Verse Persistence: Bring Save Progress Functionality to Your UEFN Experiences!

Want to give your players the ability to save their progress and return later to pick up where they left off? With Verse Persistence, you can — opening up a huge range of new experiences (“islands”) that can be created with Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN)! 

Verse Persistence brings support for custom player save data to Verse and UEFN, enabling you to define custom data that can be saved and persisted for players across multiple play sessions. 

Built into Verse as a native language feature, this is a major step towards creating a metaverse where players interact and play in worlds that persist game state globally (“game state” here refers to the configuration of the game at any one time. Or in simple terms, the point to which a player/game has progressed).



This initial move towards a globally persistent player experience enables you to:

• Track and access custom settings, statistics, and profile data for all players across multiple sessions. You can access and save data for any player currently in the session.
• Use this data to make your experiences feel alive and dynamic.
• Encourage players to return to your experiences as their actions continue to affect play across multiple sessions.
• Create new and interesting experiences that were previously challenging with Fortnite Creative and UEFN.
• Test your projects with real persistent data from a playtest or from live, even when you're using Creative Persistence devices.

A Vast Array of New Gameplay Experiences

Verse Persistence opens an opportunity for Fortnite creators to dive into genres they hadn’t considered before! Some examples are:
 

Village Simulators

Village simulators rely on tracking a player’s state across multiple sessions to enable the game world to grow, change, and evolve over time. Verse Persistence gives you the ability to track and respond to player actions over time.
 

Tycoon Games

Verse Persistence makes it possible to build up state in the game world. For tycoon games, this includes building tools and equipment. Verse Persistence lets players build this state across multiple plays of the same experience.
 

Survival Games

Survival games are often played over the course of hours, days, or even weeks. With Verse Persistence, players can continue such experiences across multiple play sessions. This empowers you to make longer and more involved experiences. 
 

Escape Rooms

There are many escape room-style games built with UEFN today. Often, these involve several levels. Verse Persistence lets players continue from the last level they were playing. It can also support a custom save state for room items and puzzles, enabling you to make more engaging experiences.
 

Digital Pets

Because state can be tracked over time, digital pets, gardens, and other similar experiences can be created. These provide the opportunity for a player to gain a higher level of investment and ownership in the outcomes of the experience, increasing engagement.
 

RPGs

With Verse Persistence, RPGs like The Legend of Zelda or Dungeons & Dragons can be created with custom player stats, equipment, quests, and progression.
 

Roguelites

Similar to RPGs, roguelites enable players to progress over multiple play sessions with the effects and rewards of previous sessions altering future experiences. Previously, this could only be achieved in limited ways. With Verse Persistence, you now have the freedom to track whatever supporting data you need.
 

Building and Design Games

Simple building and design games can use Verse Persistence to enable players to save their designs and creations and share them with others.
 

Stats and Progression

You can now create and track whatever stats you feel are most important for driving player engagement. Even something as simple as a high score can be an impactful motivator to promote engagement and repeat plays of an experience.

Verse Persistence data does not count against your island memory limits. In the past, you could implement some of the above behaviors using persistent Creative devices (e.g. using triggers as state toggles), but those devices would count towards your island memory. Verse Persistence provides far more flexibility and lets you use your island memory to make more intricate worlds.
 

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Want to find out more about Verse Persistence and how it can enhance your UEFN games? Check out our Using Persistable Data in Verse documentation for details and the Persistent Player Statistics tutorial for an example!