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Interview: ARK: Survival Evolved - 5 Year Anniversary

Shacknews chats with one of the co-founders of Studio Wildcard and its Lead Community Manager about ARK: Survival Evolved on its 5 year anniversary.

Sam Chandler

July 14, 2020 8:00 AM

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ARK: Survival Evolved has done exactly what its name suggests: survived and evolved. In a time where survival games come and go, ARK has not only stood the test of time, but grown to new heights. To celebrate its five year anniversary, we sat down with Cedric Burkes the Lead Community Manager and Jesse Rapczak one of the co-founders of Studio Wildcard to talk about ARK’s history and future.

ARK: Survival Evolved – 5 Year Anniversary

The team at Studio Wildcard have done a truly incredible job of taking ARK: Survival Evolved from an Early Access game to what it is today. Part of the appeal of starting in Early Access was that the team was small, and they weren’t sure if it was an idea that would resonate with gamers. As it turns out, people love hunting dinosaurs, taming dinosaurs, and riding dinosaurs.

One of the difficulties of developing games is striking a balance between listening to the positive feedback from the community and dealing with the constructive criticism without getting bogged down in the negatives. Cedric’s role is critical to this, as he is the bridge between the community and the developers.

In our interview, he detailed a lovely thing that he does for the developers to ensure they know they’re doing good work. Cedric curates a message board of positive feedback to send to the developers as he knows it can be tough to know whether or not an update has been received well.

However, Cedric also noted that it’s important for him to bring feedback to the developers. It’s from this feedback that critical changes have been made to ARK over its lifetime. He says he spends a good chunk of his day on Twitter, engaging it with the community and talking through the criticism and suggestions.

It’s always exciting to hear from developers about how their game has evolved since it was first released. In the case of ARK: Survival Evolved, the changes came thick and fast, and it’s thanks to the ongoing support of the community and the passion found therein. Make sure to check out the Shacknews ARK: Survival Evolved page for more news and coverage of Studio Wildcard’s hottest title.

Sam Chandler

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler