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Here’s A Look At All of The Elaborate Booths of GDC 2018

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

The 2018 edition of the Games Developer Conference has come to a close but there is still a lot more for us to show including gameplay videos, developer interviews and exclusive hands-on with several AAA and indie titles.

In this post I’d like to take a quick jaunt through some of the cooler booths on display at this year’s show. By “cooler” I don’t necessarily mean “elaborate” or “expensive” but visually impressive or booths that offered attendees a unique experience.

Epic Games Booth

A booth with a ride-able Fortnite llama in place of the traditional riding bull is a win in my book. This tough looking llama was a draw for the entire conference, sadly I didn’t get a chance to go for a ride.

Above said conquerable llama was a large screen that showcased the Fortnite live-stream that Epic had going during the entirety of show-floor hour.

Folks check out the PlayStation 4 Pro version of Fortnite Battle Royale.

Not to be left out, the mobile version of Fortnite was fully playable on a large TV.

Day of the Devs

Double Fine’s indie focused Day of the Devs event took place off-site as per usual but this elaborate skull themed display greeted attendees when taking the escalator down from the South Hall. In addition to playable demo stations you could also catch some of the developers behind featured games like Exo One, Minit and Knights & Bikes.

IGF Pavilion

The 2018 Independent Games Festival awards took place alongside the Game Developer Choice Awards on the Wednesday of GDC week. Throughout the show-floor days (Wednesday – Friday) all of the nominees could be played at a single station in this circular configuration. Games like Night in The Woods, Baba is You, Cuphead and Shenzen I/O were playable by attendees. In years past it wasn’t uncommon to actually meet the developers behind these games while playing them at the IGF booth – sadly I didn’t get to meet anyone from the excellent Night In The Woods team this year ☹.

Train Jam 2018 Booth

Over 80 independently created games & experiments were playable over at the Train Jam booth. I was lucky enough to take part in this year’s 52 hour game jam and our game Emotional Support Cat Girl was also playable at this booth as well. Creators from the Train Jam are also GDC Attendees for the most part so it wasn’t uncommon for creators to hang out at the booth and walk folks through their creations.

I didn’t have much time to go  1 on 1 with folks to show them Emotional Support Catgirl in person but I will have an exhaustive blog post outlining our amazing cross-America journey later on in the week.

Microsoft Azure Services Booth

A large Azure Services booth greeted attendees when taking one of the two main elevators down to the expo show-floor. Microsoft had a large floor presence this year aimed squarely at game developers and the cloud based development services that can help devs collaborate, test and deploy their upcoming projects.

Services like Azure Application Monitoring– which gives developers real-time reports on the use of their games and applications, Visual Studio Enterprise – Microsoft’s premium integrated development environment and the Xbox Live Creators program – which allows independent developers to publish on the Xbox One platform – were all on display.

By visiting four of the available demo stations developers were able to score both $2500 USD worth of Azure Credits for virtual machine testing and a free Xbox One controller. Disclosure: as a member of the Microsoft Developer Network and Bizspark Program I was not the intended audience for these workshops, I already have access to all of these services. The free controller will definitely be useful for my development work, however.

Google Booth

Google uses its presence in the mobile space with Android and its real-world presence in Silicon Valley to attract Android developers to GDC.  Not only do they host a keynote focused on the future of their mobile platform but also full day workshops for developers on pre-launch and post-launch support of their mobile games.

Aside from the giant G logo and familiar Google Employees in blue shirts there wasn’t much on display at their booth to speak of. At GDC Google did announce the interesting “instant app” addition to the Play Store which allows customers to download a small 10MB trial version of a game and play it within seconds without needing to install anything on their device. Given the size of some Android Games 10MB could be as small as a 30 second sample of the gameplay, while other smaller games have the chance to offer players a much more feature complete experience within those confines.

PlayStation Booth

Sony always has a huge display at conventions like PAX East, E3 and PAX West but did the development focus of GDC stop them from bringing some of the latest creation on their platform? Of course not!

Playable games at the PlayStation Booth included the recently released Shadow of the Colossus remake, Monster Hunter: World, Gran Turismo Sport and Ni No Kuni: Revenant Kingdom.

Sony also held a number of developer talks and workshops across the five days of GDC focusing on the visual arts achievements that Sony has made on the PlayStation 4, how devs can help fight fraud in an online gaming space and a Final Fantasy Collaboration focused workshop.

