Promotional media is any visual media that supports your island, and a key element is your island's thumbnail image. Thumbnail images are your island's first impression for potential players across the ecosystem.
Your thumbnails are unique art assets that represent your experience, or the island itself. You can even do A/B Testing with two thumbnails to see which thumbnail players engage with more. You cannot submit your island for review until you attach a thumbnail for your island.
Thumbnails
Your thumbnail images must be clear and accurately represent your experience. Island images work best when they contain either dynamic gameplay or unique visual elements. Your thumbnails can feature a logo or isolated game art without logos, text, or markings.
There are three different types of images used for your island thumbnails:
Landscape thumbnails
Portrait thumbnails
Logo
For more information about how to create a thumbnail image, see Making Thumbnails and Videos.
For more information about Fortnite's thumbnail policies, see Thumbnail Image Policies.
After adding your thumbnail images, click Next to move onto the Attributions screen.
A/B Thumbnail Testing
Part of the publishing and development process involves A/B thumbnail testing. Click Create A/B test to submit your different thumbnail images (image with a logo, image without a logo, and your logo) to compare the variant landscape and portrait thumbnail responses (with and without logos) and see performative results for thumbnails based on engagement. Increased engagement with an image could potentially increase your overall revenue.
You cannot mix and match assets between variants, and removing the A/B test clears out only the B uploads.
Under the Promotional Materials screen, add two different images for all of your island’s Landscape thumbnail, Portrait thumbnail and logo. Later, you can review the thumbnail metrics on the Publishing page to see which thumbnail has the higher click-through rate.
A/B-tested thumbnails are applied to the in-game Discover page, and to browse, and search. For more, see the A/B Thumbnail Testing document.
Trailer and Gameplay Videos
You can add videos for your island as well, this is optional and not mandatory to publish. There are two types of videos you can submit:
Trailer - Trailer with audio and island marketing that plays when a player hovers on your island thumbnail in Discover and when a player selects your island in Discover.
Gameplay - Gameplay videos should capture actual gameplay on your island and match your island’s content rating. These videos feature on your Creator page.
Under Promotional Media > Trailer or Gameplay video, click Upload Video to add a trailer or a gameplay video.
Video Tips
When making a video trailer, keep in mind:
Keep it short. Ideally, your video should be 15–30 seconds long.
What's important to highlight? When setting up your scene, what are the important elements to showcase? What island feature are you especially proud of? Is there some aspect of your game that's particularly fun?
What's the best camera position to show this? If you use Replays, for example, you can move your camera to show characters from any angle. Take advantage of this to set up shots that catch the viewer's attention.
Tell a story. When appropriate, awaken your inner cinematographer and tell a story with your video. What will your characters be doing, and where are they going to do it?
Your goal is to catch the viewer's attention and interest them in checking out your island. And remember to add your island code so they can find it easily!
If you’re not sure how to make a video, see the Making Thumbnails and Videos for best practices and tips for creating an engaging trailer for your island.
Lobby Background Image
Lobby background images are images that appear in the lobby and replace the default lobby background when players hover or select an island from Discover or search. Lobby images can be taken with a special Fortnite tool that helps you capture an image of your island for the purpose of a background lobby image.
To learn how to take your own lobby background image, see Creating Custom Lobby Backgrounds.
Add a lobby image under Lobby Background Image. Click Add Lobby Background, then upload a lobby background image. The Lobby background image provides a way to preview how your lobby image looks in Fortnite.
There is no A/B testing for lobby images.
Lobby background images have guidelines they must adhere to. See Lobby Background Image Guidelines to learn more.
Additional Media Uploads
You may also want to add in-game screenshots to your island’s promotional media. You can add up to three gameplay images.
Media Review
All media you submit must meet a set of criteria for publication. There are a few general points to remember when creating any images related to your island. All images should:
Accurately represent your game
Be engaging
Be original
Follow all of the brand guidelines for Fortnite
Follow the Fortnite Developer Rules
All uploaded promotional images go through a series of content pre-checks during the submission process. Thumbnail images for your island are scanned to make sure they’re not misleading and that they’re not too similar to media another developer has already published, or too similar to a thumbnail already live on your islands. If your thumbnail is too similar, or is misleading, you’ll be prompted to provide a new image for your island. A/B test images are scanned, but are allowed to be similar to a thumbnail live on an island during testing. However, you may not yield meaningful results if images are too similar.
If you choose to submit your island without fixing any media that received a similarity warning, your island may get filtered out of top rows in Discover when it gets published. For information on how Discover filtering affects islands in Discover, see How Discover Works.
For more information on creating thumbnails that adhere to the thumbnail policies, see Thumbnail Image Policies.