How we turned the capital into a playable open world to win the battle for Gen Z’s attention
Warsaw has a problem. Not with reality — it’s dynamic, green, and modern — but with perception. For the average Western teenager, it’s still the “grey East”: a post-Soviet monolith without character.
How do you change that? We knew one thing: Gen Z doesn’t read tourist brochures. They don’t scroll through “Top 10 Monuments” lists. They look for experiences. Before booking a flight, they check a place on Street View, TikTok, or… inside a game. So we asked ourselves: what if a city break could begin before you even leave home?
Don’t tell them about Warsaw. Let them experience it.
A journey through three dimensions of the city
When designing a Warsaw-inspired map, we broke the linearity of time by dividing it into three distinct, playable eras. As a time-traveling agent, the player explores different atmospheres, mechanics, and fragments of the Mermaid City’s soul:
- 19th Century: Legends & Noir. A misty, mysterious Warsaw where science meets magic. Players encounter Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Frédéric Chopin, but must also confront the Basilisk in underground dungeons. It’s a tribute to history — delivered in a dark, immersive RPG tone.
- 20th Century: Secrets of the Underground. A retro-futuristic spy setting. Players explore canals and hidden passageways (a nod to the Uprising and to urban legends). There’s the Black Volga, an invisibility hat inspired by Leopold Tyrmand’s fiction, and gadgets straight out of Stanisław Lem. A pop-culture history lesson you won’t find in textbooks.
- 21st Century: Vertical City. The finale is pure adrenaline. Climb “Varso Tower,” glide over the Palace of Culture, and race speedboats along the Vistula — dodging protected goosanders along the way. Proof that Warsaw is a modern, green metropolis, not a concrete desert.
Details that build credibility
Gamers can sense inauthenticity instantly. But in gaming, “realism” doesn’t mean a 1:1 scale replica. Instead of recreating kilometers of empty sidewalks, we distilled Warsaw to its essence.
We created a condensed, original interpretation of the city — a “Best of Warsaw” hub where iconic buildings, the river, and green spaces are all within reach, forming the perfect arena for dynamic gameplay. True immersion, however, lives in the details.
We didn’t need to replicate every curb to capture the city’s spirit. We embedded elements that create a uniquely local vibe and wink at those in the know, including:
– The viral TikTok beaver beloved by the internet.
– The Warsaw Ninja moving across rooftops.
– A street organ grinder and the dreamlike murals of Tytus Brzozowski.
These touches transform the world from a plastic marketing mock-up into a living digital ecosystem — one that reflects Warsaw’s character while remaining an authentic Fortnite experience.
How do you win the attention of travelers worldwide?
In the attention economy, where brands fight for the first three seconds of a scroll, we decided to play for something bigger: time and engagement. Instead of another campaign interrupting entertainment, we created a space that becomes part of it.
When a player spends fifteen minutes searching for the Golden Duck in virtual underground tunnels or racing along the Vistula, they build a deeper connection with the city than they ever would through a thousand banners or leaflets. Warsaw stops being an abstract dot on the map of Europe and becomes part of their personal, emotional experience. We chose borderless marketing — beyond geography and language barriers — accessible to everyone.
You don’t have to take our word for it. Enter code 8289-0792-0837 in Fortnite Creative and see for yourself how we lifted the capital into the clouds.