Unity

Unity has quickly become the darling of indie creators and the engine that powers some of the most notable AAA releases as well.  Upcoming titles like Escape From Tarkov, In the Valley of the Gods, Praey For the Gods and Hollow Knight all use the suite of tools made available for free by Unity Technologies.

While Unity might not offer the complete beginner friendly experience of something like Game Maker or Clickteam Fusion but it does offer a great gateway to full fledged game development. Alongside a whole range of professional grade 3D, 2D and lighting tools – developers also get access to some of the most exhaustive documentation systems around. Also the Unity community has probably answered almost every question asked about the engine at this point.

I’m not trying to come off as a paid Unity shill or that this section of the post is an advertisement – it’s not. But I’ve been personally making games in Unity for the past 2 years as my full time gig and it has been such a rewarding experience. What you lose in easy prototype-ability you gain in coding experience, game making fundamentals and probably the most beneficial to me personally – learning how to properly debug a game from conception through to post launch support.

In terms of what was on offer for newly budding developers and experienced veterans – Unity offered a quiet lounge space for Unity devs to hang out, grab a coke and just relax from the high stress environment. This space wasn’t entirely ultrisitic however – staffers from the engine developer were also on hand to inform visitors about upcoming Unity focused events like their Rendering Bootcamp, Keynote, Work Flow workshop and also to recruit for Unity Europe. Also on the floor of the West Hall (where most GDC panels take place) was a large “Made With Unity 3D” booth which gave folks the chance to check out multiple games made in Unity 5.

Ark: Survival Evolved Mobile

Lastly I’d like to highlight something I spotted at Unreal’s massive booth. Sandwiched in-between all of the Fortnite chaos, live engine demonstrations and AAA games was the mobile version of ARK Survival Evolved that had just been announced days prior. I didn’t get a chance to snag any off-screen video of the game running (tho I wish I had) but I did manage to snag a few interesting stills that I’ll post in the coming days. Suffice to say that the upcoming mobile conversion for ARK looks and plays rather faithful to the original – oh and there’s also the upcoming Nintendo Switch port of ARK, which was not on the show floor.

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ARK Survival Evolved Coming To Nintendo Switch This Fall

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Studio Wildcard’s hugely successful futuristic / prehistoric mash-up survival game Ark: Survival Evolved will be coming to the Nintendo Switch in both physical and digital formats this Fall. The impending release of ARK in a few months time will mark the release of one of the first games on Nintendo’s hybrid platform to run on Unreal Engine 4.

Announced during the “State of Unreal Engine” panel at the Games Developer Conference 2018, the Switch port of ARK will be handled by developer Abstraction Games. Switch players will be able to enjoy all of the content from the original version of ARK: Survival Evolved including over 100 prehistoric and fantasy creatures, deep crafting mechanics and of course the unique dinosaur taming mechanic.

Also shown off at GDC was the mobile version of ARK, which I got the chance to see running in person. It pretty much faithfully recreates the PC experience on a smaller scale from the look of things. The mobile version of ARK: Survival Evolved will be coming to iOS and Android later this year and is available for pre-registration now – which you can do here.

If you want to see (briefly) what ARK looks like on Switch, check out a brief minute clip that was shown to crowd at GDC:

Studio Wildcard’s Lead Programmer, Co-Creator of ARK and Lead Designer had this to say about the forthcoming Switch port:

“With this new version, Switch players can go directly from hunting and taming while sitting on the couch, to forming online tribes and searching out new conquests when on the bus, waiting in line, or wherever they happen to be.”

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ARK Survival Evolved Launching This August With Two Special Editions

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Studio Wildcard will be bringing the prehistoric survival game ARK: Survival Evolved out of the Early Access age with the release of the retail version on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on August 8th. ARK on personal computers will be available for multiple operating systems including Microsoft Windows,  MAC OS and various flavors of Linux.

Three different editions of ARK: Survival Evolved will be available for Xbox One and PS4 and are available for pre-order the company announced. They are:

ARK Survival Evolved Standard Edition – $59.99 USD

  • Includes the base ARK experience.
  • Access to all free content and updates that have been released to date.

ARK: Survival Evolved Explorers Edition  – $99.99 USD

  • Includes base ARK experience.
  • Provides access to the Scorched Earth expansion pack which was released last September.
  • Provides access to future expansion passes via an included Season’s Pass.
  • More content packs are promised for the Explorers Edition later this year and into 2018.

