This contest was first launched in 2024, focusing on the theme of “creating custom gamified worlds on Fortnite, a new immersive social network and a communication territory for brands.”
The two themes offered to students were developed over one week in teams across all campuses. Some were selected for the semi-finals and then the finals. Brand partners on the jury—L’Oréal, Stellantis, The Walt Disney Company, and Alstom—alongside EPIC, SoWhen?, and Ynov, deliberated during the finals on April 5, 2024.
Criteria such as the viral and marketing potential of the proposed universe, gameplay, originality, and the coherence of the universe were evaluated.
The general theme for the 2025 universe creation contest on Fortnite centers on the concepts of “security, defense, and prevention.”
The two themes proposed to the students are:
Theme 1: “Unity is strength. Collaboration will be your main asset.”
Theme 2: “The threat is very real. Adopt a defense strategy.”
Across all campuses, students specializing in Game Art come together in teams to take on the challenge and create custom gamified virtual worlds on Fortnite, using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
They have four days to finalize their projects before presenting them to a local jury that will nominate finalists to attend the national finals at Paris YNOV Campus on May 7.
A grand prize, as well as “favorite” awards, will be given by a jury made up of representatives from various industry sectors, who are experts in the given theme as well as in creating innovative and gamified experiences.
🔜 The identities of the final jury members will be revealed very soon!
L’UEFN is a version of Unreal Engine (UE) equipped with custom features that enable content creation on the Fortnite platform.
The existing Fortnite Creator mode, enhanced by UEFN, already allowed creators to modify levels, environments, and game mechanics to publish islands within the game.
With UEFN, anyone can create customized gamified islands and tell their own story!
With the Unreal Editor for Fortnite mode, SoWhen? can custom-create “brand-specific islands” for events or ongoing projects, providing their audiences with “persistent” interactive and immersive experiences that are memorable.
These environments, featuring a wide variety of styles, benefit from a simple, stable, multi-platform, and secure global deployment.
SoWhen?’s Dreamscape Escapades island allows the exploration of the richness of gameplays and types of worlds possible through UEFN.
Since 2010, SoWhen? has been creating immersive and interactive experiences, both fully virtual and phygital, blending virtual worlds with the physical world for advertisers eager to communicate in innovative ways with their audiences.
Since 2014, our teams have developed expertise in real-time 3D on Unreal Engine, combined with our own technological developments, to deliver remarkable and globally recognized experiences.
We have been an official Unreal Engine partner of EPIC GAMES since 2023, renewed in 2024 and 2025 at the highest global level: “gold partner”.
SoWhen? has also participated in the Unreal Fest community in 2022, 2023, and 2024, by invitation from EPIC.
SoWhen? and Ynov brought together major brand partners from various sectors for this contest: luxury – cosmetics, mobility, and entertainment. These companies are clients of SoWhen?: L’Oréal, Alstom, The Walt Disney Company, and Stellantis.
The final day unfolded in three parts: the 10 finalist groups presented their projects to the jury for 15 minutes—featuring trailers, explanation of choices, monetization strategy, followed by a Q&A session. Next, the jury moved to the testing room to play the games and interact with the students. Finally, the closed-door deliberations took place, where, not without difficulty, they decided between the projects.
In addition to the grand prize awarded to the winners of the contest, each of the brands awarded a well-deserved “coup de cœur” prize to the group of their choice.
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