100 Thieves' Launch Their First-Ever Game Project Called Bank Heist
- What is 100 Thieves’ new game, Bank Heist?
- How was Bank Heist built using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite in a short timespan?
- How does working on Bank Heist help build on 100 Thieves' future AAA title, “Project X”?
- Where can you play Bank Heist?
100 Thieves’ newest announcement Bank Heist marks the esports organization’s first-ever game project after revealing their intentions to develop their own game.
Bank Heist is not “Project X,” 100 Thieves’ independent AAA shooter title announced in 2022. However, it is 100 Thieves' first completed project in the world of game development, and the entire process only took a few weeks to complete.
Compared to other game titles, Bank Heist was created within a short timeframe ever since it was first announced. On top of that, it wasn’t until May that 100 Thieves decided they wanted to put a total effort into creating this game, according to John Robinson, COO and President of 100 Thieves. This only left 100 Thieves’ game development team with two months to develop and release it.
When asked about this tight deadline, Robinson revealed that this was done “purposefully” to test themselves and Unreal Engine’s capabilities ahead of Project X’s eventual release.
“To test ourselves and the platform’s capabilities, we purposefully gave ourselves a tight game development timeline,” Robinson said. “It’s been a lot of fun to uncover what’s possible within UEFN and find solutions for the features we want to build.”
Building out Bank Heist through the UEFN model provided the team with a number of different key aspects that will help them going forward with Project X. One of the biggest being Bank Heist helping get the team into a regular “product development cadence.”
“Shipping games, iterating on features, and getting feedback from the community is a huge boost to any game development team,” Robinson said. “UEFN is helping us get in this regular product development cadence, and that has a positive impact on all projects.”
Bank Heist is a game developed using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, a PC application that allows people to design, develop, and publish games directly into Fortnite. This was something that the 100 Thieves team view as a motivating factor for not only themselves, but other non-traditional game developers moving forward.
“The days of needing hundreds of developers and spending $100 million on the development of a new game are over,” said Robinson. “Epic Games has given non-traditional game developers like 100 Thieves an amazing toolset to build something fun in weeks, not years.”
Bank Heist is the start of 100 Thieves' “evolution” to create more projects in the game development space. While Project X continues to be 100 Thieves’ biggest project regarding the game development space, Robinson finally revealed that 100 Thieves will continue to expand on Bank Heist and other Fortnite Game Islands over time.
“We’re planning to roll out several 'Bank Heist' updates and additional Fortnite game islands in the months to come,” Robinson said.
Bank Heist is a new game mode launched in the Fornite platform that pits two teams of three players against each other as one side attempts to infiltrate the fortified bank while the defending does everything to “thwart the daring thieves.” Bank Heist is a free-to-play game that was released on July 11 and is available on all compatible Fortnite platforms.
