Ben Burkart

Senior Level Designer at Studio Wildcard :Ark1/2, Atlas, Guardians of Valor, Dungeon Defenders 1/2, Damnation, Chivalry, Toxikk, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

https://t.co/E9WPP384Ay #UnrealEngine #UnrealEngine5 Finally finished this scene up! I have been wanting to remake the valley I grew up at since I was 12, UE5 = Amazing ❤️

[ARK: Survival Ascended @survivetheark]

🛠️The DevKit has been updated with the latest content from ARK: Lost Colony!

Modders can jump in now and start exploring what’s new.

https://t.co/mijtTwjWSK

[ARK: Survival Ascended @survivetheark]

❄️ ARK: Lost Colony is now live, so get ready join the fight for Arat Prime!

🩸 Will you cling to your humanity, or will you undergo the Turning to become the monster this place demands you to be?
https://t.co/pjG753U1hW

[ARK: Survival Ascended @survivetheark]

Community Crunch 487: Get Your Gloon On! 👀

https://t.co/gFdR8uPDH8

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

Been working with @Grok to create this cool gravity/metaball simulation. It's amazing to me that I was able to throw something like this together as somebody with no programming abilities. Every one of the up to 100,000 particles have an attracting gravity to all similar colored particles, repelling gravity to all different colored particles. Similar colors also repel each other at close range, which mixed with a density based glow cause particles to react and ripple in a fluid like manner. You can check it out if you are interested here - https://t.co/kHMlr7E0we

[ARK: Survival Ascended @survivetheark]

💥 Extinction Ascended and Bob's Tall Tales: Wasteland War are on the horizon. 💥

Check out the trailer now!
https://t.co/pVUHdBXQ4I

[Secret Level @SecretLevelonPV]

3...2...1...Go! Enter un2341 70u2n4m3n7 @ https://t.co/7bjJpufMyM #SecretLevel #UE5 #UnrealEngine @UnrealEngine

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@Nekatus Awesome to hear :)

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

The old Boss arena had some major design flaws I wanted to address, it was about 4X larger than it needed to be with at least half of it never being used. Old design also allowed for players to easily cheese the bosses or fight one at a time. Also as much as I LOVED the old asian village up there it was filled with a tooonnn of unique assets that would have required a considerable amount of artists time to upgrade. I went with the giant water floor just because I thought it would be cool to have giant epic boss battles with all of the new water interaction and UE5 reflections, also just equals good clean gameplay space. Giant kong temple fit the theme I had been going with in old Center map and had a good strong silhouette from anywhere in the map. Also allowed for epic views out of the arena into the world which was important to me ❤️

[ARK: Survival Ascended @survivetheark]

ARK Fantastic Tames - Pyromane and The Center Ascended are live on all platforms!

https://t.co/NbKLkSaA7R

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

It's definitely a bit surreal! I do miss doing those streams, it was always fun sharing what's going into the game and getting the feedback from people during them too was fun. The burnt trees on lava island giving charcoal when harvested for instance was a cool idea somebody gave during one of those streams that made it into the game. Feels like that was a loooong time ago now :D

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

With "The Center" coming out soon I wanted to take a quick trip down memory lane! The original map was so unbelievably rushed it is really a miracle it ever came out. Most people know the map is a bit janky and under polished but most probably don't realize the initial release of the map contained the full central jungle locations, ruins, rivers etc.. after only 2 weeks of work, 1 week after that lava biome was released, 1 week after that all of grasslands and snowy biomes released, 1 week after that the floating island and all swamps released, 1 week after that all oceans and rivers released, one week after all caves on the map were released. This is for all gameplay implementation, level design work, lighting, level scripting, spawners, asset creation/editing, community feedback/bugs etc... On top of this everything in the map was designed to be way over the top in practically every way, a combination of these things basically lead to a very under polished map.

When the map went official the team at WildCard jumped on to help bring it up to technical standard, get it ready for console shipping, under memory/performance etc, bug passes and some light polish, but it never got a full "everyone jump on and make this level the best it can be" pass that the later official mod maps got. So it sort of remained in a level of jank and lower polish than the other maps.

And now we are coming to the ASA release 8 years later and players will finally be able to not only play on a version of the map that's not jank, but also find a map that is so much more than what the original ever was. Everyone at WildCard gave the map the love it needed and much much more! Excited about release :)

[ARK: Survival Ascended @survivetheark]

Community Crunch 412: Server Transfers, Mods Spotlight, and More!

https://t.co/hghxGorhJ2

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@Graybeardsftw12 Absolutely! Wouldn't be The Center without them!

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@Short_Angy_Man Can't give any details, but to say that some areas got a "Glow Up" is an understatement 😄

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@TynanSylvester Those original CBP packs were amazing! I used to idolize all the mappers of those packs in my early years, set the bar high ❤️

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@Catray76 Excited to see it released as well! Always glad to hear people still remember those days, think it's been 7-8 years since I streamed work on the center.♥️

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

https://t.co/E9WPP384Ay #UnrealEngine #UnrealEngine5 Finally finished this scene up! I have been wanting to remake the valley I grew up at since I was 12, UE5 = Amazing ❤️

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@Raasclark ♥️

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@therealcliffyb Just learned from watching this that Dave Carter passed away. I used to sit and watch him play Robotron 2084 for hours when I worked with him at Gearbox back in 07. Was a super chill dude. Sad to hear he is gone!

[CurseForge @CurseForge]

Calling all @survivetheark modders 🦖

We're excited to announce the ARKathon mod contest for ARK: Survival Ascended!
🏆 $350,000 in rewards
➡️ 2 unique tracks - modders and game studios
📅 Starting December 5
⚙️ Ready your devkits!

Learn more at: https://t.co/5XbhkW06yj

[Ben Burkart @evilmrfrank]

@Raasclark There is anotha brotha!