We’ve done a lot in the last year. Lots of experiments and new features. What we tried to figure out in 2025 was how to make play-to-earn sustainable, how to make Web3 gaming unique, and how we can grow a sustainable business model. We haven’t quite cracked this going into 2026, which is why we’re doing all this new stuff and focusing more on the ecosystem. You can start to expect bigger changes and announcements by the end of the month. From 2021 to now, we’ve tried so many different mechanics, game economy, monetization techniques, growth techniques, etc. We still haven’t quite nailed everything, even with constant game improvements.
We have different AMA audiences: Pixels players, NFT, Land and Pet owners, people interested in the token, people who love Web3 gaming, and people who love gaming in general. There are so many perspectives, which is why we want to build a system that benefits as many people as possible. We need to build a game that people like for the love of the game, which is why we’ve iterated so much over time. People want a game they can enjoy while interacting with Web3 components. To make this come together, we need a fun game that will grow with both Web3 and traditional UA, and with a protocol. A successful business is cash-flowing profits by reinvesting in more R&D or giving dividends to investors. The protocol of the ecosystem is more complicated but it needs to think in a way that traditional businesses operate.
We love play-to-earn and still view it as a differentiator between Web3 and Web2 games. Web3 gaming is a subset of a bigger new market forming around real-money gaming, and when we think about the things people like about Web3, it’s because it opens up permissionless secondary markets, there’s ownership, and Pixels is more fun because of the marketplace (e.g., making decisions based on resource management). The next stage of evolution for Pixels is learning unique components inside Web3 gaming that bring the best parts of Web3 gaming, not just to Web3 games but also to currently existing games. The team is still dedicated to making play-to-earn accessible to the world and building a model that actually works. In the coming weeks, expect bigger announcements and changes around these principles.
🍪 New event! Terra Villa Creator Crumb-Trail
We just dropped a new scavenger hunt-style event, and each of these beautiful cookies was drawn by a content creator in our Creator Program! 3 different cookies are being dropped daily for 15 days, and the cookies will stay there so you can hop in and participate any time before the quest closes on January 22nd at 2 PM UTC. Check out the Pixels Post for all the info!
🎨 First-Ever Pixels Content Creator AMA
There are always so many questions about the Content Creator Program, so we’re having an official Creator Program AMA in the main Pixels Discord. If you have any questions or are just curious about learning more, come hang out and have a good time with us!
When: January 12, 2026, at 3 PM UTC
Where: Discord (AMA Channel)
🎉 Catch up on the 2025 fun!
Every year, we do a recap on the year and it’s really fun to go through everything that happened. We did so much in 2025, so be sure to see the massive X thread to catch up on all the fun. Comment your favorite moment if we missed something!
✨ Creator Highlights
Strigidae made a super fun end-of-year reel of some of their streams from 2025!
Questions from the AMA
When animalcare update?
There should be another update in the next couple of weeks. We’re doing one massive update and releasing it in smaller iterations.
Is it possible to make USDC as a reward in Bountyfall instead of $PIXEL? Then increase $PIXEL rewards on Taskboard?
The end goal is solving p2e with real money. Because we have the token and have given out rewards, we have a lot of historical data. Eventually, we want to stop giving liquid $PIXEL and then give out USDC and $vPIXEL as a reward. Our goal is to eventually stop all $PIXEL emissions.
How to fix when didn’t start the quest after chat with Margaret?
A fix has been released or will be released soon. If you’re still having issues, get in contact with support and we will help.
imho building a “crypto game” is a pointless buzzword, 90-95% of any good game is firmly rooted in Web2 mechanics. And that is fine, Web2 game with pay to earn mechanic still sounds awesome.
This is what Stacked will give any product the ability to do, and they will be able to throw in the rewards component using Web3 technology.
I feel like the gameplay in Pixels is really limited after so many years
That’s why we’ve been iterating on business model sustainability so much and why we’ve been trying to experiment with what game mechanics work best. Building a fun game alone is not enough.
It looks like Pixel Dungeons has figured Web3 out by way of gameplay instead of by way of Stacked. Why not hyper focus on gameplay solutions for Web3 instead of repurposed Web2 solutions like Stacked?
Their RORS is about 1, sometimes higher. It’s just a first step for scaling a Web3 game. The lifetime value of the user is zero when you have a RORS of 1, which is when you’re finally not losing any money. What all these games inside of Web3 need to figure out is getting a RORS over 1, then they can do a combination of Web3 native growth and paid advertising. The thing to solve is how to attract users who would like these games when they don’t know about them yet.
You are putting too much of the blame on crypto…the game has its own problems too
Core Pixels could be better in certain aspects, but the reason we’re saying crypto is an issue is because we have the data behind it. When ads mention crypto, it makes the ads much worse and 5 times more expensive. Any mention of rewards or benefits of crypto, they get less expensive. Mentioning crypto hurdles growth long-term.
Removing $PIXEL from the earnings in the core game would mean that the success of the token and the success of the core game are no longer correlated right?
Staking will stick around but it’ll look a little different than before.
But I mean $PIXEL price was like a marketing tool for the core game, would this still be the case?
The issue is that some people understand $PIXEL but most normal people don’t. Not everybody’s going to understand $vPIXEL immediately and some won’t even be interested. An interesting way could be giving more of a bonus for taking $vPIXEL over USDC, but for the people who won’t be interested, it’s still hard to stop that. That’s why we’re thinking of a smart-reward engine like Stacked.
I have not sold any $PIXEL rewards, sort of hurts players like me
When we give rewards to players who don’t hold the token, it hurts players who do hold it. If we give rewards that aren’t profitable, it hurts the ecosystem. If we give out $vPIXEL and rewards in $USD, those could be tools to get people interested without harming the ecosystem. We’ll likely do a blended approach.