Metallica:
Music Experience in UEFN

Overview

Brand
Metallica

Client
Epic Games

Technology
UEFN
Unreal Engine

Platform
Fortnite

Industry
Entertainment

We set out to create a death-defying experience with Metallica so players could shred into their music like never before, bringing the (dare we say?) ~EPIC~ band to hardcore fans new and old. So we designed a wild interactive concert experience where Fortnite players can run, drive, blast, and rock out with the band, all powered by Metallica鈥檚 legendary sound.

Free tickets to the Snake Pit for everyone.

The experience is designed to teach us all a simple but important life lesson: if we can survive the deadly lava race, reveal for whom the bell tolls, and ride the lighting, together (with a little help from our friends) we can defeat the master of puppets.

Get a full playthrough of the concert in this rock powered video.

Here鈥檚 how we did it, so you can too:

Step 1: Hit up your favorite band and pick your top songs; old and new.

Honor the band and respect the fans...including the fans-to-be. Select a mix of classic hits and fresh, new hotness that will get loyal fans and neophyte gamers equally pumped to kick ass to the band's unique sound. Stay true to the band's spirit. Some performers want to be larger than life, some want to walk amongst the fans. Know which one you鈥檙e working with by studying them. Listen to their interviews, study their biographies, and talk to them! 


Step 2: Seek out help 

No man is a (Fortnite) island! With this type of project, it鈥檚 never a case of too many cooks. Use whatever resources are available to you; tap into networks and communities, and seek out answers on Discord and Reddit. 

Although this would鈥檝e been possible on our own, we were lucky to have a member of Epic's London Labs join the team to provide a mountain of UEFN expertise (literally: he made the mountainside for our volcanic hot-rod race); we had Harmonix veterans provide direction on how we could tune our visuals and gameplay to bring Metallica's awesome music to the fore; we got tips from the petrol-heads at Psyonix to make sure our driving sections were using the latest and greatest cars; and, finally, we had help from the QA and tech teams at Epic to make sure the whole experience was delivered bug-free and silky-smooth. 


Step 3: Use a readily available editor 鈥 Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN)

Spend more time creating and less time engineering. Benefit from battle-tested tools like locomotion models to get player movement, running, jumping, mantling, sliding etc.. 

And there鈥檚 no infrastructure to build 鈥 it鈥檚 a ready-made game developer environment right out of the box.  

Step 4: Blend music with gameplay 

Players shouldn鈥檛 just HEAR the music, they should SEE it, FEEL it, and PLAY it鈥isten to the tracks, and imagine the best gameplay styles to suit. Some pair better than others, but don鈥檛 play it safe. Take risks. Where there鈥檚 chaos, there鈥檚 opportunity. 

Create a 'beat map' snapping grid for Sequencer by keying the beats inside a MIDI track. Use a UE5 editor utility to convert these MIDI keys into keyframes on a Sequencer track, then port this over to UEFN. Now artists and designers can synchronize gameplay and visual elements perfectly to the beat.

Step 5: Kick it up a notch with spatialized sound

Make the music feel like more than just a soundtrack by bringing it into the environment. Use spatial audio and reverb to give that live, stadium feel. Extract sounds and tie them to in-game elements, pulling the player right into the music. Take time to play, play, play; to balance the attenuation correctly so you don鈥檛 have any thin spots. Ask not for whom the bell tolls 鈥 it tolls for you!


Step 6: Throughout, use Creator Mode in Fortnite for rapid prototyping. 

Make something in UEFN. Get your team together to play it in Fortnite. Action their feedback live in Creator Mode. Repeat until awesome.


Step 7: Spice it up with effects 

Use Niagara for dynamic effects. Think fireballs, volumetric light shafts, and torches (mimicking the visuals of a physical concert). Throw in fantastical elements like flying squids, gigantic hypnotic eyeballs, and lightning bolts鈥nd all synced perfectly to the music. (But watch out for consistent strobing that might trigger health and safety issues!)