ARK Survival Evolved – Limited Collector’s Edition – $159.99 USD

  • Includes base ARK Experience.
  • Scorched Earth Expansion.
  • Season’s Pass.
  • ARK Island cloth map replica.
  • ARK Necklace.
  • Survival Evolved soundtrack as performed by the Philarmonica Orchestra.
  • Studio Wildcard development team poster.
  • Leather- bound Explorer’s Notebook.

With three different versions it might get a little confusing for new players to know exactly which version of ARK to pick up. Surely only the hardest of hardcore fans will choose to purchase the Limited Collector’s Edition since, as the name implies, it will be manufactured in limited quantities. Early Access backers such as myself seem to be funneled into the Standard Edition, this makes sense – Scorched Earth has always been add-on DLC since day one. Studio Wildcard promises that even the base ARK experience will provide players with 100s of hours of entertainment.

 

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ARK Devs Offering Future Content For Steam Award Votes

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

With both the Steam Winter Sale and Steam Awards underway a number of 2016’s biggest titles are gaining a lot of attention. It isn’t uncommon for developers & community managers to rally their communities to garner votes but in the case of ARK: Survival Evolved, Studio Wildcard is offering future content to ensure that ARK complies with its nomination in the “Best Use of Farm Animals” category.

In a post on the game’s Steam Community Discussion forum ARK representatives urge their community to vote for the game and if  ARK wins then sheep will be added in a future content update. Below is a snippet of the announcement post as it appeared at press-time;

“Head over to http://store.steampowered.com/SteamAwards/ on Thursday the 29th of December, as you’ll have the opportunity to come show your support for ARK by voting for us! If ARK wins the award, we will ensure that our fluffy friend quickly makes its debut on the ARK in the next major version update!  
 
Let’s face it, ARK does have the raddest animals and what better way to thank them for all farming & fighting they do than by honouring them with the “Best Use Of A Farm Animal” Award” 

Yup, the game about dinosaur taming some how was nominated for the “Best Use of a Farm Animal Award” despite featuring nary an mammal in sight, let alone mechanics that could be considered the prehistoric equivalent of modern farming. The odd thing about the Steam Awards is that the nominees are selected through a Steam Awards selection committee, so it isn’t like Studio Wildcard mobilized their thousands of fans in-order to be included in an unrelated category.

The official post mentioned above has already seen a number of negative reactions from Steam users including this gem:

“Best Use of a Farm Animal Award” will be open for votes in two days, on December 29th.

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The Awesome Booths From PAX West

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Capcom brought a lot of their offerings from E3 to PAX for the public to enjoy. Surprisingly Dead Rising 4 only had 2 demo stations at their official booth although more where playable at the Microsoft booth.

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Indie title Warcube was part of the PAX Rising selection at PAX West.

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Our own Renee Gittin’s “Potions: A Curious Tale” was playable on the show-floor :D!

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Cards Against Humanity had a very creative store front at the entrance to this year’s con.

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It included a hallway that lead to a store where you could buy the subversive card game. Perhaps it was a picture taking opportunity for some.

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Star Trek: Bridge Commander was one of the surprise hits of this past weekend’s convention. Sadly it filled up so quickly that it was by appointment only.

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ARK: Survival Evolved’s T-REX is no stranger to the convention scene, we saw it last @ PAX East.

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Indie title Fox Hole: Persistent Warfare was playable on the show floor.

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RIPTIDE: Renegade GP devs showing off the latest build of their game.

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Gunvolt 2 was fully playable on this large television thanks to a special developer only 3DS unit.

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Friends of the site, the crew behind Star Mazer DSP had a booth at the show on the sixth floor indie scene.

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The Behemoth had an entire arcade of playable titles from both past and present at PAX West for attendees to try.

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Capcom’s Street Fighter V is no stranger to the convention scene, the game had several demo stations lining Capcom’s booth.

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Futuristic racer DISTANCE had this trippy but small booth as part of the PAX Rising selection at PAX West.

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Harmonix’s green room for the 4 person bands @ PAX West was absolutely rockin’!

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Dawn of War III was finally playable @ PAX West, unlike it’s Demo Theater showing at E3.

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WETA Workshop’s booth was full of creative wonders.

