Community Spotlight: CabbageMargaret
PRO | DRAGON 🐉
The Art of Promoting Fortnite Creative Games
In today's installment of our series on marketing and promotion in Fortnite Creative, I had the privilege of interviewing CabbageMargaret, a seasoned game creator from the Tokyo-based studio, Cabbage Systems. Known for their hit UEFN game, Fast Feud, this team has successfully turned a kitchen chaos into an exciting Fortnite creative map!
Meet CabbageMargaret!
Cabbage Systems is a Tokyo-based studio making games for emerging platforms, and Fast Feud is their first UEFN game.
About Fast Feud
Fast Feud is a riveting mash-up of fort style team play and hectic kitchen management action. A restaurant battle like no other, where players work tirelessly to earn their establishment a five-star review while simultaneously fending off competition!
Connect with Cabbage Systems
You can connect and support this awesome creative studio on Twitter @Cabbagesystems or TikTok @Cabbagesystems
Let's Dive into the Interview!
In the interview, CabbageMargaret revealed invaluable insights into their marketing strategy. Starting with research on popular maps, inspiring promo creators, and active platforms, they move to strategic asset planning and then execution, focusing on community building and adding value. For them, promotion doesn't just mean visibility; it’s about fostering strong player communities.
How do you begin planning your marketing strategy for a new Fortnite game?
We’re brand new to the Fortnite Creative scene. Fast Feud is our first title, and we only started a few months ago. But we always start with research - what maps are performing well, what creators are making promos we’re inspired by, what platforms seem to have the most active and positive communities. Our current project is a map that’s a mash-up of fast-paced two-fort style teamplay combined with a kitchen management sim, so we focused on looking at both combat maps and more fun-style islands. We don’t just look at activity that has high follower or ‘like’ numbers, we look for projects where that exposure has actually resulted in strong player communities.
Then it’s time for asset planning - we’re a small team, so we have to be smart about where we invest our time. Using what we’ve learned through research, we figure out how we can get the most out of a core set of assets - logos, videos, statics. Then we swap to production mode for a little while to make sure we have all the materials we need to support the launch. For execution, we’re always looking to connect and build community first - my first question on finding a new platform or community is always: ‘how can we add value here?’, not ‘how can we promote ourselves’.
What channels (social media, forums, websites, etc.) have you found most effective for promoting your games?
The level of engagement and positivity on Reddit around Fortnite Creative is really impressive - we’ve worked on other projects where Reddit hasn’t been such a positive experience, but the FN community is super supportive and engaged.
Can you share a specific marketing technique that has yielded significant results for you?
I’m a big believer in the personal touch - if you’re a small team, and you don’t have big budget, then you need your early players to be evangelists for you, and that means they need to feel valued and involved. On previous projects we’ve done things like make bespoke emojis for random new players joining our Discord - that in turn generated some fun conversations and connected us with players who were then enthusiastic about leveraging their own networks and skill sets to help spread the word about the project.
How important has your community been in promoting your games? What role do they play in your marketing strategy
Fast Feud is a multiplayer title that we specifically designed to be fun to play with friends. It’s calibrated to support a wide-range of play styles, so you can play with your buddies regardless of their play preferences, and it’s fun to play again and again because there are different strategies to try out each round. That means that community building is extra important for us. A big part of our goal with this game was to build something that people would recruit their friends into - we’re even hopeful that Fast Feud could be a map that people use to bring their non-Fortnite playing friends into the game. It’s a game that strongly supports traditional teamplay combat, but also has other roles and play styles that are great for people who love games but haven’t clicked with the core BR experience.
How do you use visuals (screenshots, trailers, etc.) in your marketing efforts? Can you share an example where this was particularly successful?
We’re big believers in the ‘nobody reads’ mantra, even though we love text. Almost every message - maybe literally every message - you put out connects a little more strongly if it has a visual element. We also invest quite a lot of effort in the audio that goes along with the visual elements.
Our current project was designed to be social and strategic. It’s a game that’s fun because of interesting choices and unpredictable sequences of events - it’s hard to convey that in static shots, so we rely a lot on video.
The first thing we made for this project was a short trailer video - it explains a little about how the game plays and what makes it cool, and showcases some of the bespoke art, all crammed into 17 crazy seconds. We got a great response to it — especially to the energy of the announcer — and that encouraged us to lean into video more, including a high-energy trailer and some quirkier content that builds out the pizza brands from the game.
Can you share an instance where player feedback or community sentiment influenced your marketing approach?
As old-school game designers, we depend a lot on playtesting in our game development process. Luckily we have a tight community of like-minded creators who we were able to pull into private playtest sessions when our game was in Alpha. We got a ton of crucial feedback from these sessions — a bunch of quality of life and improved gameplay features came directly out of these playtests. And playtesting isn’t just about direct feedback — there’s nothing like seeing how real people react to your work in ways you don’t anticipate. You don’t always need them to tell you what they think; sometimes you just need to watch what they’re doing in order to realize what’s not working.
I think this design approach feeds directly into how we approach marketing as well. We just ran a play event where we saw some players busting out some super cool new strategies — stealing trucks and trying to sabotage equipment — and that gives us ideas for updates as well as ideas for things that would make strong marketing content.
What role has influencer marketing (streamers, YouTubers, etc.) played in your promotional strategies?
We start thinking about streamers early - even at the design stage for the project. We’re always excited when we find game ideas that we can imagine being engaging streaming content - ideas that have potential for the kind of high-emotion moments - surprising, funny, infuriating - that give streamers strong material. Fast Feud lends itself to those moments really well - as each round evolves more and more mayhem starts to emerge, and that makes great content both for our own videos and for streamers.
