Highlights
- Ark: Survival Evolved captivates players with its survival gameplay and in-game narrative.
- Ark: The Animated Series adapts the game’s characters and storyline into a more engaging narrative, not translating the Explorer Notes exactly but instead using their ideas to tell a fresh story within the same world.
- Fan reactions to the series have been mostly positive, but also pointed out the big changes from the game’s original plot. However, series creator and director Jeremy Stieglitz said that these changes were made to allow for some surprises and create a more welcoming structure for those unfamiliar with Ark.
Ark: Survival Evolved, Studio Wildcard’s 2017 online multiplayer sandbox survival crafting title, is one of the most well-known and popular within the genre. Players are tasked with exploring expansive tropical islands and more, where dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts roam, while collecting resources to upgrade their equipment and capabilities. Ark: Survival Evolved captivated many fans not only through its engaging gameplay, but with a deep story and lore, albeit with much of the narrative contained in hidden notes and journals scattered throughout its maps. These hint at much greater events and secrets within its world, providing additional interesting narrative elements on top of the core loops.
This past March, Part 1 (the first 6 episodes) of Ark: The Animated Series was released on Paramount Plus. While discussing the process of designing the show with Game Rant, Jeremy Stieglitz, series creator, director, and executive producer, went into more detail about the approaches taken to adapting Ark‘s story and related elements into an animated episodic format. Stieglitz broke down some key differences regarding aspects of the game that were altered or portrayed in ways that make them a better fit for the intent of the story and the medium.
10 Survival Games With The Best Narratives
The survival genre is one of the most popular genres right now, one reason being that they produce some of the greatest narratives.
Adapting Ark: Survival Evolved’s Storyline For an Animated Episodic Format
When asked about Ark: The Animated Series‘ themes such as the morality of violence and related, Stieglitz explained that it was one of the show’s core ideas. While the game’s lore dives more into the reason the Arks exist than serious character-related themes, the animated series being in a different medium allowed for Stieglitz and everyone involved with the adaptation to do something fresh.
Those ethical/moral themes and emotional and character-driven aspects just don’t really have a space to develop in the way the game’s story is told. But themes of war, love, regret, guilt, trauma, etc. were very much part of the show’s mix from the beginning.
Differences Between Ark: The Animated Series and Survival Evolved’s Plot Elements
Stieglitz also elaborated on how he and the team decided the best methods to incorporate Ark: Survival Evolved‘s established components into the show, which in some cases entailed notable but necessary changes. This included increasing Helena Walker’s role, as though she was already important to the lore of Ark, she became the full-on protagonist of the show.
We asked ourselves: What advantages do we have in the narrative medium versus the interactive? Some games are more heavily narrative based.
Ark: Survival Evolved
‘s narrative
is closer to context for why you’re there taming dinosaurs etc. This was an opportunity to create something emotionally engaging in a way that we couldn’t with the game.
Fan Reactions to Some of Ark: The Animated Series’s Narrative Changes
Overall, Ark fans and newcomers were largely positive on the animated series. Still, this does not mean there was no feedback for the creative team. Describing some of the feedback received on Part 1 of Ark: The Animated Series, Stieglitz noted:
While by and large it’s been very positive, some were disappointed that it’s not a literal 1:1 of the Explorer Notes plot. We explicitly decided early on we were going to do an adaptation rather than a transliteration. For fans who may not have been expecting that, seeing things changed can be off-putting, especially if they’re very familiar with those details.
But I think it allows for surprises, because they then don’t necessarily know exactly how everything’s going to play out in the show.
Stieglitz also shared that the show’s structure was different so that it would work better for anyone not familiar with Ark: Survival Evolved. With all these angles in place, Ark: The Animated Series looks to take fans of the games and newcomers alike on an incredible journey through its characters and world.
Ark: The Animated Series Part 1 is currently available for streaming on Paramount Plus. Part 2 will release at a later date.
Ark: Survival Ascended
Ark: Survival Ascended gives Ark: Survival Evolved an Unreal Engine 5 makeover. Along with the visual upgrade, Survival Ascended acts as the definitive version of Ark since it comes packed with the expansions.
- Released
- October 26, 2023
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Use of Alcohol, Violence
