Epic Games has been fairly quiet about Fortnite since announcing it at Spike TV's Video Game Awards last December, but the developer has unveiled fresh details during the start of this year's Comic-Con. Due in 2013, the survival-horror sandbox game will be the first to use Epic's next-generation engine, Unreal Engine 4, and it's being developed primarily for PC, with the potential for other platforms later.
The game is described as a combination of Minecraft, The Walking Dead and Team Fortress 2. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world with cartoony graphics, while the gameplay focuses on scavenging for survival. You'll search for building materials, weapons and other useful items during the day to fend off monsters such as trolls that spawn at night (this is currently on a one-hour cycle, but it may change).
A key part of surviving will be fortifying your holdup with the in-game construction mechanics that are said to be more complex than Minecraft's. The demonstration at Comic-Con showed characters collecting wood with an axe and stone with a sledgehammer. These materials can be used to build many things, and although Epic is striving for variety, the company said you won't need an engineering degree.
When asked, Epic declined to comment on monetization, so there's a good chance the company is considering free-to-play with microtransactions. It seems like there'll be a ton of items and it's said that characters will be persistent and customizable, while the world will have randomly generated elements. Epic also said Fortnite will be a "slow burn" and the company plans to keep adding content.