With Fortnite’s meteoric success, Epic Games has adopted the overarching objective of creating experiences that celebrate their fans and bring their community together. For PAX West, their added goal was to bring Fortnite to life in the physical world. In partnership with FG|PG, The Shop @ Show Ready achieved this by creating a pair of exclusive activations where gamers could put down the controller for a change. Lazy Links, a nine-hole mini-golf course put fans directly into one of their favorite map updates.
All of the elements The Shop created for Fortnite received the highest quality treatments. Beyond the actual look, feel, and fun of the activation, it is worth emphasizing the engineering expertise required to construct a mini golf course inside a conference center. Each hole had to be carefully mapped to fit within the building and accommodate all of the necessary building codes while still creating an experience that faithfully replicated Fortnite’s in-game environments and flowed naturally as players would expect.
With $1.5 million up for grabs for gamers placing in the top 100 of the Summer Skirmish Series, our tented viewing party was the packed the duration of the show. The tent itself was a massive 17,000 SQ FT and had an exterior graphic treatment that was visible from all of the surrounding downtown hotels. Within the tent, there was an 89×33 FT LED screen livestreaming tournament play, seating for 200-300 people, social media photo ops where guests could wield life-size replicas of Fortnite’s famous pickaxes, a Durrr Burger food truck serving free sandwiches, a popsicle stand to give away all-natural fruit pops, a Boogie Down dance stage, and an exclusive merch store.
The Shop @ Show Ready proves every day that nothing is impossible. If you can imagine it, we can build it on time and within budget. Give us a call and see what it’s like when an expert partner has your back.
Fortnite wanted to be THE destination at E3. Gaming was going to be a big part of their in-booth experience, but they also wanted attendees to be able to immerse themselves in the world of Fortnite without having to pick up a controller. With Fortnite’s vibrant game environments as inspiration, The Shop set out to make sure that every booth element faithfully represented the in-game experience.
The Shop fabricated Fortnite’s 10,000 SQ FT best-in-show experience over the course of 60 days. We logged 3,500 hours of Custom Fabrication, 813 hours of Scenic Painting, printed 9,000 SQ FT of Graphics, and created 12 life-size 3D Printed Pickaxes.
For those not familiar, each Fortnite battle begins with 100 players dropping into the map from a flying blue Battle Bus using a tech hang glider to navigate their way to the ground. As a nod to the iconic status of the game’s intro, we transformed a 38ft school bus into the booth’s centerpiece and tricked it out with all of the accessories seen in the game including a custom-fabricated 18 FT hot air balloon. Suspended above the booth and Battle Bus, we designed and fabricated a massive 12 FT tall backlit Fortnite logo to draw attendees to the booth.
The Shop clad a pair of double decks to look like the buildings from the game and leveraged these structures to provide storage, house a pair of green screen activations, and provide high visibility for three massive LED Walls dedicated to broadcasting live gameplay. Water dispensers were wrapped to look like slurp juice, Fortnite’s health replenishing drink. Ground cover was not a traditional expo hall carpet, but green AstroTurf to represent the game’s battlefield. Game stations were embedded into corrugated metal panels and scenic mountain walls topped with trees. Custom-fabricated loot crates suspended by hot air balloons were rigged and suspended above the booth to create a fully immersive environment.
In the end, it’s all about fun. And Fortnite’s booth at E3 was hands down the must-see, fully immersive destination on the show floor. The variety of activations made it effortless for any number of event-goers to experience Fortnite in a way that was relevant to them. The team at Epic Games brought us their vision, and The Shop faithfully recreated iconic gaming environments that wowed even the most discerning fans.
Winner of Event Marketer’s Design and Technology Award for Best Combination of Event Technology (B2B)
