Exclusive: Fortnite’s longtime lead creator Donald Mustard speaks about his epic run and what's next

In this interview: The making of Fortnite, advice from Steve Jobs, The Rock's voice, Shadow Complex, the rise and fall of live events, Peely's origins, the absence of Samus Aran and more...

Joe Russo, Donald Mustard and Anthony Russo. Photo: Getty Images, courtesy of AGBO

Donald Mustard has had an absurd career in video games.

He once made a video game at Steve Jobs’ request. Another time, he successfully persuaded Keanu Reeves and, later, Dwayne Johnson (he calls him “DJ”) to guest-star in a different video game, the one that happened to be most popular game on the planet for a time–the same one to which he was also able to add Halo’s Master Chief and PlayStation’s God of War. 

Last September, Mustard left Epic Games after a lengthy run, including seven years as the company’s chief creative officer and maestro of Fortnite.

Mustard rarely gave interviews during his time at Epic and hadn’t given any since his exit, until now., as he gets started on a new collaboration at production company AGBO with film directors Joe and Anthony Russo.

When we connected last week, he was eager to tell the story of his time on Fortnite and of the games he made that led to one of the biggest pop culture phenomena of the last decade.

We covered a lot. 

So whether games like Advent Rising or Undertow ring a bell, or you want to know the one game making tip he got from Steve Jobs, or you’re curious about all things from Fortnite—the original plan, the reason live events began and have largely gone away, why a banana man named Peely is in the game and Samus Aran is not, or why Mustard left the only game company he says he’ll ever work for, read on…