Mods, or the ability for players to modify a game world as they see fit, are coming to Ark: Survival Evolved, the dinosaur-survival game that debuted just 30 days ago on Steam’s Early Access platform. Studio Wildcard, the developer of the title, announced the availability of mods today, and it also said the game has already been downloaded more than 1 million times.
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Studio Wildcard has partnered with Epic Games to bring the full power of Unreal Engine 4‘s modding tools to Ark: Survival Evolved players. That means that players will be able to use Unreal’s tools — free of charge — to create their own kooky versions of content for Ark fans. You could, for instance, see mods where players replace the prehistoric game world with a city full of skyscrapers where dinosaurs can do combat.
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That’s ready now as the tools are being released today, along with some sample mods. The samples include a survival mode where an endless number of dinosaurs attack you, and another mod takes the game onto a brand new island.
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“This is the first generation of engines where we made modding a central part of the engine strategy,” said Tim Sweeney, the chief executive of Raleigh, N.C.-based Epic Games, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We polished the tools to make the engine super approachable by aspiring modders.”
The Unreal Engine modding tools are available from Epic’s website for free, Sweeney said.
Modded content will be available in the Unreal Marketplace. Modders can also share their creations with the Ark gamer community using Steam Workshop.
