Nigiri-san
When the Japanese-themed season was announced for Fortnite in Chapter 6, I knew I wanted to make a character that was sushi-related. I had just visited Japan and it was a wonderful experience. Their nigiri was my personal favorite and for that reason I wanted to come up with a nigiri-inspired character. I decided that the soy sauce bowl could be worn as a had and chopsticks could be used as a large sword that could be broken into two smaller swords. The paper wrapping of the chopsticks would be the sheath and the different kinds of nigiri could be the alternate styles of the outfit. I am working on some art right now of all the styles together along with a new shrimp style which would feature the tail of the shrimp as a topknot.
99.exe
As someone who grew up in the 90s, nostalgia is all the rage. I wanted to pack as many 90s computer and tech references into this character as possible. 99 comes complete with a blue error screen face on his computer monitor head, speaker shoulders, AV cables for his arms (I made sure to match left and right to their appropriate arm) and torso, CD players as the backs of his hands, keyboard and sound equipment for his legs, and finally an old school computer mouse for his feet. The bundle could come with a 404 back bling hologram, a pickaxe loading bar that loads as you hit things and eventually stops at 99 (since loading bars took forever on that last percent), a glider where you surf the web on a clicking cursor as an hourglass follows you, and a contrail that shows a cursor over you as if you're being clicked and dragged as you fall down towards the map.
Nanja
Peely is one of the most popular Fortnite characters to date. With all the variations that have been done of him, we still have never seen a ninja-themed Peely. I wanted to show what that could look like with some customizations as well. To keep with the puns, I decided to name him Nanja instead of NInja.
I took to Reddit to get some user feedback as to what banana themed weapons would make the most sense for a character like this. I got a lot of different opinions as well as some additional alternative weapons he could use.
Slap Man
Slap Juice is an item unique to Fortnite and there is a lot of branding for it in-game. I noticed that Fortnite has a lot of characters inspired by Slurp Juice, but not Slap Juice. At least until now. Introducing Slap Man! The heroic mascot of Slap Juice. He arrives to those needing a slap, knocks some sense into them, hands them a Slap Juice and flies away. Since the currently existing character Big Chuggus (one of the Slurp Juice inspired characters) is reminiscent of Bane from Batman, I wanted to make Slap Man resemble Batman to a degree.
Kinguin
A punny take on the emperor penguin. He is decked out in royal garb and also comes with a fishy scepter to rule with, a kingly cape, and a sliding penguin glider that you can surf on top of. I could see him surfing on it with his arms crossed similar to Doctor Doom in the Marvel Season.
PN-G1
Drawing inspiration from the distinctive macaroni penguin and the iconic Mobile Suit Gundam, I designed PN-G1, a robotic penguin-like character. PN-G1 (or PING-ONE) blends the whimsical nature of a macaroni penguin with the sleek, mechanical aesthetic of a Gundam. The character features a vibrant yellow crest, reminiscent of the macaroni penguin's feathers, combined with the robust armor and intricate details of a mobile suit. This fusion creates a playful yet formidable appearance, perfect for the dynamic world of Fortnite.
Casey Jones (TMNT)
I took the opportunity to reimagine Casey Jones from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) in the vibrant world of Fortnite. The original Fortnite x TMNT collaboration unfortunately did not include Casey Jones, but it inspired me to showcase my vision of how this beloved character could fit within the Fortnite universe. Casey Jones has always been a fan-favorite character in the TMNT series, known for his gritty street style and unwavering sense of justice. I wanted to incorporate a nostalgic design, but keeping in line with the modern TMNT designs currently in Fortnite.
UPDATE: Fortnite has finally brought Casey Jones to the game. While it doesn't include a mask off style, it still looks great and I'm glad they are continuing their TMNT collaboration.
Deadpeel & Peelverine
When the movie Deadpool & Wolverine was coming out in July 2024, I wanted to make a fun concept that would be a crossover between Peely, an existing Fortnite character, and Deadpool & Wolverine. There are Peely mashups that currently exist and they typically involve some sort of pun or clever wordplay so I made their names reflect that.
UPDATE: Peelverine has made its way into the game (though he looks a bit different from my design) and there have been rumors of a Deadpeel in the future as well!
The Dragon
One popular theme of Fortnite characters is an animal design. Many people own bearded dragons so I wanted to take a crack at a bearded dragon character. There was a lizard character named Thunder that Fortnite released who was a Yakuza / sushi chef so I wanted to make The Dragon to be Yakuza themed as well. Perhaps they are friends or maybe even in rival gangs.
