CCP Games has announced the EVE Frontier × Sui Hackathon 2026, running March 11–31, 2026, with an $80,000 USD prize pool. The hackathon theme is ‘Toolkit for Civilization’ and the ask is uniquely open-ended: build anything from practical utilities to unique experiments that help players rebuild, organize, defend, and evolve a shared world.
Best known for EVE Online, CCP’s EVE Frontier is a space survival game where player-built systems and mods can influence a persistent, shared universe that other players can discover, use, and respond to.
Builders can approach the hackathon in two ways. In-world mods run directly on Smart Assemblies inside the game, programming the behavior of structures that other players will encounter. External tools connect to the live universe through an official API, enabling maps, fleet coordination dashboards, analytics services, and more. Submissions can be deployed to the live server during judging.
“EVE Frontier is built on the idea that a virtual world shouldn’t be static,” said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “This is the next step in game modding: where builders aren’t just modding a client or a tool, but modding the server itself in real time. The hackathon is an invitation to explore what happens when modding becomes part of a live universe.”
For registration and full details, see here.
Shroud of Fear
EVE Frontier has now migrated from its independent Ethereum-based testnet to Sui. The migration lands as part of Shroud of Fear, the game’s latest update, which also introduces new gameplay systems across identity, combat and exploration.
Always part of Frontier’s roadmap, Sui says that, ‘The shift to Sui isn’t just an infrastructure change. It’s the moment the game’s programmable layer opens to outside builders for the first time.’
As part of the move, Smart Assemblies, the in-game structures that players can program with custom logic, are now accessible to third-party developers. That means external teams can write code that runs on turrets, stargates, and storage units inside the live universe. Builds don’t stay in a sandbox; they deploy into the shared world where other players can encounter, use and respond to them in real time.
The Shroud of Fear update also brings new ship models, updated combat systems, a redesigned HUD, and expanded base building.
Steve is an award-winning editor and copywriter with more than 20 years’ experience specialising in consumer technology and video games. With a career spanning from the first PlayStation to the latest in VR, he's proud to be a lifelong gamer.
