Ethereum Game ‘Pixels’ Spawns Play-to-Earn Dungeon Crawler on Ronin

The team behind popular Ethereum farming game Pixels announced Monday that it will publish a new spinoff game called Pixel Dungeons, which serves up dungeon-based combat and lets players earn the same familiar PIXEL token.

The new game, developed in partnership with Crack and Stack, introduces a fast-paced competitive setting where players navigate dangerous dungeons, collect crypto rewards, and battle opponents. Players have two minutes to mine PIXEL tokens, use TNT to defeat goblins, and avoid lava while potentially sabotaging other players to claim their treasures.

Pixel Dungeons represents a new phase for the Pixels team, with its first publishing deal for a game developed at an external studio. The studio behind Pixels also recently soft-launched a Telegram game called Pixels Tap Track, which will eventually offer players PIXEL rewards once fully released.

“Future game launches or acquisitions will align with our mission of leveraging the PIXEL token for monetization and advancing Web3 gaming visibility,” said Pixels founder and CEO Luke Barwikowski, in a statement. “The PIXEL token remains central to everything we build—allowing players to earn and use tokens across an ecosystem of games."

Pixels, which is built on Ethereum sidechain gaming network Ronin, now has some 200,000 “monthly active spenders,” according to Barwikowski. The game handed out 22 million PIXEL in November—about $5 million worth at the current price—with players reinvesting about half that tally back into the game.

The Pixel Dungeons closed beta begins Monday, with tiered access based on players' reputation scores within Pixels itself. Players with a reputation score above 3,000 will have early access to both free and premium maps.