Publishing a Fortnite Island: Step-by-Step Breakdown

18 August 2026 · 7 min read

GameMapa editorial · how we check facts
Checked: Claude (AI) — fact-checked against the Ukrainian original; not proofread by a native speaker

Publishing an island isn’t one button — it’s a sequence: filled-in tabs → an age rating via the IARC questionnaire → a Discover Filter check on the name and thumbnail → two-stage moderation. If a release “won’t go through,” it’s almost always stuck on one of these steps, not on the map itself.

Below is a breakdown of the sequence based on Epic’s official documentation, plus a separate, honest list of what that documentation doesn’t say and what we’re not claiming.

Step 1. Metadata tabs

Publishing is broken down into tabs you fill in before the island goes for review:

The key word here is public. What you write in the metadata isn’t just for you — it’s what people use to find the island and judge it. So these tabs aren’t a formality before release; they’re part of what gets checked afterwards.

The practical takeaway for a creator who’s finished their map: the map itself can be perfect, but until every tab is fully filled in, the process won’t move forward. The first thing to check when you hit a delay is whether any field on any tab is still empty.

Step 2. Age rating and the IARC questionnaire

An island’s rating isn’t set automatically and isn’t picked from a list. You have to earn it by completing a questionnaire.

The steps are straightforward:

1. Open the Rating tab.
2. Enter an email address — this is where IARC communications will be sent.
3. Click Begin Questionnaire.
4. Complete the questionnaire.

Why this exists at all: IARC is an age-rating system, and the questionnaire is how your island’s content gets rated based on the creator’s answers about that content. In other words, the accuracy of your answers is on you — you’re the one describing what’s in your island.

Pay attention to the email field specifically. It isn’t decorative — it’s exactly where IARC communications land. If you entered an address you don’t actually check, you risk simply missing the message and never understanding why nothing’s happening.

⚠️ What we’re not claiming: we’re not going to reproduce what the questionnaire’s exact questions are, how many there are, or how a given answer affects the final rating. That information isn’t in the source we’re relying on, and guessing at the questionnaire’s structure would be worse than just saying “complete it and read the questions yourself.”

Step 3. Discover Filter for name and thumbnail

This is the step most often missed by people who say “everything’s filled in, but publishing is stuck.”

Island names and thumbnails go through the Discover Filter before the publishing process can continue. The wording matters here: this isn’t some parallel check happening off to the side — it’s a gate the process has to pass through. If the name or thumbnail doesn’t pass, the process doesn’t move forward, and the rest of your work sits waiting.

What follows from that in practice:

• The name and thumbnail aren’t “final polish.” They’re checked separately from the rest of the island, so they deserve the same seriousness as the gameplay itself.
• If you’re stuck on this step, fix the name or thumbnail specifically. Reworking the level when the holdup is here is wasted effort.

⚠️ What we’re not claiming: we’re not publishing a list of Discover Filter criteria, and we’re not passing along “tricks” for picking a name that slips past the filter. We don’t know those criteria from an official source, and “how to get around it” advice is exactly the kind of thing to avoid — it doesn’t help your release, and it puts your creator account at risk.

Step 4. Two-stage moderation

Moderation consists of two separate stages:

1. A check of the island’s metadata and assets — the things you filled in and uploaded.
2. A review inside the island itself — the island as a played experience.

This is the single most important thing to understand about delays. Two stages means two different points where a release can stall, and they check different things.

What this means in practice:

• “Metadata’s fine” doesn’t mean “the island’s approved.” Passing the first stage doesn’t finish moderation — the in-island review still lies ahead.
• The problem might not be whatever you last edited. If the hold-up is at the second stage, rewriting the island description won’t change anything — and vice versa.
• Your island gets played from the inside. Plan for that: the island needs to work and be completable not just for you, but for someone walking in for the first time with none of your knowledge of the map.

Common causes of delays — and how to narrow them down

Let’s turn all of this into one self-check sequence. The idea is simple: go through the steps in the same order the publishing process does, and stop at the first one that isn’t finished.

1. Tabs. Game Details, Rating, Promotional Media, Attribution, Visibility — is everything filled in?
2. Rating. Is the email entered, has Begin Questionnaire been clicked, was the questionnaire completed in full? Did an email from IARC go astray?
3. Name and thumbnail. This is the pair the Discover Filter checks separately. If the process is stalling before later steps, look here first.
4. Moderation, metadata and assets stage.
5. Moderation, in-island review.

This order saves the most time for anyone who “doesn’t understand why the release won’t go through”: instead of blindly editing everything at once, you pin down exactly which step you’re stuck on and work only on that.

What we’re not claiming

To leave no room for guesswork, here’s a separate list of what isn’t covered by the sources we’re relying on:

• Timeframes. How long each moderation stage takes isn’t stated. We don’t write “usually takes X” anywhere.
• Criteria. Neither the detailed Discover Filter criteria nor the criteria for the two moderation stages are disclosed here.
• Reasons for a specific rejection. We can’t tell you why your particular island failed a check — that only shows up in the communication about your island, not in a general description of the process.
• Ways to “speed up” review. Tips that circulate in communities aren’t something we repeat here: they have no official confirmation, and trying to influence moderation outside the normal process is exactly the kind of thing not worth risking your creator account over.

If you need an answer to “why is my island specifically” stuck, the right path is to read whatever communication comes back about your island (including at the email you gave IARC) and work on that specific step — not on rumours.

In short

Publishing runs in sequence: the Game Details, Rating, Promotional Media, Attribution and Visibility tabs → a rating via the IARC questionnaire → a Discover Filter check on the name and thumbnail → two-stage moderation (metadata and assets, then an in-island review). Find the step you’re stuck on, and fix that one.

Sources: Publishing Islands in Fortnite Creative, Publishing from the Creator Portal.