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The Rooster Teeth booth had a lot to offer fans of RWBY, Red Vs Blue and the site’s other properties.

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World of Warcraft: Legion Dominated Blizzard’s booth, allowing fans to try out the recently released limited time “Broken Shores” in-game event.

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Fans try out the R.W.B.Y game, recently released on Steam, at the Rooster Teeth booth.

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Ark Survival Evolved is having a free weekend RIGHT NOW

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

You know we love Ark: Survival Evolved. Everyone here on staff plays it. Our little dino fort might not be the type to make others stop and go OOOHHH. But we loved poppin in for a few hours to harvest or hunt in the vast world ARC offers.

This weekend everyone can try that dino riding, fort building, awesome fun for free. Even better Arc just dropped a huge content update. Studio Wildcard is truly ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ today after releasing a content-rich package (v245) offering ARK: Survival Evolved players a mega update to fantasy map The Center while fully launching Primitive+, the second player-created mod to be made an official part of the ARK game. Studio Wildcard also has brought to life two new creatures, Pelagornis and Allosaurus, and has materialized a new fishing rod and fishing mechanic, along with a flurry of additional gameplay features. All content is available starting today as a free download on Steam PC.

Its free to play right now ARK: Survival Evolved also is on sale for Steam players at 50% off (retail $29.99) from Thursday, July 28, through Wednesday, August 3, 2016. But, thats not all!  there is also Free ARK DLC

Newly available as part of the ‘ARK Official Mods Program’ today, Primitive+ is a functionality mod playable on all official ARK maps that challenges players to use only weapons and tools using wood and stone, without the benefit of advanced metals to create weapons such as guns. It’s a whole new set of items and detailed mechanics focused on ‘primitive’ survival, which fits snugly in the world of ARK.

The Center, a massive free DLC map that was first released in May 2016, expanded today to include new biomes, islands, caves, and creature spawns. The Center was created by modder Ben Burkart as part of the ‘ARK Official Mods Program’ and complements the current biomes with a rich, hand-drawn Tolkien-esque aesthetic. The Center’s massive map doubles the in-game playable geography of the already enormous ARK landscape making it 70 sq. kilometers filled with stunning lighting effects, lava rivers, giant picturesque mountains, misty floating islands, ancient underground ice caves, and more.

ARK v245 New Creatures
Pelagornis (Species Pelagornis miocaenus): This creature is instantly recognizable from the more common Icthyornis by its size. With a wingspan rivaling Argentavis, it also possesses a beak filled with tooth-like projections for snagging fish and webbed feet for paddling upon the ocean surface. Because of its ability to fly, walk, and surface-swim, a tamed Pelagornis is one of the island’s most versatile mounts, though this comes at a cost. The same webbed feet that allow Pelagornis to serenely maneuver along the ocean’s surface prevent it from snatching prey from the ground, which may limit its appeal to some survivors.

Allosaurus (Species Allosaurus therotribus): Smaller but faster than Tyrannosaurus, larger but slower than Carnotaurus, Allosaurus is the island’s resident pack-hunting theropod. While most aggressive theropods are relatively solitary creatures, Allosaurus lives in groups of three. One Allosaurus is the Pack Leader, while the others are its mates or a beta male. The Allosaurus has evolved to hunt in packs. Its saw-shaped teeth leave its prey bleeding and maimed, making escape difficult. Once an Allosaurus slows a creature with its cutting bite, the rest of its pack quickly close in for the kill…

 

Additional Update v245 Content Includes:

  • New Item: Fishing Rod + Fishing Mechanic! Be a pro fisherman as you apply varied bait, cast the line, wait for a fish to become ensnared, and then succeed at a mini-game to reel the fish and claim copious rewards!
  • New Structure: Industrial Grinder that grinds items into a portion of their crafting resources, then converts resources into simpler resources
  • New Structure: Spiral Staircase (Stone/Wood/Metal)
  • New Mechanic: Optional Hitmarkers for ranged attacks (server can toggle them, as well as client if the server allows it)
  • Building Attack/Destruction TribeLogs

 

 

That is quite a list of free stuff! So get out there and give it a try!

