Make a Great Mod for Ark: Survival Evolved, and the Devs Might Pay You For It

[ffronw]

Make a Great Mod for Ark: Survival Evolved, and the Devs Might Pay You For It

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1323/1323088.jpgThe newest Ark: Survival Evolved update came from a modder, and he was well paid for it, a practice Studio Wildcard plans to continue.

If you've been working on mods for Ark: Survival Evolved, you could possibly make some money off the endeavor. Developer Studio Wildcard rolled out a new map earlier this week title "The Center." It doubled the game's playable area, and most interestingly, it wasn't created by Studio Wildcard. It was made by a modder named Ben Burkat.

Last month, Studio Wildcard announced its Official Mods program, which they said would let them bring mods into the official game, and The Center is the first example of that. Next month, they'll be introducing "Primitive Plus," a mod that removes most of the advanced items in the game, forcing players to make do with only wood and stone items.

Most interesting is the news that the creators of both of these mods were paid for their work, and Studio Wildcard has plans to continue to do so. Lead Designer Jeremy Stieglitz told Kotaku [http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/05/17/if-your-ark-survival-evolved-mod-is-good-enough-the-developers-will-buy-it] that the company was willing to pay "a considerable amount of money," for mod content. In the case of these first two mods, Stieglitz said that each creator received "multiple months' salary for a creative," in exchange for their work. Both creators were also hired by Studio Wildcard, although that will not be a regular occurrence, he said.

"Going forward, we intend to continue to regularly select what we consider to be the most and most polished Mods from among the many thousands available on Steam Workshop-often identified through open-entry cash-prize Mod Contests, such as the one we're currently running, which we use to gauge community enthusiasm. And then when we determine what we think are the standout exemplars, we'll make more offers."

The Center launched earlier this week, and Primitive Plus is planned for release in June.

[gallery=6241]

Permalink

 

[RaikuFA]

Can I just say I love a lot of modders? Hell the amount I have for Skyrim are enough to double my playtime.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

And this is how paid mods should be. If the mod creator wants to sell them, it should be to the company.
And then the company can make it a free update or sell it as official DLC with support. Not the god awful shit Valve and Bethesda tried to scam customers and modders with.

Mods that are based on other mods can't be sold without the consent of the creator legally because now it's a big company behind it and suing will be great. So people wouldn't be scared of creating free mods which other could abuse and people that want to make a living of it can try their luck. People will have a choice whether to support something or not.
And best of all, what you buy is sold by the publisher/developer of the game. So it's not allowed to break after an update. If they sold it, they have to update it to make it work again.

Also Primitive Plus sounds like an awful mod. I've seen some lets plays of Ark. The game seems awfully slow even with the late game stuff. Doing late game content with early game tools and shit won't be challenging. It will be boring.

 

[The Enquirer]

I'm just hoping this doesn't turn into tf2 where modders are essentially the only ones creating game content.

 

[K12]

You see Steam THIS is how paid mods should have worked. Developers paying modders when their work is really good and adds to the game and its sales potential.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Kind of weird that they've done this considering one of the top Steam reviews of this game was telling how awfully the developers were handling this game. Hacking and stuff being rampant.

 

[Strazdas]

As others have said, this is how paid mods work. A mod author makes something good and a company hires him/buys it from him.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Well that's certainly different. And surprising. Out of curiosity, does the game have its own toolset, or is it just a case of using UE4 or Unity or whatever?

Bethesda's EULA grants them ownership of any mod created with their toolset and forbids selling them for money.

It's interesting that this touches on money, modding, modders getting paid for it and so on, but this is a good way. Bethesda/Steam's way was pretty bad, but it makes me wonder if there isn't a good way, like this, but for more people, not just the lucky few. If there was the possibility to make decent money from modding, I honestly believe there would be bigger, better, more expansive and polished mods as a result. Remuneration for one's time is a good motivator, above and beyond love for a game.