‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Opens Unreal Engine 4 Tools To Modders

The makers of ARK: Survival Evolved have already enjoyed some massive success with their Early Access PVP survival game, and thanks to their latest announcement they might enjoy even more. Having sold over 1 million copies within the first 30 days of Early Access, the developers of ARK are opening up the Unreal Engine 4 toolset to the modding community, openly extending an arm to one of the more passionate communities in gaming.

“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 into reality right away,” Studio Wildcard co-founder and ARK: Survival Evolved creative director Jesse Rapczak said via a press release. “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.”

One can argue that modding a game extends the life of games more than the original content can. Skyrim, Morrowind, Fallout and so on are all examples of games that many people find new life in years after the release thanks to the community. By openly allowing fans to mod their game, the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved are cultivating a passionate fan base that will help the game flourish in the long run.

Epic, the creators of Unreal Engine 4, are coming together with the ARK developers via Twitch.tv in order to help walk through some of the first modders around the UE4 toolset. On hand for the stream will be ARK: Survival Evolved creative director Jesse Rapczak, joined by Chance Ivey and Alexander Paschall, both from Epic Games. More information can be found on the Unreal Engine forums.

The Inquisitr first showcased ARK: Survival Evolved back in May, showing off some of the first dinosaur/survival gameplay, claiming that it may be the game PC and current console players have been waiting for. Combining survival, multiplayer cooperation with the ability to coexist with dinosaurs gives players many ways to both work together and compete within the ARK world.

For those interested in getting started with modding ARK: Survival Evolved, you can head over to their mod workshop right now to check it out. Players can also collaborate and share ideas via the official ARK Unreal Engine 4 Modding forum.

ARK: Survival Evolved is currently available on Steam Early access and will also release for Xbox One and Playstation 4 tentatively June 2016.

[Images via ARK: Survival Evolved]