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Mod ‘The Center’ Officially Jones ARK: Survival Evolved On Xbox / PC

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

As announced at PAX East last month, popular ARK: Survival Evolved mod The Center has made its way into the official version of the game for both Windows PC and Xbox One. The Center is a user created mod map set in a Tolkien-esque fantasy map providing players with 70 square kilometers of explorable terrain, all of which was developed by hand. The Center has its own save data which remains separate from save files created on ARK’s default map.

Alongside the release of The Center Studio Wildcard also released a new update for the Xbox One version of the game which brings it up to date with v240 of the PC game (originally released in January 2016). New features now available in the Xbox One build include a 100 player limit cap for servers, the broodmother area and various bug fixes.

Here is a brief set of patch-notes for the Xbox One version, released by Studio Wildcard:

  • Fixed memory/crash issues, massively reduced game memory overhead
  • Improved rendering performance by approximately 10%
  • Fixed the huge stall/lock/crash when you “Transfer” a bunch of items at once
  • Spawn-In First Person Animations are now playing properly once again
  • ADDED The Center Official Mod Map! Doubles the playable game area of ARK, with all new adventures – added Official The Center servers supporting up to 100 simultaneous players!
  • Added all content up thru PC patch v240 (includes such things as Broodmother Arena, Megapithecus Arena, Direbear, Manta, Chem Table, Prim Cannon, Lystrosaurus, Arthropluera, Sabertooth Salmon, Primitive Bola, Tribe Rank Management, and more!)

Speaking about The Center coming to Xbox One Jeremy Stieglitz – co-founder of Studio Wildcard had this say:

“The ARK modders are developing a ton of fun, creative content that, up until now, only the PC community has been able to enjoy. By selecting the most innovative high-quality mods and adding them into the main game, we’re able to make this amazing content available to console players as well.”

If you haven’t joined the hunt with ARK: Survival Evolved it is currently on sale on Steam for 33% off. The Xbox One version is available at a discount as well – 25% off for Gold Members and 15% off for Silver. You can also try a different take on the ARK formula with the free to play ARK: Survival of the Fittest on Steam.
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Jesse Rapczak from Studio Wildcard Answers ARK Community Questions

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Ark: Survival Evolved

At PAX East 2016 we got the chance to ask Jesse Rapczak from Studio Wildcard some questions from the ARK: Survival Evolved community. Topics varied from: Will we ever see popular community mods in the console version of the game? Will we ever get Greek Fire throwables? And most importantly – Why are canons so OP?

Surprisingly Studio Wildcard had a major announcement that happened to coincide with our interview – that Primitive+ and The Center will both becoming to the Xbox One version of ARK: Survival Evolved.  The Center, a fantasy themed map that more than doubles the playable space within ARK will become an official map in both the Xbox One and PC versions of the game later this month. PlayStation 4 players will get access to both mods when that version of the game goes live later this year.

Regarding Primitive+ Cedric Burke, Community Mod Manager at Studio Wildcard wrote on the Xbox News Wire:

When I first opened the development kit and began creating Primitive+, I only had one goal in mind: Provide people with a more immersive experience by expanding upon the primitive nature of the game. Little did I know it would present an opportunity of a lifetime – to have my work seen and played by millions of people. A lot of my childhood dreams were realized simply by opening up the development kit.

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Ark Survival Evolved lawsuit settles for 40 million USD

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

Trendy Entertainment is probably not a studio you have heard of, Studio Wildcard probably is, or at least you have heard of their big game: Ark: Survival Evolved. The Dino taming, survival game that was last years smash hit on steam, that sold over 2 million copies. We even recently had the opportunity to interview Jessie Rapczak at GDC. Ark is quite popular even spawing a spin off king of the hill type of game they are giving away for free, in addition to the 2 million in sales on Steam alone! Some simple back of envelope math puts the worth of Wildcard with those sales at over 60 million USD in sales as of October of last year. So its no surprise that when you make a lot of money someone is going to want a piece of that money. In this case it was Trendy Entertainment former home of Jeremy Stieglitz, and developer of Dungeon Defenders.  Jeremy is listed as one of the founders of Wildcard, and was recently sued with his former company alleging that he had tried to recruit other developers at the studio to the Ark project, clearly violating the contract he signed when he left Trendy which had a clause forbidding him from poaching any of Trendy’s developers. Poaching for those not in the industry refers to the practice of recruiting an employee from a direct competitor. This week Trendy and Wildcard have settled out of court documents filed with Alachua County Clerk(requires log in and capta to view) show. This filing form April the 6th shows that the claimant (Trendy) believes that Trendy owes them over 20 million dollars in damages.

