Ark: Survival Evolved is an almost famous, almost fully developed game that promises to make it big by using a simple recipe: survival, crafting and dinosaurs.
If you are curious about how you would fare on a remote island peppered with hostile conditions, head to the Early Access section of Steam and get the title.
The concept of the game is simple: you wake up naked and weaponless on a far away island and you must use your ingenuity, survival and dinosaurs' taming skills to stay alive.
Developer Studio Wildcard has already registered surging download numbers on Steam, and the coders focus to release variants for PS4 and Xbox One.
In an interview with Gadgets 360, Jesse Rapczak, the co-founder and co-creative director at Studio Wildcard, explained how Ark: Survival Evolved scored such a radiant success in the notoriously crowded Steam library.
Rapczak describes Early Access as both a "blessing and a curse." He notes that 100 percent transparency is paramount when dealing with fans, and developers must consistently listen to their feedback and implement the pertinent suggestions.
"Finally, even though the game is in an incomplete state, all steps should be taken to treat it as a live game to keep the quality of life high for users," Rapczak adds.
Visibility is another issue when trying to showcase a new concept to the public, and the hordes of titles that come out every year put additional pressure on developers, big and small.
So, how did Studio Wildcard's dinosaur-taming game manage to outplay the likes of Grand Theft Auto V and Metal Gear Solid V?
"Partnering with streamers, the media, getting the word out to players through lots of updates" is one part of the recipe of success, according to Rapczak.
He points out that players appreciate the way in which the game evolves, and the fact that they witness changes that they contributed to is very compelling.
YouTube traffic numbers show that Ark: Survival Evolved was one of the four most popular games on the video streaming platform for 2015.
Studio Wildcard's co-founder affirms that gamers can enjoy the title on the Xbox One, but his company has plans to bring it to the PS4 as well, in 2016. What is more, Xbox One owners can play Ark: Survival Evolved in couch co-op mode, which should make the exploration of the wild perilous world more fun with family or friends.
Seeing how console players expect a greatly polished product to arrive on their gaming systems, Ark: Survival Evolved takes a great leap of faith by launching early versions for Xbox and PS4.
"[C]onsoles still should have a higher level of polish and quality than a PC game because there is only one hardware target," Rapczak states. He explains that players should expect fewer updates for consoles, and at longer intervals than those for PC.
"We must go through the console owner [Microsoft or Sony] and they validate and test our updates before passing them on to users," he says.
Rapczak expressed his appreciation for how Microsoft's ID@Xbox team helped Studio Wildcard transform their dreams into a game. In spite of gaming studios' preference to launch their games on PS4 first, Rapczak discovered that Microsoft made it clear who is "developer-friendly."
Rapczak, who worked on Microsoft's Hololens as technical art director, further mentions that the game has virtual reality compatibility and all it needs is for the goggles to hit the stores.
PC gamers agree that Ark: Survival Evolved is a neat example of nicely wrapped early access. Whether console players will find it to their liking or not, only time can tell. Until then, Studio Wildcard promises to deliver a backstory, an end game and multiple expansions.
"It's really amazing, and we're so humbled by the positive impact Ark: Survival Evolved has had on people," Rapczak points out.
