Abandoned Fortnite World Explorers could've taken the game in a whole different direction

Before the boom of the battle royale genre, Epic Games was ready to take Fortnite in a whole different direction, with assets from a mobile spinoff titled Fortnite World Explorers surfacing online.

On December 22, videogame archivist MrTalida shared via Twitter information about a Fortnite mobile spinoff that began development in 2014, a whole three years prior to the release of Fortnite's battle royale mode.

The mobile spinoff was set to be called Fortnite World Explorers and would feature certain mechanics that bared similarities to the game's original mode, Save The World, which was a PvE tower defence-like experience.

According to MrTalida, Fortnite World Explorers would feature tile-based combat, a growing map that players would battle to take control and expand their domain over, a cast of heroes they could recruit, and a homebase system that would presumably serve as the hub for all the features the game would boast.

Credit: Epic Games

While Epic would eventually decide not to continue the project, it seems assets from the development made their way to other games. MrTalida speculates that the vast majority of it got reworked and turned into the JRPG Endless World.

It appears that Fortnite World Explorers, was transformed into Battle Breakers, a now-defunct tactical RPG. This is supported by concrete evidence, as various audio tracks within Battle Breakers reference Fortnite World Explorers. This suggests that some assets were reused rather than everything being scrapped.

Eventually, Fortnite would turn into a world phenomenon, so it's interesting to see what these early projects from Epic's vision for the brand looked like.

Speaking of which, the company hasn't stopped building upon the original Fortnite foundation, with three massive new modes becoming a core part of the experience for players starting with Chapter 5 Season 1: LEGO Fortnite, a building simulator similar to Minecraft, Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game developed by industry veterans Harmonix, and Rocket Racing, an arcade-style racing game made by Psyonix.

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