Epic Games is ushering in a new era of content creation for Fortnite with the introduction of AI-driven NPCs. Users can now create characters with customizable voices, personalities, and interactive dialogues based on generative AI. The announcement was made during the State of Unreal presentation.

The new system is integrated into the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and allows developers to create characters capable of engaging in real-time voice conversations with players. With a tool called the Persona Device, not only can you customize the character's voice, but also their thinking and reactions—essentially adding unpredictable, "living" heroes to the game, created by the players themselves.

AI Demonstration: Spotlight on Mr. Buttons

To showcase the technology's capabilities, Epic introduced Mr. Buttons—an AI character programmed with a single objective: to convince the player to press a big red button. During the live demonstration, the character dynamically responded to questions and actions, generating humorous and persuasive replies based on about 20 lines of text prompts.

However, the demonstration also revealed some technical limitations: delays in responses and the use of "robotic" filler words like "hmm" to mask processing pauses.

Continuing the AI Experiment with Darth Vader

This new feature builds on an experiment Epic conducted in May, launching an AI-powered Darth Vader NPC. The character's voice was generated using ElevenLabs technology, and the responses were powered by the Gemini 2.0 Flash model.

Although the NPC received positive feedback from players, an incident involving inappropriate language (which the AI repeated after a streamer) prompted Epic to urgently release a fix and enhance content filtering.

More Tools and Franchises for Creators

In addition to AI-based NPCs, Epic also introduced the Epic Developer Assistant—an AI chatbot currently in beta testing that helps developers write code in the Verse programming language. The company also announced upcoming collaborations with well-known franchises for UEFN: assets from Squid Game will be available on June 27, the LEGO experience will launch on June 17, and tools from Avatar: The Last Airbender are set for 2026. Content from Star Wars is also in development.