In Brief:
- Building on what it learned from EVE Online, Fenris Creations is working on EVE Frontier (official site), a space survival title with blockchain features.
- Real-world economics are part of the design, so players can trade in-game assets for actual value.
- CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson stresses the need for balance in agency and points to strategic gameplay driven by resource management.
Fenris Creations builds EVE Frontier on the foundations of EVE Online
Fenris Creations is well into development on EVE Frontier, its new space survival game, and is drawing on more than twenty years of running EVE Online. Work on the project began in 2021, and the game will use blockchain technology so that real-world transactions are possible.
CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson says the key is understanding how players interact. He recalled a conversation from early 2017 with Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google DeepMind, to illustrate how AI in gaming has evolved and how EVE Online works as a proving ground for AI agents. In Pétursson’s view, the game is a place where agents can build up traits such as long-term memory and resistance to manipulation.
“EVE is probably the best approximation to test and train agent properties in the broad topic of alignment other than doing it in the real world,” he said. He explained that the game rewards trust and honesty, and that those values come from players depending on each other rather than from a morality system imposed by the developers.
Transition to EVE Frontier
With EVE Frontier, Fenris wants to fix problems it ran into with EVE Online, especially real-money trading. EVE Online bans the practice. EVE Frontier will instead support it, letting players buy and sell in-game assets that carry real-world value. The goal is to build these economic elements into the core of the game’s ecosystem.
Pétursson explained that in EVE Frontier, every action will use up in-game resources, namely fuel. “If people can multiply themselves endlessly, with no cost to them, then obviously they would run amok,” he said. The fuel system is meant to push players toward forming alliances and building skills instead of simply opening multiple accounts.
Unique gameplay experiences
EVE Online is known for its intricate social structures. EVE Frontier takes a different approach, putting the focus on precise navigation and resource management inside a high-fidelity physics environment. Players will need to steer their ships skillfully through spatial obstacles and use natural features as cover from enemies and environmental hazards.
Pétursson admitted that even advanced AI systems have a hard time beating human players in these complex situations. He added that this could change as the technology improves.
EVE Frontier is now entering its seventh three-month testing phase. When the phase ends, the universe will reset and a new version of the game will follow. Moving from the Sui testnet to mainnet is still a major milestone as the team keeps refining the gameplay mechanics.
“Only then will we see how well Fenris has distilled its learnings from EVE Online into a game that allows AI agents to expand what players can do while remaining subject to the costs and constraints that sustain the game’s economy,” Pétursson said.
Anyone curious can try EVE Frontier with a free trial right now, and permanent Founders Access starts at $40.