ugc and workshop in ark: survival evolved€¦ · results of ugc in ark we estimate approximately...
TRANSCRIPT
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UGC AND WORKSHOP INARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED
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Why UGC? (1/7)
• Mobilize your creative players, fostering a collaborative, evangelical community.
Better Engagement & Discoverability
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Why UGC? (2/7)
• More content for everyone, less pressure on developer to rapidly deliver new official content to hungry players.
Feed the Beast
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Why UGC? (3/7)
• Potential for a unicorn: breakout mod which adds tremendous value & visibility to the core game!
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Why UGC? (4/7)Customization
• Players can orient the game more to their liking (i.e. on ARK, there are mods that remove the “sci-fi”).
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Why UGC? (5/7)Experimentation & Incubation
• Decentralized proving ground for risky ideas, an incubation areato iterate on user content before it makes its way to other platforms.
• Players may even be able to mitigate bad developer design decisions.
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Why UGC? (6/7)Extended Title Life Cycle
• Harness the power of your player-base to help your game never grow old, never die. Significantly lengthen product active lifespan.
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Why UGC? (7/7)FUN!
• A chance to see what talented (& crazy) content creators can build on your game, cementing a deeper two-way bond between developer and players!
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (1/7)
• Technical challenges to implement initial support for UGC & long-term maintenance
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (2/7)
• Reduction of Official Content’s “importance”
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (3/7)
• Potential fracturing of player-base
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (4/7)
• Potential exposure of “magic numbers” and unreleased content
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (5/7)
• Lack of clear end-user support pipeline
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (6/7)
• May increase core game download size, depending on technical implementation
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UGC Drawbacks & Challenges (7/7)
• Potential for inappropriate content
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• A whole “new” ARK level. They can not change the “base” game content, but simply give you a new environment to play within.
Types of UGC in ARK (1/5)
Maps
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Types of UGC in ARK (2/5)
• Additional “sublevels” which can be activated by the end-user to ‘stack’ onto any ARK map
Map Extensions
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• Stackable sets of Items & Creatures, plus some Non-Stackable capabilities such as changing the core game-mode
Types of UGC in ARK (3/5)Mods
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• Capability to replace/modify ANY existing game assets directly, to effectively construct an entirely new game!
Total ConversionsTypes of UGC in ARK (4/5)
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• Upside: tremendous power to the content author and easy “no limitations” modification of all game content.
• Downside: disables ‘seekfree’ content, much slower loading.
Total ConversionsTypes of UGC in ARK (5/5)
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Technical Challenges to UGC inUnreal Engine 4
• Unreal Editor changes to support “Cooking” UGC, & runtime changes to support loading UGC packages
• Shipping stripped-down “Mod” Editor with integrated SteamCMD
• Unreal Engine 4 ‘Blueprint ‘ vs C++
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General Technical Challenges to UGC
• Runtime capability to dynamically download UGC in-game, and on-demand when connecting to Servers
• Updating UGC via SteamCMD when launching Servers – client/server version mismatch headaches
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General Technical Challenges to UGC
• Long-term maintenance problems: all future updates ideally need to be compatible with all existing Mods!
• Large UGC tools download, and ongoing development drain to keep it updated during Early Access
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Results of UGC in ARK
• ARK UGC support planned within weeks of ARK’s Early Access launch on June 2, 2015
• UGC support Released August 15, 2015
Roll-Out
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Results of UGC in ARK
• Encourage & incentivize the most hardcore content creators. Kick the tires & light the fires!
Contests
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Results of UGC in ARK
• Provide a mechanism by which we can support the best Steam mods and incorporatethem across platforms.
“ARK Official Mods Program”
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Results of UGC in ARK
• Competitive “Hunger Games” style arena team combat, Total Conversion.
Official Mod: Survival of the Fittest
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Results of UGC in ARK
• Tolkein-esque high fantasy Map.
Official Mod: The Center
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Results of UGC in ARK
• Total Conversion focusing on primal survival, without modern or sci-fi technology.
Official Mod: Primitive+
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Results of UGC in ARK
We estimate approximately 60% of entire ARK Steam player-base plays on servers running UGC!
Metrics
GlassMetal Mod (618,889 Subs)Annunaki Genesis Mod (437,535 Subs) Valhalla Map (268,702 Subs)
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Results of UGC in ARK
• More power for the Unreal Editor UGC Cooking:
• More game functionality exposed to Mod-able Blueprint/Script.
• Runtime: better client visibility into what Mods a server is running
Future Plans
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UGC Requests to Valve, pretty please!
Direct Paid / Premium UGC:
Would allow top-tier of content authors to make a living from their work, would provide developers even more incentive to build powerful UGC features.
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UGC Requests to Valve, pretty please!
More Workshop Storage Space: Would allow larger, more complex UGC.
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UGC Requests to Valve, pretty please!
UGC Release “Branches”: Would allow authors better capability to manage and QA upcoming builds of their content before releasing to the general public, without having to juggle multiple content ID’s.
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UGC Requests to Valve, pretty please!
SteamCMD Library: Rather than separate command-line tool, a linkable library would make integrating into Unreal Editor UI, or any application, more seamless.
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UGC Requests to Valve, pretty please!
Multi-user “Shared” UGC ownership: Would make it easier for larger-teams to co-manage a UGC, upload builds, maintain the Workshop page, etc.
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UGC and Workshop: The Takeaway• Tremendous commercial upsides to UGC, stronger community &
product.
• Some technical challenges, depending on feature-set.
• Above all: It’s fun! You will wake up every day to find something new within your game. Awww yeah!
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THANK YOU!
ARK UGC: “Pimp My Dino” Mod
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