In other words, so far we haven’t reached out directly to influencers or streamers, but we think a lot about creating games that are good engines for creating entertaining, streamable content.
Have you collaborated with other creators for cross-promotion? If yes, how did you approach it and what were the outcomes?
We’re new to the FNC scene, so we haven’t had a chance to collaborate with other creators yet, but we love working that way. On previous projects we’ve done all kinds of cross-overs, incorporating lore or art from other projects into ours, or running special events with communities from other games. It’s such a win-win - it’s creatively inspiring for the teams, it helps you tap into a new audience, it generates news and coverage about your project. We try to be smart about partnering with projects where we have a lot in common with both the creators and their audience - that way you have a smooth working relationship and a good chance at seeing adoption improve for you both.
It’s one of the things that we’re particularly excited about working in this ecosystem - usually when you’re trying to spool up collaborations there’s a lot of complications to wrangle in terms of different platforms or engines, whereas here we’re all working in a shared space. It’s very cool to see projects like Neighbor Japan where they can just share their assets and invite other people to remix and expand them.
How do you measure the success of your marketing efforts? What metrics do you focus on?
I come from a mobile F2P game development background, so I’m used to using different metrics at different stages of the funnel - I’m usually thinking through a sequence of exposure → conversion → engagement. Who is going to see this? What’s going to make them click through to the game? And if they get that far, are they going to have a good time there and stick around? It’s no use bringing people to your game if they’re the wrong people to enjoy what you’ve built.
And once you’re thinking through that funnel it helps you to be really focused on outcomes. Boosting Twitter followers in and of itself doesn’t matter if it isn’t impacting your actual player numbers. So for everything we do, we ask: how are people going to see this, and once they’ve seen it, how do they get to the game? It’s surprising how often something that sounds like it would be a good marketing activity doesn’t have great answers to those questions.
What is one common marketing mistake you believe new Fortnite creators should avoid?
We love Discord but we’re always wary of starting one unless you have a clear idea of how you’re going to make it an engaging place to be. Good Discords take a ton of work and creativity and energy - they’re super worth it, but you need to be realistic about how much support you’re going to be able to give it. A Discord that feels deserted or abandoned can hurt your project just as much as a thriving one can help it.
Can you share your thoughts on paid promotions or ads? Have you used them, and if so, what was your experience?
We’ve used paid promotions in the past, and it hasn’t always been effective for us. It’s often quite easy to buy exposure - lots of RTs, lots of upvotes - but harder to be sure that will translate into actually attracting players. We tend to be more interested in building partnerships, and finding mutually beneficial relationships with projects where we can be more confident that our audiences intersect.
How do you keep up with changes in marketing trends, especially in the gaming industry?
Research is key here - often I find currently popular projects and go back in time to see what tricks they used to hit big. What were their numbers like a year ago or six months ago? What moved the needle for them? Before Twitter changed its API rules it was easier to scrape the whole posting history of accounts and look at how follower numbers had changed over time, but it’s still possible to do it manually. It can be time consuming, but it’s a great way of finding new ideas with the added bonus of being able to see that they actually worked.
What could Epic do to make it easier for Fortnite Creators to Market their work?
Search inside Discover or Browse would be great to see - we worked hard to come up with a memorable name, but right now even if people know it and are looking for it, it’s hard to get to it without Discover. For players who aren’t already engaged with Creative it would be great if there was a more explicit prompt on the main play screen that helped new players find their way to Creative content.
Do you find it hard to market your map, if it never appears on Discovery? If so, why?
There’s no question that Discovery is hugely important, especially for creators who don’t already have a big following outside Fortnite. It’s also clear that the quality of the experience and the power of word of mouth are really important even for the projects that do get featured on Discover or as Picks. Discover is a huge force multiplier, but we know we can’t rely on it to do all our marketing for us - we have to be doing the work to connect with a core audience and build an engaging experience and then any feature we get will amplify that.
Lastly, could you share one key piece of advice for new Fortnite creators looking to effectively market their games
Consider keeping your map name short! Screen real estate is precious in Discover, both in the thumbnail and below, where the name is displayed. Lots of experiences have names that get cut off or struggle to fit their titles into their thumbnails. It’s a small detail, but every little bit helps when you’re trying to get players to notice you.
Advice for New Creators
In our insightful conversation with CabbageMargaret, the creator of Fast Feud, there were several vital pointers for aspiring Fortnite Creators. One cannot underestimate the value of meticulous research and planning in formulating an effective marketing strategy, which should include understanding the platform's ecosystem, maps, and active communities. Nurturing a community around your game is vital - think of your early players as evangelists who can help grow your game organically. Pay special attention to creating high-quality visual and audio assets to enhance your game's visibility and appeal, much like Fast Feud's trailer did. The potential of influencer marketing is also immense - you can design your game to be streamer-friendly even if direct collaborations aren't feasible. And remember, focus on key metrics and outcomes instead of simply amassing followers or likes when assessing your marketing efforts. Finally, never underestimate the importance of details; an example from the interview was keeping your map name short enough to fit in thumbnails, ensuring visibility and brand recognition.
The Key Takeaway
Partnerships and cross-promotions with other creators have a huge potential in reaching out to new audiences, which underscores the effectiveness of collaboration in marketing and growth. And our interview with CabbageMargaret illuminates this and many more valuable insights into the world of Fortnite Creative marketing!
Stay tuned for more interviews with other seasoned creators in our ongoing article series about marketing and promotion in Fortnite Creative. Let's learn together and create better!
Stay Inspired!
Share Your Experience to Help Others!
If you are interested in being interviewed, please connect with me in the FCHQ Discord by sending a DM to @hello.its.dragon!
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