News
17 October 2026 – Poppy Announces Secret Run and Turns Her Music Into an Interactive Fortnite Experience
By Editorial Team - October 17, 2026
Summary
Poppy announces Secret Run in Fortnite with Parisian studio SoWhen?, transforming album Empty Hands into an interactive musical labyrinth featuring cat Pi.
Key Facts
- Independent interactive musical experience 'Poppy Secret Run' launches inside Fortnite from October 23 to November 23.
- Features motion-captured avatar performances and dynamic gameplay synced to 'Time Will Tell' from LP 'Empty Hands'.
- Built with French studio SoWhen? using Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), playable solo or in 4-player co-op.
- Entities: Poppy, Poppy Secret Run, Fortnite, SoWhen?, Epic Games, Time Will Tell, Empty Hands, Pi, Paris
- Tags: poppy, poppy-secret-run, fortnite, uefn, sowhen, alternative-metal, empty-hands
Boundary-pushing alternative-metal artist Poppy has announced Poppy Secret Run, an interactive musical experience launching inside Epic Games' Fortnite platform on October 23. Created in collaboration with French creative design studio SoWhen?, the custom virtual world will be accessible to players worldwide through November 23.
Rather than staging a passive virtual stadium concert, Poppy Secret Run combines interactive environmental storytelling, puzzle gameplay, and branching narrative paths that shape each player's audiovisual voyage. Players explore a surreal, clockwork-dominated realm, encountering contrasting avatars of Poppy and choosing between diverging paths of light and shadow, accompanied by a digital recreation of Poppy's real-life sphynx cat, Pi.
Central to the experience is an adaptive performance of "Time Will Tell" from Poppy's acclaimed LP Empty Hands, with the musical score dynamically responding to player progression. Poppy visited SoWhen?'s Paris facilities to record full-body motion capture and facial expressions, lending authentic physicality to her digital avatars.
Playable solo or in squads of four, the experience also includes a dedicated concert-only lounge for listeners who prefer focusing on the music without platforming challenges. Notably built independently within Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), the project illustrates how alternative artists are designing their own bespoke digital spaces. Discover more forward-looking music features in our news archive.