“Our goal is to provide an MMORPG-style experience”: Pixels founder talks about Chapter 2

The Ronin-based game Pixels is preparing for its Chapter 2, which will introduce several changes to the game. According to a recent report from data aggregator DappRadar, Pixels recorded 22.3 million unique active users in May, making Ronin the largest gaming blockchain based on daily active wallets in the same period.

Luke Barwikowski, founder of Pixels, shared with crypto Briefing what Chapter 2 aims to achieve and what's next for the main Ronin title.

crypto Briefing: What are Pixels aiming to achieve with the new mechanics that will be introduced in Chapter 2?

Luke Barwikowski – I think we're making a couple hundred changes to the game. So it's a really big update compared to what we've done before. And much of the focus is on systems changes. So the way the game plays out on a day to day basis is really like a completely different game. The intention behind this was basically to make the game more like an MMO, where progression, skill levels, getting better types of resources, better types of tools, and all that matters a lot more.

It shouldn't be too unfamiliar for most of the games you play when it comes to Ragnarok Online, Runescape, or any normal MMO. So one of the big changes around that is that we've combined some of the skill levels, we've added hundreds of new industries and they're all tiered.

So now you have to level up. We've created a new single-player experience, so your daily experience on your farm is much more important within the game. They can be made larger, you can upgrade them, and you can put new types of resource generators on them. You have to go and collect new tools.

Basically, the game makes a lot more sense than before. We love the whole game. Many people do it too. This is a completely different game when it comes to the systems we are launching. Playtesting so far has been quite positive. We like the reactions, but yeah, tons of changes.

crypto Briefing: You mentioned that the goal is to turn Pixels into a more MMO-based experience. However, recent MMORPGs have had a difficult time maintaining their player bases. Doesn't that scare you?

Luke Barwikowski – That doesn't worry me too much. One of the biggest things we're changing is how we structure in-game rewards. Our ultimate goal and what we want to do is to give more rewards to real users who have progressed further in the game, so it was quite necessary to implement progression if we wanted to achieve this.

What that means is that there should be more incentives within the game to level up, work, and do all the things you want to do. The things that people have already been doing within the game. And now they will get more direct rewards for that. Or at least that is the goal and what we are trying to achieve.

We have a competitive advantage over regular MMOs because we play to win. It's a little different than a typical MMO. The model we're thinking about is more of a free-to-play game, so it's free to play and make money, right?

We are trying to build a new business model and a new user acquisition model. That's the core of what we're building here. But the gameplay, the fun aspect, all of this is essential. This is the most important part. But behind the scenes, we're trying to develop competitive advantages that basically make it difficult for a Web2 game to compete with us in the long run. So we are trying to address this side of things.

crypto Briefing: Game studios building with Ronin highly praise its ecosystem and how easy it is to connect games. Are you planning more collaborations with other Ronin-based games?

Luke Barwikowski: We have interoperability of our masks, which is extremely popular. It's become so popular that there are new skin communities and new nft avatar communities forming just from Pixels players, which is cool to see.

We've gotten to the point where there are communities here that form their own Web3 communities. But also when it comes to interoperability with other ecosystems, we have some interesting things planned in that regard. I can't filter any of that, but we want to work with the biggest Web3 games out there. And it's interesting because we have a pretty strong position now when it comes to partnerships and most people want to work with us, which is great.

Some teams are willing to experiment with some new and interesting things, so you'll see some things in the next month or two. I don't want to spoil the details, but these are some of the great Web3 games you know and have heard of. And our goal when we think about interoperability is that we want something creative, we want something that catches attention, and we want something really interesting.

What I don't like is the cross-promotions that are done, like “get this nft and then maybe you'll get an airdrop.” We don't like the normal Web3 meta. What we're trying to do at Pixels is establish a new, attention-grabbing meta, and that's cool, it's something unique.

crypto Briefing: By other ecosystems, do you mean other networks or other blockchains? Are you planning to migrate from Ronin?

Luke Barwikowski – I'm more interested in other applications. And then there are one or two ecosystems that we are experimenting with, but we are very loyal to Ronin. I'm so grateful for what Team Ronin has done, it's been an incredible symbiotic relationship between the two of us. The better Ronan does, the better we will do. The better we do, the better Ronan will do. Basically, that's the type of relationship I'm looking for with any partner.

I love win-win scenarios. I love things that help us both grow. And there is also an alignment of incentives between the two. Now we're in this position where we have great exposure to a decent-sized audience that we can bring to the Web2 people, where there's some pretty interesting added value with them. We've been talking to some brands, celebrities, things like that. We could do some fun things. One of the models that I draw a lot of inspiration from is the Call of Duty model, where they bring celebrities like 21 Savage or Nicki Minaj and make a skin with them. We could try to do something like that here and there too.

Leaving Ronin, there is no reason for us to move. I love that team. We get a lot of value from just being with that team, and I'm aligned with that team's values ​​as well. I think I respect the founders of Sky Mavis and Axie Infinity a lot, and I'm very grateful to have them on my side.

So I don't want to ruin anything about that relationship. One thing that people have been asking about a lot is the Pixels chain. Would we ever do that? And I'll close it now. I don't think it's something we're interested in at all. What I'm most focused on at Pixels is that we have a huge opportunity in front of us to build a great gaming company.

I don't want to distract the team from anything else and I think there are enough blockchains out there. What I care about now is building on top of the application layer and expanding it. That's where the real opportunity lies. It's hard. It's not easy to do, but we want to do hard things.

We want to go build and innovate. It's more fun to move beyond that side of things right now than to do something like a node sale or launch another blockchain. So, yes, you will see us innovating there.