Main Takeaways
- CCP Games, the studio behind EVE Online, is hosting the EVE Frontier × Sui Hackathon 2026 (March 11–31) with an $80,000 prize pool for those creating mods and tools for its space survival universe, EVE Frontier.
- Builders can approach projects in two ways: create in-world mods for structures and items, or build external tools (maps, fleet coordination, analytics) that use the official API to react to live universe data.
- Submissions can be deployed into the live universe for players to use during judging, with community voting playing a meaningful role in selecting winners.
Overview
CCP Games has announced the EVE Frontier × Sui Hackathon 2026, running March 11–31, 2026, with an $80,000 USD prize pool.
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.
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. “EVE Frontier is designed to be built by players, not just played by them,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, Chief Product Officer at Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui.
“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.”
EVE Frontier and Sui
EVE Frontier is CCP Games’s upcoming online space survival game set in a persistent universe where players don’t just compete in the world, they shape how it works.
EVE Frontier leverages Sui to support a persistent universe shaped by player-built systems. Sui powers Smart Assemblies and helps anchor ownership and game state onchain, while also enabling smoother onboarding patterns like zkLogin and gasless interactions through Sponsored Transactions.
Unlike traditional modding, where changes live on a client or a separate server, EVE Frontier is designed around a world that can be extended over time by its community. Players can create systems that stay active, can be expanded by others, and continue to affect the shared universe as the game evolves.
“Our goal is to provide the infrastructure to build ‘forever games,’ moddable worlds that can keep evolving,” said Adeniyi Abiodun. “While EVE and Sui provide the foundation, it’s the builders who drive innovation. I speak for both CCP and Mysten Labs when I say we can’t wait to see what participants in this hackathon will create.”
What you can build
For the hackathon, most submissions will fall into one of two buckets: in-world mods that run on programmable in-game structures, or external tools that plug into the same live universe through an official API.
In-world mods that run on Smart Assemblies. Smart Assemblies are player-built structures inside EVE Frontier (like turrets, gates, and storage). Mods can be installed on these structures to customize how they behave, adding rules, automation, or interactive functionality that persists in the shared universe. Because the mod is attached to an in-world object, other players can encounter it and engage with the structure through normal gameplay, including defending or destroying it.
External apps connected to a live universe. Builders can also create external applications that connect to EVE Frontier through an official API. These tools can read and react to live game data in real time, enabling experiences like maps, dashboards, coordination platforms, and analytics services.
What makes this different
Most modding ecosystems stop at the client or live on isolated servers. EVE Frontier is built around a live universe designed to be extended, where player-created systems can remain active over time and shape how the world behaves. Because these systems live inside the shared game world, other players can encounter them through normal gameplay.
With “Toolkit for Civilization” as the theme, the scope is intentionally wide. Submissions can also be deployed into the live server, where players can use them as part of the judging process, with community vote playing a meaningful role in selecting winners.
Join the hackathon
This is an invitation to build for a live, moddable universe, where creations can persist, spread, and shape real gameplay. If you’re ready to experiment in that environment, join the EVE Frontier × Sui Hackathon this March.
The hackathon is open globally to individuals and teams of up to five participants. Full details on registration, timelines, submission requirements, and modding resources are available at: http://deepsurge.xyz/evefrontier2026
