ARK: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard has teamed up with Epic Games to open the dino-hunting survival game for modding, releasing a simplified ’ARK Dev Kit’ for the community to wrap their grubby mitts around.
“ARK provides a brilliantly creative universe for modding, and a wealth of beautiful environments and dinosaur content to build upon,” says CEO and founder of Epic Tim Sweeney. “Many of us here began in the mod community, so we’re grateful to see Studio Wildcard open up their creative work to a new generation of programmers, artists, and designers.”
To make it easier to get started, Epic has posted not only a tutorial guide on how to use the tools, but has opened up a special forum for budding ARK modders. You should find some helpful types there to kick-start your ambitious attempts to strap rocket launchers to pterodactyls.
“As we’ve opened up the world of ARK to everyone, we’ve been seriously on the edge of our seats with anticipation. The amazing gameplay ideas lighting up the forum conversations can be turned yinto reality right away,” says Jesse Rapczak, Studio Wildcard co-founder and co-creative director. “The UE4 mod tools that we’re providing are phenomenal, and we can’t wait to see the limitless creativity of our fans come to life in fantastic new ways.”
It’s amazing what the simple act of adding dinosaurs into the mix can do for a fairly standard sandbox game. I’m excited to see what the community can come up with.
If you want a more in-depth look at the tools, you can join Epic for a special livestream on its Unreal Engine Twitch channel at 11PM PST, July 9.
