere visible. Then drag a Billboard Device into the level a few meters away. The Billboard is a simple sign that displays text to nearby players.

Now wire them. Select the Trigger. In its Details panel, find the section called Functions or User Options (it has changed names across UEFN versions; both refer to the same idea). Look for a setting called Triggered Event or similar. There you can pick a target device and a function on it. Pick the Billboard, and pick the Show or Display function.

What you have just done in plain English is: "When a player crosses this trigger, tell the billboard to show its text." Edit the Billboard's text in its Details panel to say "Hello, island." Launch the session again. Walk into the trigger. The billboard shows your message.

This pattern, one device emits an event, another device reacts to it, is the entire foundation of UEFN. Verse adds power and expression on top of this, but you can ship surprisingly fun islands using only stock devices wired together this way.

Step 5. Push a build to Fortnite and play it for real

Local launches are great for iteration but they only run on your machine. Pushing a real build is what gets your island a real island code that real Fortnite players (or your friends in another room) can join.

In the editor's top toolbar, there is a button called Launch Session for local play and a separate menu, often labeled Project, for build-and-publish actions. Inside that menu look for Build & Submit (the exact label has shifted across UEFN releases; the action is the same). UEFN will:

Cook all your project assets into the format Fortnite needs.

Compile any Verse code (we have not written any yet, so there is nothing to compile).

Upload the build to Epic and associate it with your island.

Hand you back an island code.

The first build is slow. Subsequent builds are much faster because the editor caches a lot of intermediate work. While it builds, you have time to read the Mapwright Studio overview and decide whether you want a faster Verse iteration loop later.

When the build finishes, copy the island code, open Fortnite, go to Discover in the lobby, paste the code into the search bar, and join. Welcome to your own published island.

What you should do next

Day one is intentionally narrow. The win is the loop, not the content. Here are the three best places to spend day two through five, in order:

Read Day Two: Devices, events, and the language of UEFN logic. It explains the device-and-event mental model in real depth, which will pay dividends every day after.

Skim our field guide to UEFN economies. You do not need an economy yet, but skimming it now plants vocabulary that will save you later when your island has currency or progression.

Bookmark the glossary. Every word that confuses you on day two is probably in there with a plain-English definition.

When you are ready to write your first line of Verse, Day Three: Your first Verse script will walk you through it the same way this post walked you through the editor.

A small word on patience

UEFN is one of the more capable creation environments in any consumer product, and capability comes with a learning curve. The thing that separates the creators who ship from the ones who do not is almost never raw skill. It is the willingness to make small things, finish them, and learn from each one.

You finished day one. That is not a small thing. Tomorrow, finish day two.