This is a bi-weekly contest where modders are given the opportunity to share knowledge and increase the skill level and understanding of mod authors that are new or trying to acquire new skills. Every month I will post a new contest topic and mod authors will have until the end of the month to make a tutorial for it. Tutorials can be in either text or video format, but the restrictions will vary by contest so make sure to read up on each new one for the guidelines.
The winners are announced approximately one week after a contest ends. (A specific date for winner announcement will come with each topic)
Prizes
The winning submission will receive $400 and $200 for possible runner-up submissions.
Winnings will be delivered via PayPal.
Judging
Submissions are judged based on accuracy, accessibility, clarity of information, and creativity within the theme. Post-entry corrections to tutorials are allowed, just make sure to inform me that you made a correction so that I can re-evaluate for judging if necessary.
Submission
To submit to a contest simply send your submissions to joshua@studiowildcard.com and make sure to put “ARK Modding Tutorial Contest Submission” as the subject.
I am excited to see the community share knowledge and look forward to everyone’s submissions!
EDIT: As of May 2nd the contest submission duration was extended to a full month and the awards were doubled!
I would like to announce the first ARK Modding Tutorial contest.
The topic of this first contest is the addition of new creatures; more specifically, a pipeline from start to finished product. The ideal tutorial for this contest focuses on starting from the creation of assets to linking them up in the ARK Dev Kit. The objective is not to include how to use the separate tools; but rather, how to find them, set any output settings that are necessary for ARK assets, link their outputs, and put together a final unique creature. There is no restriction on what tools are part of the pipeline (Aside from the ARK Dev Kit, that has to be part of the process
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), but a pipeline that is accessible to a broader audience is preferred.
Give the audience a top-down view of the terms and guidelines they need to do more in-depth research as they progress from start to finish. The tutorial should not assume that the viewer knows the involved tools or systems beyond the minimal creation of a barebones mod in the ARK Dev Kit (do not expand the tutorial to include them, but include references to information so that they can learn more).
Contest Guidelines
Topic:
The creation of new unique creatures.
General pipeline focus.
Include references for further research on specific steps.
e.g. If Blender is part of the pipeline, cover the steps and settings for export from Blender and include references to where the user can learn more, but don’t teach the viewer how to use Blender.
We’re going to be scaling back the scope of the second contest and do something a bit more fun and freeform!
The topic this time is to make materials that react to the time of day in ARK.
You can use creatures or structures and you can get creative with your style, but show the viewer how to do it and how the final product looks! I expect that most of the process should be in material graphs but feel free to add more details from blueprinting if it makes the final product even more interesting.
Contest Guidelines
Topic:
Making materials that react to the time of day in game.
I know we’re a day late, but in the spirit of April Fools Day, this contest is devoted entirely to wacky and ridiculous buffs!
Create a buff that does something zany, crazy, and hilarious. Then show us how you did it
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Please note that I am looking for FUN concepts. Malicious practical jokes that do things like crashing the client or that to irreparable damage to the player will not be accepted.
May 4th is Space day, the goal of which is to promote science, math, and technology. This sounds like a perfect opportunity for Ark Modders, not only do we have a game that revolves around the science fiction AND dinosaurs, but we do these things every day just because we love it.
So let’s make some prop tutorials for Space Day
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These can be simple decorations or in-depth contraptions. These can be virtually anything that you think would get people interested in the sciences. Aim for the stars and Inspire!
There are numerous genius thoughts and ideas and methods that people come up with that I could never anticipate or fit into a theme. So occasionally we’ll do a freestyle contest like this!
Freestyle means you can submit any tutorial you like. Remember, all those features or ideas that you came up with while working on your mods and thought, “Oh wow! This is super useful, I need to make a tutorial on this at some point!”, but never quite got around to it?
Well, this is the opportunity to throw those hats into the contest.
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It’s beach season! Time to get buried in the sand and try not to feed the megalodons. The theme for this contest, you might have guessed, is Beach and Ocean stuff.
Whether it’s making the oceans feel more alive, throwing in some summertime minigames, or cooking up some sweet swimsuits; this is the season for it.
Modding tutorial contests have been discontinued in favor of the Tutorial Bounty system. The tutorial contests may still be held in the future for special occasions.
