Since switching from Polygon to the Ronin blockchain in November 2023, social farming game Pixels has seen significant growth, establishing itself as a leading blockchain game throughout 2024.
In a recent interview, CEO Luke Barwikowski discussed the challenges, key lessons, and accomplishments of the past 12 months while setting the company’s direction for the upcoming year.
Barwikowski provided insight into the game’s development and future strategy, with plans for new gameplay features and expansion of the Pixels ecosystem.
Adapting to a growing user base
Barwikowski explained that Pixels has changed significantly over the past year, largely due to its growing user base.
To meet these requirements, Pixels focused on collecting player feedback and incorporating it into game development.
As a result, the team implemented a more structured approach to effectively address community feedback while improving the game’s functionality.
$PIXEL economic management
A key part of Pixels’ work on Ronin was managing the game’s $PIXEL token economy.
The company aims to reach what Barwikowski called “net ecosystem spending.” Here, in-game spending consistently exceeds $PIXEL token distribution. To work toward this goal, Pixels has adopted an iterative update strategy that aims to make adjustments quickly rather than waiting for perfect conditions.
A key aspect of managing this economy is developing a “smart” token distribution system that uses data analytics to allocate rewards. The system prioritizes distributing tokens to players who demonstrate ongoing engagement and are more likely to invest their rewards back into the game.
Although $PIXEL’s price has fluctuated, Barwikowski said the company’s focus remains on building long-term value. Over the past three months, Pixels has reduced daily active wallets to increase stability, while also increasing monthly revenue. The recent Chapter 2.5 update introduced measures to address in-game token inflation, reducing daily inflation by nearly 84% to stabilize the $PIXEL economy.
The revenue of $PIXEL tokens increased from 8.1 million to 9.08 million over the past month. This is due to Pixels’ diversified revenue approach, which focuses on creating sustainable revenue streams for games.
New features and ecosystem expansions planned for 2025
Looking ahead to 2025, Pixels plans to release Chapter 3, adding Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP) features that players have frequently requested.
Pixels is also preparing to expand its ecosystem by allowing players to use a single account across multiple games to continue their achievements and reputation within the Pixels network.
Following the successful event of #BinanceBlockchainWeek2024, which attracted over 230,000 users, Pixels is considering additional large-scale virtual events to increase community engagement. Barwikowski noted that the team remains committed to building new features and expanding the gaming ecosystem over the next year.