Two of the most interesting aspects of early access space survival MMO EVE Frontier always seemed to exist in opposition to me: Its striking, deliberately crafted vision of a dark future, and its uniquely freeform modding ecosystem. How are you supposed to get in the mood of the former if you’re at risk of stumbling across somebody’s particularly anarchic or memey mod?
When I spoke to some of Frontier’s dev team at this year’s EVE Fanfest, they had a surprising answer: It’s no big thing, that’s just what the inhabitants of Frontier’s galaxy are getting up to, god help them.
“I don’t want to say this is a problem, but this is an evergreen challenge, an evergreen balance to maintain,” said Frontier creative director Pavlo Savchuk. “We’re really careful about balancing how much we’re revealing to them, so that they have enough for role playing, for third party development, and so that they have strong anchors to art direct themselves, which is working surprisingly well.”
According to Savchuk, many modders have already gravitated toward Frontier’s design language of their own accord, picking fonts, colors, and UI elements that compliment the ones already in the game. And when push comes to shove, the team’s priority is making sure Frontier’s fiction encourages player expression, rather than disciplining that player base to fall in line with a set tone or aesthetic.