Trivia / ARK: Survival Evolved

• All-Star Cast: The Animated Series features a wide array of notable stars, with Madeleine Madden, David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Gerard Butler, and Vin Diesel playing characters originally in Survival Evolved, and Devery Jacobs, Cissy Jones, Deborah Mailman, Zahn McClarnon, Malcolm McDowell, Juliet Mills, Elliot Page, Ragga Ragnars, Alan Tudyk, Karl Urban, Jeffrey Wright, Ron Yuan, Russell Crowe, and Monica Bellucci joining in as a myriad of new characters. ARK 2 would then add Auli'i Cravalho to the mix.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • The Dodorex was originally a fan-made creature which later got added to the game during the Halloween event. It later returned for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
  • "Beach Bob" was the Fan Nickname for new survivors in the game. ARK: The Animated Series would introduce a character played by Karl Urban, a newcomer to the Island named Bob, making him an actual "Beach Bob".
• The Danza: Deborah Mailman voices Deborah Walker, the mother of Helena Walker.
• Dueling Works: Ark: Survival Evolved and Conan Exiles are the two "big budget" entries in the Survival Sandbox genre, both of them having more features and higher production values than most other, more indie-budgeted entries in the genre. Of the two, Conan's systems are more straightforward and focused; you can "finish" Conan Exiles in about the time it would take you to finish The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, whereas playing through Ark's entire story campaign would require you to either use heavily modded settings to speed everything up, or play nothing except Ark for a solid year or two. Ark also has more micromanagement than Conan, as you need to personally feed knocked out dinosaurs to tame them (a process which can take more than 30 real world minutes), while in Conan the process of taming Thralls/Pets is much more automated.
• Fake Nationality: In the animated series, Inuit teenager Alasie is voiced by Canadian Mohawk actress Devery Jacobs.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Survival Evolved's original trailer featured the Dragon in a generic grassy environment being fought by several players. The Dragon was actually the last of the initial three bosses to be implemented, and its fight took place in an arena.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: The Center, Ragnarok, Valguero, and Crystal Isles maps, along with the total conversion Primitive Plus, were fan-made content prior to ARK officially implementing them in the game.
• The Other Darrin: Helena Walker was originally voiced by Amber Lee Connors in the ending of "Extinction", as well as being the voice of HLN-A in "Genesis: Part 1". ARK: The Animated Series would recast her to Madeleine Madden.
  • The Other Marty: To better match up with The Animated Series, Helena's (and by extension, HLN-A's) voiced appearances in "Extinction" and "Genesis: Part 1" were redubbed by Madeleine Madden, who would then be her voice in "Genesis: Part 2", as well as voiceovers added in Survival Ascended for every Dossier.
• Promoted Fanboy: orionsun, creator of the "Structures Plus" mod, was hired by Studio Wildcard to work on ARK: Survival Ascended, with many of the items from the mod now part of the game.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: In the animated series, Helena's wife Victoria is voiced by Elliot Page, who is queer and nonbinary.
• Science Marches On: Although the game stylizes animals extensively, a few concepts that were accurate at time of implementation did get contradicted by later research.
  • The game's portrayal of the giant shark Megalodon, when the animal was put into the game at launch of early access, put the animal in the genus Carcharodon, the same genus as the great white shark. Later studies would move Megalodon to the genus Carcharocles, and then to Otodus, with any similarities with great white sharks being the result of convergent evolution, suggesting Megalodon would have been more robust in real life.
  • Spinosaurus was added into the game's early access around the time of findings in 2014 that highlighted how aquatic it was and stated the animal was quadrupedal. Later papers held this idea under scrutiny, and stated the quadrupedal gait was the result of analyzing multiple specimens of different ages (which meant the animal was bipedal like before the 2014 paper and like other theropods), and while Spinosaurus still remained an animal that hunted near rivers, whether it swam in them or not is still a back-and-forth mystery. The TLC update for Spinosaurus addressed the research by enabling it to alternate between quadrupedal and bipedal movement.
  • Dire wolves were part of the genus Canis, which contained modern wolves and dogs, when they were programmed into the game. Later studies revealed dire wolves aren't as closely related to wolves as previously thought, while still considered canines, they are now believed to have evolved from a different lineage of them, converging on the niche of the modern wolf. As a result, they were moved to the genus Aenocyon, and would look quite different from other wolves.
  • Dinosaurs in ARK were shown with mobile tongues to some extent, most visible when animals like Tyrannosaurus were roaring, back when the game came out of Early Access in 2017. Just a year later, in 2018, a paper discussing the hyoid bones in archosaurs found that non-avian theropods couldn't move their tongues. However, ornithischian lineages likely could still move it, but with weak dexterity on par with a turtle (which doesn't use it in the extensive ways mammals do), though The Animated Series (which was announced in 2020 and released in 2024) would still have scenes featuring a Parasaurolophus licking Helena's face.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Concept art from creature designer Dave Melvin have revealed several animals that were considered for the game at one point or another, including Gigantoraptor, Gorgonops, Platybelodon, Koolasuchus, Cranioceras, and Acrocanthosaurus. Gigantoraptor would eventually be implemented in Survival Ascended on The Center map.
  • A total conversion called ARK: Primal Survival was announced on 2016, where the player would take direct control of animals rather than playing as a human. While the trailer stated it would come in 2016, it was later delayed to 2017 and then proceeded to never come out until the game's announced end of service in 2023, with it being widely agreed to have been Quietly Cancelled.
  • Prior to the introduction of Explorer Notes, Dino Dossiers (which were implemented much earlier in the game's life) were discovered in a different way by the player via their interactions with the animals. Unlocking the Dossier of an untamable animal was done simply killing one for the first time, while taming a tamable animal for the first time would unlock the Dossier of the species the player tames.
  • The first of the initial three Island bosses, Broodmother Lysrix, used to be fightable in the overworld. In fact, prior to the implementation of the other bosses, any of the three obelisks could summon her into the overworld. Once her arena was finished, the boss fight was moved into her arena, cutting her out of the map's overworld. Overworld bosses would not be implemented again officially until the Desert Titan, Forest Titan, and Ice Titan in Extinction.