Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Ark: Survival Evolved takes on the survival genre with a unique blend of emergent multiplayer cooperation and competition.

In ARK: Survival Evolved, survivors wake up stranded, naked, freezing, and starving on a mysterious island where they must hunt, harvest, craft items, grow crops, and build shelters to survive in every biome. Survivors will tame, train, and ride more than 100 stunning dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, including gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games! In every available biome -- Jungle, Snow, Swamp, Redwood, and Desert -- you’ll be able to fly an armed Pteranodon squadron over the snow-capped mountains, race through a thick jungle with your pack of trained Raptors, tromp through a fortified enemy base with a convoy of gigantic Brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex.

Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground. Build your character’s strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems. Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover the ARK’s true purpose.

Studio Wildcard today launched its fourth ARK Modding Contest to reward the amazing work that the modding community contributes to the vibrant ARK: Survival Evolved universe. The contest comes with a total of $35,000 in cash prizes for the winning creators or creative teams, with two separate prize pools for each category: Mods and Maps.

Mod authors new and old are unlocking the power of the Unreal Engine, using their sheer creativity and ingenuity to produce their amazing creations. Past contests have elicited amazing contributions from the talented mod community to the ARK world such as the Ragnarok map, Valhalla, Tribe Wars, just to name a few! View an overview of past mod entries HERE.

Interested modders should first jump into the Epic Store launcher to download the ARK development kit, then join the ARK community, participate in the Unreal Engine ARK Modding forum, and find content in the Unreal Engine Marketplace. Once ready modders can then share their creations with the ARK player community using Steam Workshop. NOTE: Modders have 1 day left to grab the 10 free custom packs available to download in the Unreal Engine Marketplace - download them now! Official rules of the contest can be found HERE.

In order to be eligible, all ARK mod creations must be first submitted during the four-week entry phase from 5/30/19 - 6/29/19. Once the submission phase ends,  a two-week voting phase will begin where all fellow players can show support for their favorite mods.

ARK community members who vote for their favorite mod will be automatically entered to win an ARK: Survival Evolved Collector’s Edition signed by the development team!

Key Features

• TAME, TRAIN, RIDE, and BREED DINOSAURS: Command the most amazing creatures from throughout Earth's biological history, with more than 100 dinosaurs and creatures planned for full launch. Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground.
• CRAFT AND BUILD: Using any means necessary to survive, players will craft weapons, clothes, and items, and build shelters. Plant, harvest, build, level-up, and customize everything visually and functionally, including procedurally-generated RPG statistics for creatures, characters, resources, clothing, gear, and weapons both primitive and modern.
• DISCOVER: Explore a massive living ecosystem and find the means to survive, thrive, and possibly escape the ARK Island.
• TEAM UP TO SURVIVE: Start a tribe with dozens of other players in a large-scale multiplayer online first person environment to survive and dominate competing tribes...and to ultimately discover ARK’s true purpose.
• JOIN A TRIBE: The 'Tribe' system encourages cooperation, by supporting dynamic parties to share resources, XP, and re-spawn points. Other players are organizing rebel tribes to accumulate resources, experience, re-spawn points, and to construct sprawling villages and cities, with technology spanning the primitive stone-age to the modern electric-powered era and beyond. And they will fight to destroy anything they see as a threat.
• A LARGER UNIVERSE: Travel between Online ARKs to meet new players, face new threats, and discover new civilizations!