Step 8: Turn up the heat with Verse

Add 7,322 lines of Verse code (UEFN's custom scripting language) to push the experience to the max. Connect the existing suite of creative devices in new ways to deliver gameplay elements that鈥檒l leave fans cheering and devs scratching their heads. 


Step 9: Add a climactic boss fight

Create a monstrous, Lovecraftian foe. Make it destroy scenery and players in time with the music. Juice it up 'till your eyeballs explode. Emphasize teamwork strategies, and balance the UI player feedback so everyone can discover them. Attack its weak point for massive damage.

Step 10: Frost the cake with surprises for the super fans

Reward repeat players for looking around and exploring. It鈥檚 easy to fill the world with those little details that make fans (and band members) happy that this experience rewards them for being a part of the club. A secret appearance from the band's unofficial mascot. A nod to the lead singer's favorite hot rod. Demonic gargoyles from classic album covers, and Justice For All.

Step 11: Serve hot in Fortnite

Squeeze every drop of designer blood, engineering sweat, and player tears into quality assurance. Test your island, crush your bugs, hurdle your blockers...and hear the exclamations of the players! Before going live, make sure there's nothing that can derail the experience on the way in, out, or during transitions. If in doubt, leave it out! When you're sure you have a silky smooth experience (on all Fortnite platforms) you're ready to unleash the beast.

Step 12: Learn from mistakes: 

The first time won鈥檛 be the best time. Success is built on failure 鈥 if you鈥檙e not failing a lot in the process, you鈥檙e making boring stuff. What matters is how you recover and keep moving. 

Here are some mistakes we made, and lessons we learned from them:

  • The rail grinding section was intended to be a crazy, rollercoaster ride across arcing lightning with players shooting flying squids (which you can still see in the background). We had to massively simplify it because the rail jumping wasn't robust enough to support the initial concept. By stripping it down to a rhythm game on straight rails, we learned the importance of flexibility and simplicity in game design while retaining the fun.

  • We aimed to include bouncy mosh gameplay during the concert sections, but everything we tried made players feel sick! Ultimately, we left it out so players could focus on the band, which was the right decision. Player comfort is crucial. 

  • Initially, during Lux Aeterna, we had rocks that players could smash through. However, these were removed the day before we went live because 1 in 50 testers found that hitting the rocks destroyed their car and booted them from the experience. With a million players, 1 in 50 equates to 20,000 people鈥ome things just aren鈥檛 worth the risk. 

Read more about the making of Fuel. Fire. Fury. in this blog article from Creative Director, Dan Taylor.

Here鈥檚 how we kicked things up a notch in UEFN to deliver an experience both Fortnite and Metallica fans could shred to.

鈥淧layers were whisked away in a hot rod to a pyro-heavy concert stage before moving on to a gothic bell tower and a fight with a menacing puppet master. Like past virtual concerts featuring and , it was an attempt to mix the feel of going to a live show with something fantastical.鈥

Credits

草莓视频在线

Daryl Atkins - Executive Creative Director

Dan Taylor - Creative Director

Iris Muddy - Art Director

Peter Hughes - Technical Program Manager

Ceri Llewellyn - Director of 草莓视频在线

Sam Birley - Director of Technology

Ross Beardsall - Lead Engineer

Abrar Saleh - Engineer

Nicolas Hardie - Lead Designer

James Carolan - Designer

Bex Witty - Designer

Tunde Glover - Lead Artist

Liesbet Segaert - Senior Artist

Altar Sagoo - Senior Lighting Artist

Greg Woodcock - Lead Animator

Robin McGovern - Lead Technical Audio Designer

Kirsty Pinkerton - QA Manager

Liam Roberts - QA Analyst

Epic Games

Helen McWilliams - Creative Director

Dan Allan - Senior Producer

Paul Murphy - Senior Producer

Julien Didisheim - Technical Artist

Jon Sanderson - Engineer

Jenni Williams - QA

Adam Khiroun - QA

Joel Salda - QA

Brianna Martin - QA

Christopher Koenigsknecht - QA

Special thanks

Tuatara

Superspline

Psyonix

Harmonix

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