I am a participant in the Fortnite alpha and I can tell you that yes the game exists and it's actually pretty good.

While all participants are under NDA for visual artifacts (no screenshots or video allowed) we are allowed to talk about things. So I can answer any questions anyone has. Just ask and I will answer what I can.

What is it? Like what is the "gameplay loop"? I know literally nothing about this game apart form that it has been in development since forever.

I'm not convinced

I have been in this alpha for over two years and can't believe it is still going

Is it round-based? Is it persistent, like Minecraft?

4 player cooperative hero loot game with collecting, exploring and base defense elements.

It's hard to describe because it pulls from so many places.

You collect various heroes weapons and traps by looting them from llama pinatas. Each hero, weapon or trap has rarity (green, blue, purple etc.) and a level that you improve over time through play. On top of that there is a giant tech tree that is essentially how you progress through the game.

Gameplay is done by joining up to 3 other players in randomly generated maps. Each map is in a type of area that determines what kinds of things you will see. City types will be full of businesses and apartments where Forest types will have trees, cliffs and underground mines or secret bunkers.

Each random map is also given a type of game mode. These are still fluid but the main types revolve around searching the map for an objective and building defenses around it. Once triggered enemies will rush in like a wave based defense.

All the items in the game are crafted during play from resources you collect in the maps. Basic stuff like structures (walls, floors, stairs etc...) are created from basic map resources that are abundant. Weapons like guns, melee weapons, traps and ammo all require some uncommon or rare resources.

The gameplay loop is essentially this:

Everyone starts the game by scouting the zone;

You split up and try and find as many resources or bonus objectives as you can while fending off small groups of enemies spread around the map;

Once the objective is found players gather to build defenses and lay traps to defend against the enemy waves;

Objective triggers and waves attack. Players fight off the enemies and repair or replace damaged defenses;

Waves over your team wins the level and you gain XP to level up your heroes, weapons and traps

The game is also broken into difficulty zones that introduce complexity and difficulty into the game. Each zone also contains your personal static base. Your base can be visited at any time and allows you to build whatever kind of defensive structures you want and make it more personal. As you progress through each zone you will be required to defend your personal base. It's a great place to experiment with defense strategies and builds or just to get creative.

There is actually a lot more than this cursory explanation to the game but it's a rough outline of the standard loop. The gameplay is pretty damn solid so far and all the weapons and combat from melee to shooting feels great. There are a vast array of different weapon types to play with and there are a multitude of heroes with unique skills to cater to anyone's style.

are they paying you ,to say that this game exist ? :P

@kcin: Is has elements of both. The main game is round based where you choose a destination from an interactive map. Lets you pick from an ever changing list of mission types. Difficulty, board type, objective type, reward type.

The static part of the game is the personal base. You can build your own personal base at any time but only with the resources you have gathered so you may have to farm mats and return to the base a few times to beef up security. Every so often you will be tasked with a base defense at your personal base which is a larger scale attack with many many enemies.

@soulcake: If you have the Epic loader it has a tab for the thing with a video and how to enroll in the alpha. Not really that hidden if you want to look. Just in closed alpha so no advertising.

Thanks for the impressions. The game pitch has always sounded great to me. I love defense based games but I want more than just horde mode and hopefully more depth in progression and possibilities for teamwork. This seems like that. Glad to hear it's pretty fun.

I remember seeing a lot of alpha gameplay around 2013-ish, and the game looked pretty feature complete.

How come it's still in alpha now? What have they been doing?

@rikiguitarist: Mostly improving the meta game and adding features to expand on the simple find and defend a thing. There's a lot more game modes now and each map is full of goodies for exploration fans.

I mean, TF2 and a few other multiplayer games (from companies that have money to burn) have taken as long as Fortnite has been in development, but I guess the difference is that many of those other games were just kinda whispered projects that were never formally announced or shown off very much in all of their early iterations. Fortnite was pretty formally announced and some artwork/screenshots (I think?) were shown to the press and public ages ago, but then the game has been in this seemingly endless closed alpha for years, which just seems bizarre.

Like, Paragon was announced and released in the same timespan that Fortnite has been doing this closed alpha, and that's from the same developer.

I've been in the alpha for months but haven't even launched it once yet, I should probably change that because the concept sounds interesting

I don't believe any of this (and refuse to until the game is forced into my cold digital hands).

I still remember when this was announced. good lord

Gamepad support?

@oursin_360: No official gamepad support but you can map your gamepad controls in the game settings.

The game is set up to be playable with a game pad though. Building, weapons and gadgets are all very user friendly and because the game interface and controls are similar to other popular online games like Overwatch or OMDU. The simplicity allows for both m+k or gamepad setups. Co-operative gameplay also means there is no worries over which input device is better. You can simply choose what feels best for you.

There are actually videos of Fortnite on the internet. I came across some of them when I was trying out Paragon. Based on what I saw of Fortnite and what I saw of Paragon, I would say Epic has rough days ahead.

@veektarius: The only videos you can find on YouTube right now are about 8 months old or more (Epic themselves did a livestream 8 months ago).

There have been multiple build updates since and at least one major graphical update as well. While it does a good job of demonstrating core gameplay it by no means represents the game's current state or how it will look when finished. Better off waiting to see what the game looks like when it's feature complete and close to launch before passing judgement.

@wandrecanada: I'll grant you that one should always keep an open mind, but preview builds are a much better indication of what a game will be like than nothing at all.