Ark: Survival Ascended to get mod tools that let you create "entire custom Unreal Engine games", devs boast

rockpapershotgun.com:

Do you like trapping innocent, extinct animals in diabolical, broken worlds of your own devising, miring them in a purgatory of genre comparisions from which they may never escape? Because Ark: Survival Ascended developers Studio Wildcard and Grove Street Games are promising/threatening to "put the power of unbridled game creation directly in your hands" with the game's next major dev kit update, which will release by the end of January.

This will greatly expand the game's moddability, though concrete details are thin on the ground. It'll ship with a "Mario-inspired" platformer to show you how. There's also a dev kit update planned next week for multiplayer spin-off Ark: The Survival Of The Fittest. This will allow you to "sculpt the ultimate battlegrounds where your fellow ARK survivors will fight to see who will be the ultimate survivor".

"By the end of this month, we're unleashing a colossal-sized dev kit update that'll put the power of unbridled game creation directly in your hands," gushes a Steam announcement post. "Imagine it: crafting not just ARK mods, but entire custom Unreal Engine games to be made available inside ASA." Can you imagine it? I'm struggling, mostly because it's Monday and this is only my first coffee, but I do like the sound of "Mario-esque rampages through Crystal Isles" and "PvP arenas where Tek Rexes joust against Spinos".

The new set of tools will let you "design custom main menus, host and browse your own multiplayer game sessions from within the mod, and even create a mod that progresses (seamless travel) from one level to the next - the sandbox is officially yours to play in," the post continues. "Get ready to unleash your inner game dev, push the limits of ARK's potential, and build