Between dismissals, studio closures and drying of financing, it can be safely said that the game industry has a difficult time. Enrique Fuentes, general director and co -founder of Teravision Games, experienced these turbulence too close for convenience, when he and his team released Klunns’s killer of Ouster Space, an asymmetrical horror game based on a film from the 80s of the same name. The game was well received (Ign gave her 7, calling it “as stupid and fun as a film that gave birth to her”), and the trailers of the title collected hundreds of thousands of views on the internet. But the team was in a tough place after launching, in the same tough place where many in the gaming industry found themselves.
“As you know, 2024 was quite a difficult year for the whole industry. So closing our next project was a bit slow,” says Fuentes. Despite cooperation with companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon and Xbox, Teravision had difficulty finding another project for Killer Klunns. Over time, the studio and his experienced developers with 20 years of experience in the industry looked at something creative: a game in Fortnite. In less than a year, Teravision published three Unreal Engine in Fortnite games (UEFN). The fourth game, running today, uses the official package of The Walking Dead released in UEFN.
Working with Skybound, a company, co -founder of the creator of The Walking Dead Robert Kirkman, the latest Teravision game is a Hill style Pvpve project in the Hill style, called Courtyard King, in which players fight with each other, as well as NPC Zombies for control over the Territory of Walking Dead.
Everything that Walking Dead, related to King, is made using official assets spent for UEFN, including models of character based on Rick Gimes, Negan and Daryla Dixon. But the project goes further than just assets; Teravision collaborated with writers in Skybound to create the history and dialogue of the game.
“In the past we worked with large brands … And UEFN was something we were experimented with … But we never imagined that it would be a root in which we would engage in a company like Skybound,” says Fuentes. “But I mean, UGC is currently one of the biggest things in games.”
UGC, i.e. content generated by users, now drive one of the largest trends in games thanks to platforms like Fortnite. This type of playing in the style of a playground has already found a huge audience in services such as Roblox, but “U” in UGC usually refers to the end user, i.e. players at home. UGC developed by Professional Studios is a newer concept, and the tools based on Unreal Engine 5 Fortnite were ideal for experienced developers such as Teravision.
“It made sense because we come from the engineering background and it was a platform on which we could experiment and assume some risk,” explains Fuentes. “Because instead of a long -term project, such as Klauni killer from space, these are projects that we could combine in weeks or months.”
Teravision experiments have resulted in the launch of Havoc Hotel, Roguelike shooters, in which you fight through the levels of the hotel, and each purified floor earns to buy a stronger weapon. The first Havoc hotel was a modest hit, sufficient to work on the series. Finally, we arrived at Havoc Hotel 3, which is currently consistently one of the most popular Fortnite games.
Teravision designer, Martin Rodriguez, claims that considering that the studio previously killed Klunns in Unreal Engine, UEFN jump – a modified version of Unreal Engine 5 – was not only comfortable, but gave experienced developers a leg when creating games in UEFN. The systems are improved and the processes are a bit more “lower and drop”, as Rodriguez says. “For us, it simply removes part of the work that we would do differently and allows us to focus on creating better games and discovering various new creative ideas.”
While the engineering side had no problem adapting to unreal UEFN tools, the game design team had a unique challenge. Games such as Havoc Hotel began as experiments, unlike fully shown games, but quickly became their own matters. And the artistic director of Teravision, LD Zambło was, quickly learned that UEFN games differed from classic games in many ways.
Zambło compares UEFN games with a school yard. “I discovered that there is a way to get closer to yourself, which restores me to a break, i.e. you meet someone and create a game that may not make sense, but you are still involved and create friendships. This is what I mean that some of these games are becoming a” context “.
In this way, one unique thing I learned about King Courtyard of Teravision is that this is an infinite game, which means that at the end of the round there is no final winner. Instead, matches last forever when players jump and leave, changing teams. And although there will always be a team that wins, there will never be the last round in which a real winner is crowned.
“Players can fall and fall whenever they want. They can even change teams when they like it, which generates situations for treason. Maybe you go to a party with a friend, but then in the middle of the match you don’t tell him and you don’t change teams.
Is this the future for game developers? On the one hand, he places them in the sandbox of other, larger players, such as Epic Games or Roblox. But for studies who want to experiment without burning entire funds, and at the same time access to a immense base of players and immense IP resources, such as The Walking Dead, Enrique Fuentes says there are many advantages.
Matt Who is the Senior Feature editor.