The writ says in part: “This amount does not include the substantial damages that Insight incurred as a result of Stieglitz’s failure to honor the right of first refusal, nor does it take into account the tens of millions of dollars by which Wildcard was unjustly enriched by using Trendy’s intellectual property”

To summarize Trendy isint ready to stop at 26 million. Trendy’a filing also levels some other interesting points: “Plaintiff believes that the Stieglitzes will continue to remove their assets from Florida until they are effective judgment proof”. Indicating that that the plaintiff believes that Stieglitze is holding money in off shore accounts. It goes out to level the very serious accuasation of perjury and even name a specific country (Singapore) as the place the money would be stored.

Now Kotaku is reporting and filings seem to indicate that before this could ever see the light of a courtroom its been settled out of court for a massive sum of 40 million dollars. Kotaku has links to a text message which purports to show Mrs. Stieglitze’s phone with the number 40 million as the settlement. So if we belive the filing (which we can) then the case is settled and if you belive a screen shot that appeared on reddit the settlement was 40 million dollars. Considering we know that Ark sold at least 60 million in direct sales, this doesnt seem reasonable unless there was much more money involved than just my back of envelope math showed.

Either way, this just goes to show how ugly intellectual property and small video game developing can be. This is not the first, nor will it be the last case of a someone moving on from a mediocre company, having great sucess with similar (or the same) people and tools, elsewhere, and thus drawing the ire of the old company.

 

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Xbox One Version of ARK: Survival Evolved Gets A Major Update

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Ark: Survival Evolved

Studio Wildcard have released a major update for the Xbox One version of their popular prehistoric survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. This latest update brings  three new dinosaur types: The Wooly Rhino,  Dunkleosteus and the Eurypterids. It also brings the game up to parity with the PC release V238.3 which was released for PC players back in January. Add to all of this new options for game hosts and you’ve got one hell of a patch that will ensure that ARK doesn’t go extinct any time soon/

Improvements from PC V238.3 carried over to the Xbox One include the addition of new Cave-Dungeons for the Snow and Swamp biomes. Server administrators who host open multiplayer matches can now set an “administrator” class allowing other designated players to access the console commands, just like they can on the PC version. Single player sessions will also give players access to the console commands which can be accessed via the game’s pause menu.

In regards to the three new Dinos, here is how Studio Wildcard describe them:

Coelodonta utiliserro: Known as the Woolly Rhino, the Coelodonta is usually a large, friendly herbivore but can turn into a dangerous creature when charging its attackers. The Coelodonta builds up momentum as it charges, and depending on its ultimate impact speed, players can skewer the largest creatures in just one single gore

Dunkleosteus loricaruptor: Known simply as Dunkleosteus, this fairly large fish is covered head to tail in armored plates and has incredibly powerful jaws that make great work of stone and oil formations in the ocean’s depths.

Jaekelopterus eurypterus: Found only in the deepest watery depths on the ARK, “Eurypterids” are dangerous, adaptable Arthropods that, while not smart enough to be tamed, are rich in chitin and provide a debilitating poison that quickly renders its opponent unable to defend itself.

The developers have also released a new trailer for this Xbox One patch which you can check out below:

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ARK: Survival of the Fittest Video Interview With Jesse Rapczak

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Studio Wildcard, the minds behind last year’s smash Steam hit ARK: Survival Evolved have taken the concepts from their first prehistoric title and fashioned what they call a M.O.S.A or Multiplayer Online Survival Arena. Ark Survival of the Fittest pits a number of different players in  Survival Evolves‘ world map and gives them a limited number of time to craft weapons, tame dinosaurs all in a bid to be the last one standing.

We got a chance to sit down and talk with Studio Wildcard co-founder Jesse Rapczak about the challenges of adapting the ARK world to this new game type, how tamable dinosaurs change the pace of the game in relation to other Battle Royale style games and just why did Studio Wildcard release Survival of the Fittest with no monetary model?

Check it out below:

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Ark Survival Evolved Update Adds Gallimimus & Other Goodies

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Ark: Survival Evolved

Today Studio Wildcard dropped update 255 for the Windows PC version of their popular prehistoric survival title ARK: Survival Evolved. This latest patch to the early access game brings a brand new dinosaur type into the world – the Gallimimus – along with other small goodies for existing players to find.

