The crypto gaming space has been gripped by Pixels in recent months, and Decryptâs GG is no exception. Weâve covered the rising player counts since migrating to Ronin, interviewed the founder about its surge, and detailed this weekâs long-awaited PIXEL token launch.
But unlike many gaming projects that enjoy a fleeting moment in the crypto spotlight, thereâs an actual playable game behind the token hypeâand it doesnât require any expensive NFTs to play, and you donât have to beg around Discord servers to gain access. Best of all, it doesnât feel like a dressed-up DeFi experience where the only goal is farming for token rewards.
True, there are token rewards, and there is farmingâbut youâre farming (digital) crops. Pixels is a proper free-to-play game, and itâs a pretty fun one, too.
Iâve been playing the web-based game over the last couple of weeks, poking around as I plant and harvest popberries, bake pies, run errands, explore player-created farms, and talk to a Guy Fieri look-alike named⌠well, Fuy Gieri. Sure.
Pixels feels a lot like a lo-fi, crypto-infused riff on Nintendoâs smash pandemic hit, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Youâll explore the terrain in search of materials and complete simple tasks, craft and build things, amass a little coin, and customize your little plot of land. And if you buy an NFT, you can customize a much bigger plot of land.
Itâs a relatively concise gameplay loop, and while I feel like Iâve only scratched the surface of all the different tasks and creative opportunities on display so far in Pixels, I also feel like Iâve already gotten a strong sense of the scope of the experience. And that wonât be for everyone since it can sometimes feel like rote busywork.
But hereâs the thing: Given that description alone, Pixels probably wouldnât be the type of game Iâd expect to hold my interest for long. I bounced off Animal Crossing repeatedly in the early days of the pandemic, no matter how much I thought I could desperately use a colorful, low-stakes, relatively mindless gaming distraction at the time. I just couldn't get into it.
Whatâs made Pixels appealing to me so far is not the routine of it, but really how alive the shared game world feels. Itâs unclear at this point whether the Ronin network game can sustain the buzz that has driven hundreds of thousands of active players into this retro-style world, but itâs exciting to see loads of little player avatarsâmany based on player-owned NFTsâall sharing the same space and eagerly completing quests.
And thereâs plenty more to come. Founder Luke Barwikowski told Decryptâs GG last week that they have big plans aheadâand furthermore that they like to build in the open and experiment on the fly, evolving the experience as they go. Pixels feels like the place to be right now in crypto gaming, and itâs been neat to see things shift and change already in this world.
There are crypto incentives at play, as certain tasks will offer up occasional PIXEL tokens. But the window to secure a sizable bag of airdropped tokens has passed, and realistically, Pixels doesnât look like itâs going to hand out the kind of outsized crypto rewards that Axie Infinity could reasonably boast during its 2021 play-to-earn heyday.
I connect to the game through my Ronin wallet, but I donât own any PIXEL or in-game NFTs, nor any of the supported NFT profile pictures (PFPs) that yield custom avatars. And I could just as well log in with an email address like any other free-to-play game and get the same kind of core experience, which is a meaningful detail in my eyes. Itâs a game above all.
Should you play Pixels? Absolutelyâyouâve got nothing to lose by giving it a shot. Your mileage may vary in terms of whether it holds your attention, and if you might want to dig deeper into the crypto elements and invest in a premium VIP membership or NFT land plot.
Me? Iâm probably fine just poking around Pixels and soaking in the enthusiasm of other players while maybe earning a PIXEL token here and there. Weâve been waiting for this era of blockchain games to start, where fun comes first and the crypto stuff feels optional.
Itâs poetic, perhaps, that one of the brightest examples yet is a game about farming. Just not that kind of farming.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.