Family-friendly PixArk is a smart remix of Ark: Survival Evolved

Of all of the survival sim games that I’ve tried, I found Ark: Survival Evolved among the most complicated and unforgiving. You would think developer Snail Games would want to tone down those elements for its family-friendly PixArk adaptation, but it didn’t — and I think that’s why it works.

PixArk is a voxel-based take on Ark that is available now for $25 on Steam’s Early Access portal for unfinished games. It combines the mechanics and systems of Studio Wildcard’s intense dinosaur survival sim with the visual style of Minecraft. This enables a broader audience to come in and try PixArk because proper Ark goes for a photorealistic look that makes everything feel more violent. But while the blocky graphics give PixArk access to younger players, it’s Ark’s deep crafting system and animal-husbandry system that should win kids over.