Should players be able to tame this ancient herbivore they’ll find that they’ve caught themselves a brand new 3 person mount that can also equip heavy weaponry. With three players mounted on a Galli the last player will be facing backwards giving your squad an additional vantage point to watch out for oncoming threats.

Here’s a brief dossier on the Gali from in game:

  • Wild: When someone asks me what the fastest creatures on the island are, Gallimimus is always a contender. Unlike the island’s many armored animals, Gallimimus eschews strong defenses for the ability to outrun pretty much anything.

  • Domesticated: There are two general camps on the use of tamed Gallimimus. One camp thinks that their inability to actually harm hostile creatures, and their inability to harvest most resources, makes them primarily a burden to the tribe. The other camp thinks that their extreme speed and ability to jump long distances is among the best for scouting and exploring… or just making a quick getaway!

  • Known Information: A skittish herbivore, Gallimimus even looks nervous when eating in a peaceful clear meadow. Having no real way to harm predators, it simply runs away and uses its ability to stay safe. I’ve even seen wild Gallimimus outrun speed-trained Utahraptors!

Also added in game update 255 is a brand new set of SWAT armor that hunters can craft if they have the right materials. It will protect your characters arms & legs as well as your head with a helmet that’s complete with a visor!

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ARK: Survival Evolved Winter Update Rings In The Holidays

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Dinosaur tamers and hunters beware because tis the season for Winter to come to the world of Ark: Survival Evolved. The latest update dropped on Christmas Eve and transformers the game world into a winter paradise while adding holiday event items, new challenges and special presents from Santa Clause stand in – Raptor Clause!

If you want to give your in-game house some holiday flair here are a few example of the limited time items that are available: Holiday Lights, Decorative Trees, Wreaths, Stockings and Snowmen.

To mark the end of 2015 the developers over at Studio Wild Card have announced that their close-out event for the Survival of the Fittest Tournament will be a 100 player vs 100 player epic elimination tournament featuring players from past rounds. The winning team will be able to donate $10,000 to a charity of their choice and the whole thing will be broadcast on Twitch.TV on December 29th at 9 AM PST.

If you haven’t played Ark: Survival Evolved the game is currently 40% – $17.99 USD for Windows PC. A version for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (with PlayStation VR Support) is expected to be released sometime after June 2016.

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Surprising No One Fallout 4 Is Still The 2nd Most Played Game On Steam

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Bethesda’s Fallout 4 is the 2nd most played game on Steam a week after its release with 256,000+ players. This comes after the game broke existing records when it launched last week with 360,000 players – the game went live at midnight on November 11th. Previously RockStar Game’s Grand Theft Auto V held the record for concurrent players with 301,000+ when it was released on PC this past April.

Fallout 4’s numbers are nowhere near the reigning champion, Valve’s DOTA 2, which had 318,000 concurrent players as of press time and a peak today of nearly a million players today! Comparing Fallout 4’s numbers to DOTA 2’s isn’t exactly fair since one game is a single player immersive RPG and the other is a 5 Vs. 5 MOBA.

Rounding out the top ten include PC staples like Valve’s own Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2. Surprisingly Activision’s latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops III is the last place on the top ten. I would have thought Black Ops III would have been a bit higher but I guess you can’t deny the power of the wastelands.

CURRENT PLAYERS PEAK TODAY   GAME
318,155 806,386   Dota 2
256,633 292,202   Fallout 4
250,258 586,014   Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
40,526 54,472   Team Fortress 2
37,893 58,566   Football Manager 2016
30,565 39,535   ARK: Survival Evolved
27,964 33,635   Sid Meier’s Civilization V
22,566 26,840   Garry’s Mod
21,037 26,366   The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
19,739 35,395   Call of Duty: Black Ops III

[Source]

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Disputed Call Dominates ARK: Survival Evolved Tournament Finals

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

E-Sports coverage is predominately skewed towards larger titles like League of Legends, DOTA 2 and to a lesser extent Heroes of the Storm but these three aren’t the only competitive game in town. Ark: Survival Evolved instinct game’s breakaway Steam hit held a competitive Survival of the Fittest competition yesterday with the winning tribes taking away cash and prizes. This event wasn’t without some controversy, however, with the Ark devs detailing a rather controversial referee call.Read More

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