Fortnite had been revealed for the first time by Epic Games in 2011, considered as a combination of Minecraft and Left 4 Dead in which four players would work together to find resources to build fortifications, traps, weapons and other objects to survive monster attacks The game ended with a long period of development, partly due to external pressures, with industry moving to a videogame model as a service, and internal changes of focus within Epic (which included focusing attention on its first free Paragon title) to address external challenges. During this period, Epic made a deal with Tencent, granting them around 40% of the company in exchange for their support for games as a service, as well as easy access to the Chinese video game market. [8] Fortnite was confirmed a launch for 2018 in June 2017, with a paid period of early access beginning one month later; The game is otherwise planned as a free title supported by microtransactions. With the release in early access, the game featured its main game mode, "Save the World," where players in teams of up to four would work cooperatively to survive and complete the objectives on randomly generated Maps During the other part of Fortnite's development, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) was released on personal computers in an early access, and quickly became a popular and successful game, becoming the defining example of the battle royale genre. According to Mustard, the Epic Games team "loved battle royale-type games, such as PUBG," and explored how they could do a similar way in fortnite They kept this mode in a separate development team from the main game for experimentation and not to lose balance in the main game. [11] The development of Battle Royale mode was led by Eric Williamson with Zack Estep as production leader. Its objective was to quickly develop the Battle Royale mode from the central "Save the World" mode, postponing all the complex functions that were not yet in place to launch the new mode as soon as possible; while exploring these potential ideas, they remained out of inclusion until after the launch of the main mode. [12] The development of the Battle Royale mode took approximately two months, starting in July 2017 after the  launch of the "Save the World" mode, and was assisted by the Unreal Tournament team. [13] [14] The main differences between the Battle Royale and Save the World modes was that the former included a more limited progression for the weapons, a small subset of traps and a more natural and smooth terrain for the maps. [12] They also wanted to aim for games that did not take more than 25 minutes, which led to some of the decisions affecting the elements "Save the World" would not be fulfilled. [12] Fortnite construction mechanics were included for fortifications without knowing how players would use that since the safe zone would continue to shrink, but they quickly discovered that mechanics helped distinguish the PUBG game and was frequently used by expert players to win games, and since then it has implemented more functions to help players quickly build temporary bases. [12]

The main Fortnite Battle Royale game follows the standard format of the battle royale genre: up to 100 players fly from floating buses to a coherent map, which includes random distribution of weapons, armor and other combat support features. The goal is to be the last player (or team, if playing in small teams) alive by killing or avoiding other players. Over time, the safe zone of the game (representing the eye of a storm that is devastating the world), decreases in size, and players trapped outside the area will take damage, potentially dying. If many people survive, the eye of the storm will disappear causing a sudden death. This directs the surviving players to narrower spaces, forcing the encounters of the players. Players can loot defeated enemies. Random drops in supplies will occur during a game, providing random weapons and objects.

This mode which follows a game mechanic similar to other real battle games, particularly PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, in addition to admitting up to one hundred players, be they individuals or squads of up to four people, who try to be the last person or team standing while they hunt other players and prevent them from killing them themselves, it is distinguished because all players start with nothing more than a peak to collect resources, and parachute on the map. Once they land, they can search for weapons, armor and resources, the last of which can be used to make structures in the same way as in the "Save the World" mode.