Eve Frontier: CCP's Ethereum-based space survival game

Famous game developer CCP Games this week unveiled Eve Frontier, a space survival game set in the Eve Online universe that incorporates blockchain technology.

Originally known as "Project Awakening," Eve Frontier appears to have a lot in common with the larger game Eve Online. But Eve Frontier is more focused on survival elements and will use cryptocurrency and blockchain code to influence and reshape gaming in new ways.

While details are still scarce, with such a well-known development studio behind it, expectations are high that Eve Frontier could become the first true AAA blockchain game. If this sounds like something that piques your interest, here's everything you need to know.

01. What is Eve Frontier? Eve Frontier is an upcoming video game from Icelandic developer CCP Games, the same studio behind the deep, hardcore, long-running online space sim Eve Online. Billed as a space survival sim, the game will see players awakened from hibernation as the last remnants of humanity, dropped into a world where drone swarms roam the surface and survivors fight for limited resources. For players, that means they'll need to cooperate and even craft resources in this world to survive. "At the beginning, the world is like a giant beast waiting to be tamed. It's angry, it's raw, it's evil — and it wants to kill you," said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, founder and CEO of CCP Games, in a March 2024 interview with Decrypt. "The world of Eve Frontier literally wants to kill you."

No gameplay has been shown so far, and we have very limited information about what you'll actually do in the game. But it's safe to say that at some point, or possibly throughout the game, you'll be able to fly a spaceship.

(Translator's Note: Eve Frontier has held three game tests, but due to confidentiality restrictions, players participating in the test cannot reveal the specific content of the game. Interested readers can register to participate in the fourth test, which will be held on September 27. Registration link: http://evefrontier.com)

CCP Games raised $40 million in 2023, led by venture capital giant A16z, to advance its blockchain game plans. Pétursson has been actively involved in the crypto world for many years and even discussed the future of blockchain games with Decrypt in 2020.

02. How is it different from Eve Online?

If you've heard of Eve, it's probably because of Eve Online, the massive space MMO that's been running for over 20 years.

The game is notoriously difficult to get into, and the complexity of the game itself and the extremely loyal community that is still active add to the challenge. Players can participate in a large number of activities, from politics to space wars, capitalism, and even accounting.

However, Eve Frontier and Eve Online are not the same game, but a completely different world. The new game will not be related to the main game in any way, except for sharing the same series name and possible universe background.

There is some speculation that Eve Frontier is intended to be the game that will eventually replace Eve Online, but until we know the game better, there is no way to know for sure whether this will happen.

03. Adoption of Cryptocurrency

CCP has always emphasized in interviews surrounding Eve Frontier that it is a game that applies blockchain technology, but it is not called a "blockchain game." This means that CCP is making a game first, not just an excuse to sell tokens to players.

Of course, there will be some crypto tokens for players to use in Eve Frontier. The Eve token will be a utility token that can be used as a means of external value exchange, and CCP has said it will not restrict transactions outside of the game.

However, the really interesting technology comes from community creation. Eve Frontier will use blockchain technology to give community members the opportunity to develop new experiences and features in the game, even including their own crypto tokens if they wish.

CCP will create a toolset and then let the community continue to develop the game for years to come without the original developers interfering. This will mean that the game will change significantly over time based on the community's creations.

CCP calls its approach to blockchain technology "Smart Assemblies," describing it as features that players can create through smart contracts - contracts that carry decentralized application code - or other integrations in Eve Frontier.

“Players can build infrastructure such as storage facilities, trading posts, defense facilities, and more. Think of it as enhanced base building,” the official FAQ explains. “By making each structure a programmable layer, EVE Frontier allows for greater modifiability and player expression on top of each ‘base item.’ No programming is required to build infrastructure and deploy it in-game.”

“For example, a Smart Storage Unit is a structure anchored in space that acts as smart storage, saving and distributing any form of items (currency, items, etc.) that the player chooses to load,” it continues. "Through intelligent assembly, this structure can be encoded as a market, a task publisher, a bounty hunter system, an arcade game machine, and more." 04. What technology is Eve Frontier built on? All of this technology is carried out on Ethereum, which is significant for a game of this scale. Because there are a lot of expansion networks on Ethereum, many well-known crypto projects are built on Ethereum. The crypto tokens in the game will be issued using the ERC-20 standard, and the game itself is being developed on Redstone, an Ethereum Layer2 network built on Optimism technology designed for autonomous worlds. As for the actual game creation, it will all be carried out on CCP's Carbon engine, and they plan to eventually open source it. There is also a full-chain game engine MUD developed by Lattice, which is developed simultaneously with the Redstone chain.

05. When will Eve Frontier be released?

There is currently no release date or time window for Eve Frontier. However, a new round of testing for the game will begin on September 27, and you can sign up on the official website to gain access.

The game's trailer also says that "founder access" is coming to PC and Mac, but there's no information on what that means or how to get it.