As a developer it becomes difficult to see games in the same way as gamers. The perfect example of this for me is EVE Online - the fantastically technical MMO. I’ve tried to play it many times - and like many others found it difficult to really get into; now this isn’t a criticism of the game, I guess it’s just not my play style. But what I do love is it’s technical magnificence.
I’ve always been fascinated by the 3rd party applications people have made to monitor, estimate, and plan their entire progress in the game. The very fact there has been such a direct link between online and offline play goes to show how well structured (you’d hope) the game is.
I won’t lie, I’ve been out of the loop for some time but recently saw a trailer for an expansion coming Spring 2016; EVE Citadel. So I found my account, logged in and flew around a bit (trying to remember where I left off) and then logged out again. It’s just not me. So instead I started looking at the updates CCP have made to the game since I’ve been away and began reading about the new CREST API.
CREST API
There’s not a whole lot of information out there, but the CREST API is essentially a direct link to the game’s server, Tranquility, allowing much more up to date information requests.
Most details come from the Third Party Developer Blog, and the EVE Wiki:
The Carbon RESTful (CREST) HTTP API is a read and write API to the EVE Universe game cluster. It gives the ability to interact with the cluster in a scalable way from clients/applications other than the EVE game.
The API returns JSON strings based on the requested endpoint. In the past 3rd party applications relied on 3rd party APIs to request data and these are often only updated at certain times of the day. With the ability to request data directly from the game server, the CREST API offers new opportunities for 3rd party developers.