Studio Wildcard doesn’t want to rush things, and rightly so. It’s important not to mess up since that could spell the end for the studio.

WCCFTech conducted an extensive interview with Jeremy Stieglitz, who is the co-founder, co-creative director, lead designer, programmer, and development director at Wildcard. (That’s a lot of titles for one person!) They touched on several topics, including the challenges of ongoing development for the studio.

“It’s a combination of specific things, but the point is you just stick with it over time. It comes down to addressing people’s concerns, which boil down to three main categories. Ultimately, addressing these concerns takes time, effort, and consistency. You need perseverance to deliver on these tracks.” These tracks boil down to people’s main concerns early on: lack of content, poor performance, and lack of genuinely new content. Despite skepticism around upgrading Ark: Survival Evolved, the core question remains: “What’s new here that’s going to interest me if I’ve already played the prior game?”, Stieglitz said.

The interview also touched on modernizing old content. “Over the last two years, we’ve made great strides in each of those areas. Have we done everything we want to do in any of those three areas? No. We haven’t upgraded and refreshed all the legacy content yet. We still have several maps, expansion packs, and creatures to go.” He emphasized that these are not simple ports, but full reworks with new art, refined level design, and added content.

Regarding new content, Stieglitz explained that a brand-new canonical story expansion is in development, larger in many ways than Genesis 2, featuring more creatures, items, a bigger map, and more story. He also highlighted the Bob’s Tall Tales mini-expansions, which introduced trains, airships, and customizable vehicles across three themed updates.

On a potential Nintendo Switch 2 version, Stieglitz said: “It would not be a segmented, diluted, or isolated version.” He acknowledged the shortcomings of the original Switch release and stated that DLSS works well, but frame generation is currently not supported on Switch 2. Intel plans to push Nvidia for clearer answers in the new year.

The game is coming along, but patience is still required.

Source: WCCFTech