About
EVE Online is unique in the way that it approaches its player base. The time, energy, effort, and dedication a player must have is immense. To help players handle the scale of the learning curve, CCP Games developed a set of XML and JSON based endpoints to serve as a gateway for players to plan and maintain their characters. When combined with the Fansite Toolkit these API's can be used to mine in-game data and process it to
- Create character management tools
- Build kill leaderboards for every pilot in the game.
- Develop industrial supply chain applications for the production of any item
- Discover market insights while trading items across the universe
- Discover spies within large in-game corporations
- Do pretty much anything else
EVE API is meant to be the backbone of these types of applications and responsible for transforming the information obtained from the game's API endpoints into usable objects. It is intended to be free, distributed, and used with other third party Mac tools developed by the EVE Online player base.
The most widely used and respected tool is called EVEMon and is entirely focused on character management. Players can create skill plans, manage their finances, read "eve-mail", manage their assets, and more for every character they have. Its only downside is being Windows-only. Several attempts to bring an EVEMon-like experience to the Mac have been tried and abandoned over the years.
Development began in 2013 during the period of time when I was playing solely on a Macbook Pro and wanted a tool similar to EVEMon. As the project grew and my interests changed, the motivation for EVE API drastically pivoted towards a tool to give me the edge I needed for trading items on the open market. A Bloomberg Terminal for EVE Online if you will. I had always struggled to earn the in-game money I needed to play the game the way that I wanted so I was dead set on building a industrial and trading empire to become a multi-billionaire.
Sometime during development of the library I found a web-based tool that met my industrial and trading needs that helped me reach my financial goals. By 2015 I had enough in-game curency to pay for five years of my subscripion for two accounts. Because of this my interest in this project waned and I made the tough call to stop app development and game play to pursue other interests.
While it wasn't completed, building this API did help me jump feet-first into product development, research, customer interaction, and app development within the Apple App ecosystem — a great introduction to the skills I’d need as a budding entrepreneur.
I don't play Eve Online anymore, but if I pick it back up in the future I will no doubt try to revitalize this project and get it published!