G R I F F I N

If you've ever spent time with free-to-play games, you know exactly how it goes. You start off with excitement, eager to explore an open world that promises hours of gameplay with no upfront costs. The rewards come easily, and the grind isn’t too bad at first. You’re hooked. Time passes quickly, and you think This is great! I can keep playing like this without spending a dime

But then, just when you’ve sunk in a good amount of time, something changes. The progress starts to slow. The rewards that once felt abundant are now hard to come by. And before you know it, you’re facing a wall—a wall that only a purchase or two can help you break through. It's the classic trap of free-to-play games. Play long enough, and you'll hit that point where the game no longer feels like it’s rewarding you the way it did at first. Either keep grinding or open your wallet. That’s the choice most games offer.

Pixels takes a different route. Unlike many free-to-play games that push you toward premium purchases to advance, Pixels offers something subtler. At first, the game feels like it follows the familiar script: Coins, the primary in-game currency, flow freely. You grind, you progress, and everything feels self-contained. You don’t need to spend money to get by. But as you spend more time with the game, you begin to notice something. It’s hard to put your finger on it at first, but after a while, you realize that the effort you're putting in doesn’t always feel as rewarding as the time you're investing. There’s a slight disconnect, a feeling that your progress isn’t quite matching the effort you’re putting forth.

This is where PIXEL, the game’s premium currency, comes into play. Unlike typical dual-currency systems, where the premium currency is constantly pushed in your face, Pixels introduces $PIXEL quietly, almost stealthily. It’s not a constant presence in the game, but it pops up in specific places—like when you mint new assets, upgrade special features, or engage in guild activities. While Coins help you progress moment-to-moment, $PIXEL is tied to lasting progression. It's a currency that anchors your progress in ways that Coins simply can’t.

Coins are the currency of now—they’re the ones you use to buy items and advance through basic tasks. You earn them constantly, spend them without much thought, and everything moves in a steady rhythm. But once spent, they disappear. They don’t leave a lasting impact on the game world or your experience. They serve the moment, but that’s all.

PIXEL, on the other hand, is for the long haul. You don’t need it to get by, and that’s the key difference. Pixels doesn’t shove it down your throat, demanding you use it every chance you get. Instead, it’s available when you need it—when you want to secure long-term progress. It’s a tool for building something that lasts, rather than something fleeting. And this is where the game’s design shines. It gives you the freedom to decide when and how to engage with PIXEL, letting you build value at your own pace. It’s a subtle shift from the usual pay-to-progress model most free-to-play games use.

The brilliance of Pixels lies in its ability to let you keep playing without ever forcing you to interact with $PIXEL . It doesn’t interrupt the flow of the game with constant reminders or push notifications. You can play for hours, engaging in the usual Coin-based activities, without even noticing that PIXEL exists. But here’s the twist: if you do choose to engage with PIXEL, you start to see the difference. Players who use PIXEL strategically begin to experience a different level of progression. Their upgrades are more permanent. Their assets don’t reset. They’re building something that lasts beyond the immediate grind.

It’s a game of layers, where PIXEL represents a deeper layer of the game’s economy. Those who dip into it occasionally find themselves making progress that others who stay within the Coin loop can’t. It’s not about speeding up progress; it’s about making choices that have a lasting impact on how the game unfolds. The system isn’t about pay-to-win—it’s about pay-to-earn value that sticks.

But this doesn’t come without its risks. If PIXEL doesn’t grow alongside the rest of the game, if the parts of the game that require it don’t scale properly, then it could become an underused feature. Players who stick to the Coin economy might feel like they’re missing out, while those who engage with PIXEL could experience an imbalance in how they progress. As new content and features are added to the game, there’s a danger that $PIXEL might get left behind. If only a small subset of the game relies on $PIXEL , it might start to feel disconnected from the rest of the gameplay loop, and players could lose interest in it.

The challenge here is that PIXEL isn’t meant to be front-and-center. It’s not trying to be a constant motivator or a reminder to spend. Instead, it’s a subtle part of the game’s architecture, meant to reward those who choose to engage with it. If the game continues to evolve and the content tied to PIXEL grows, then it could become an essential part of the game’s structure—a currency that serves not just as a means of progress, but as a way of building a deeper connection to the game world. It could become a tool that links different systems together, offering players a sense of ownership and long-term engagement.

And here’s where Pixels really stands apart: is it truly a free game? On the surface, yes. You can play and enjoy the game without spending a dime. But dig a little deeper, and you realize that the game isn’t as free as it first appears. PIXEL represents the game’s deeper economy—the part that rewards long-term investment, strategic thinking, and deeper engagement. It’s not a paywall, but it’s a layer of value that some players will choose to engage with, while others might not. It’s the difference between playing for the moment and playing for the future.

What Pixels ultimately offers isn’t a game where money is required to win—it’s a game where money can help you build something lasting. It’s a new kind of free-to-play game, one that doesn’t demand you pay to progress, but still offers rewards for those who engage with its deeper layers. It’s a more evolved take on the genre, offering freedom without sacrificing the idea of meaningful progression.

