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Eve Online creator CCP Games announced Thursday that its upcoming survival-centric blockchain game, previously referred to as Project Awakening, will launch as Eve Frontier instead—and that it’s being built within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Eve Frontier, as it has been rebranded, is an on-chain space simulation game that players will be able to mold and expand as they see fit—and they must collaborate or face certain doom, CCP Games founder and CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson told Decrypt’s GG earlier this year.
Alongside the rebranding announcement, CCP Games announced Thursday that Eve Frontier is being built on Ethereum. The game will feature multiple crypto tokens that will be issued with Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard, plus it is developing on Redstone, an Ethereum layer-2 network built on Optimism tech that is primed for on-chain, autonomous game worlds.
An EVE Token will be minted on Ethereum and is described as a “utility token that can be exchanged as a means of external value,” according to an official FAQ, while a LUX Token will be used for in-game transactions.
CCP says players and alliances will also be able to create their own currencies, with tokens used as a way to “reward and support” developers who contribute to the game world.
Eve Frontier is being developed with CCP’s own Carbon game engine, which the studio said it will open source. It also uses MUD, an on-chain game engine developed by Lattice, a core contributor to Redstone. Players and developers can use Ethereum language Solidity to program in-game functionality via smart contracts and link in decentralized apps (dapps).
CCP is calling this model “Smart Assemblies,” with the studio creating the core of the on-chain, sandbox-style universe and then letting the community build as they see fit within.
“Players can construct infrastructure such as storage facilities, trading posts, defenses and more. Think of it as enhanced base-building,” the FAQ explains. “Through each structure having a programmable layer, EVE Frontier allows for greater moddability and player expression on top of each ‘base item.’ Constructing infrastructure and deploying it on the Frontier does not require it to be programmed.”
“For example, a Smart Storage Unit (SSU) is a structure anchored in space, which acts as smart storage, holding and dispensing any form of inventory players choose to load it with (currencies, items etc.),” it continues. “With Smart Assemblies, this structure can be coded to serve as a marketplace, a quest giver, a bounty hunter system, an arcade machine etc.”
Eve Frontier will launch its next closed beta playtest on September 27, according to a tweet thread from Redstone builder Lattice. An official trailer on YouTube also notes that “founder access” is coming soon on PC and Mac.
1/ Get ready to enter the Frontier.
On Sept. 27, EVE Frontier will open to playtesters seeking early entry into a new, harsh, and endlessly explorable space survival game from the minds of @CCPGames.
Want to be an early pioneer? Read more below! https://t.co/TOd0ayfDYl pic.twitter.com/TRJPeRvmLA
— Lattice (@latticexyz) September 12, 2024
CCP raised $40 million in funding for its blockchain ambitions in 2023 in a round led by VC giant Andreessen Horowitz.
“Eve Frontier redefines the survival genre by fusing intense space survival gameplay with the limitless emergent potential of a player-driven, persistent sandbox universe,” said Pétursson, in a statement. “From exploiting space itself to shaping entire economies, every decision ripples across this dark and uncompromising expanse. We welcome you to join us in building this next step in our history; awake eternally.”