ARK: Survival Evolved Mod Tools Released, $25K Mod Contest, Total Conversion Mod

Studio Wildcard, the developer of Ark: Survival Evolved, released a “streamlined version” of the Unreal Engine 4 editor dubbed the Ark Dev Kit today.

The dev kit will allow players to make their own weapons, creatures, maps, and game modes. To celebrate the release of the dev kit, Studio Wildcard is holding a modding competition that is sponsored by Alienware and released a total conversion called Survival of the Fittest.

The modding contest asks participants to create a new mod for ARK: Survival Evolved that can be new island maps, underground environments, game modes, structures, and/or items. The grand prize winner of the contest will walk away with $15,000, an Alienware Area-51 desktop computer, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card. The second place winner will take home $5,000, an Alienware X51 desktop computer, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960. Third place will win $2,500 and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960.

The Survival of the Fittest mod created by Studio Wildcard is a free mod that can be downloaded from Steam Workshop. In it, players will be restricted inside a dome-shaped force field that gets smaller and smaller as they match continues. Players must eliminate each other and be the last person standing.

In Survival of the Fittest, "Leveling, gathering, taming and building happen at a quicker rate," the developer said in a press release. "As the contestants enter this arena, not only do they need to look out for the dangers from the creatures and the other survivors, but also randomized 'Evolution Events.' These events take place every 30 minutes and have major impact on the gameplay — from freak weather occurrences, to dinosaur stampedes, extra supply drops, day-to-night shifts, player location reveal, and more."