ARK: Survival Evolved is among the earliest titles to join the Xbox One’s Game Preview program, via ID@Xbox. Its unique blend of crafting, survival, and dinosaur hunting gameplay has been quite a hit.

Games in the preview program are still in mid-development. ARK keenly informs users on its welcoming screen that aspects of the game might be broken, or even suffer from crashes.

Even in its primordial state of development, the time I’ve managed to spend inside ARK: Survival Evolved has been intriguing, even exciting. The game will see many months of development ahead of its planned June 2016 launch date, and here are my thoughts so far.