At the end of the day, Pixels is about making choices—how you want to engage with the game, what kind of progress you want to make, and whether or not you see value in building something that lasts. It’s a game that invites you to play smarter, to think strategically, and to invest in a deeper kind of progression. And maybe that’s exactly the kind of free-to-play game the industry needs more of.

#pixel @Pixels $PIXEL

When we first started digging into the issue of player churn at Pixels, it seemed pretty simple: players stop logging in. And if they’re not logging in, they’re gone, right? But after spending time really examining the data and talking with the team, we realized that churn wasn’t a sudden drop-off, as we thought. It’s more like a slow fade. Players don’t just vanish overnight—they slowly slip away. And this gradual process is exactly where we’ve found the biggest opportunity to intervene before they completely disengage.

At first, our approach was straightforward. We looked at when players last logged in, and if there was a gap of a few days, we considered them churned. But what we missed by focusing on that was the fact that many players were still logging in, but their behavior had changed. They might use energy, but they weren’t completing quests. The excitement that they once had was starting to fade, even though they hadn’t stopped playing altogether. It was this slow decline that we weren’t catching in time.

The real turning point for us came when we stopped thinking of churn as one event—the moment when a player stops logging in—and started thinking of it as a journey. We began tracking players over their first 30 days in the game, really paying attention to how they engaged with the content and how their activity shifted over time. We found something surprising: the first 30 days are like a trailer for a player’s future in the game. By Day 30, we had a pretty solid idea of who would stick around and who would likely fade away. And more importantly, we could see the subtle signs of disengagement long before they actually left.

We quickly realized that churn wasn’t about the game being bad—it was about the rewards. For some players, especially the whales who spend a lot of time and money, progress can get stalled, and the rewards they get just don’t feel meaningful anymore. For others, particularly casual players, it’s less about the rewards and more about confusion. They aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do or where they’re supposed to go. The game doesn’t clearly communicate what’s next for them.

This discovery shifted our whole perspective. We were treating churn like a problem that needed to be solved with bigger events, more content, and better bonuses. But that wasn’t the solution. More stuff didn’t make players stay—it was about making sure the stuff they were getting actually resonated with them. Players weren’t disengaging because they had too little to do; they were disengaging because the game didn’t give them the right things in the right moments.

That’s when we started implementing the Stacked approach, which has become a game-changer for us. Instead of just watching the last login date, we began looking for early signs of disengagement. It’s not about waiting for a player to disappear entirely—it’s about spotting those early dips in activity and addressing them before the player fully drops off. We could predict when a player was starting to lose interest and intervene long before they churned.

The system we built operates in a pretty straightforward way. First, we track a player’s journey from Day 1 to Day 30, monitoring their engagement levels closely. From there, we segment players into different groups—whales, casuals, and everyone in between. Each group has different needs and different reasons for leaving. The whales need more meaningful rewards, while casual players need clearer guidance on what to do next. Once we’ve identified the warning signs—when a player starts to disengage, even if it’s just a slight dip—we can run small, targeted campaigns to re-engage them. These aren’t huge overhauls of the game; they’re little changes that can make a big difference when they’re aimed at the right players.

We’ve learned that the metrics that matter most aren’t the ones that simply count logins. It’s about retention—are players coming back after we make adjustments? And it’s about engagement—are they interacting with the game in meaningful ways, not just logging in for a few minutes and leaving? We also pay close attention to progression speed—if a player is stuck or feels like progress is too slow, they’re more likely to disengage. By keeping track of these numbers, we get a better sense of whether the changes we’re making are working, and more importantly, whether we’re building trust with our players.

Of course, there are still challenges. Not every intervention works, and not every player can be saved. Some factors are out of our control—life circumstances, other games they’re playing, or just a change in interest. Plus, churn is always evolving. We can predict it more accurately now, but there’s always room for improvement. Not every campaign hits the mark, and we have to stay flexible, learn from our mistakes, and adjust accordingly. But what gives me confidence is that we’re no longer just guessing. We have the data to make informed decisions, and we can see real, tangible results when we intervene at the right moments.

Looking back on our journey so far, I feel hopeful about where we’re headed. We’ve come a long way from just hoping players would come back after an event. We’re now actively shaping the player experience, tracking engagement patterns, and adjusting the game in ways that keep players coming back. We’re not done yet, of course, but every day brings new insights, and with those insights, we’re building a game that players are excited to return to.

As we move forward, I know we’ll continue to learn, refine, and grow. The road ahead is full of opportunities, and I’m excited about what’s next. The future isn’t about keeping players for the sake of it—it’s about building a relationship with them, understanding their needs, and giving them the experience they want. And with each step we take, I’m confident we’re moving closer to that goal
#pixel @Pixels $PIXEL

Este târziu—prea târziu—și mă uit din nou la ecranul meu, întrebându-mă dacă am petrecut ore întregi urmărind un alt miraj sau dacă există de fapt ceva aici demn de atenție. Am văzut suficiente documente tehnice, suficiente prezentări, suficiente „revoluții” blockchain pentru a ști cum merg de obicei aceste lucruri. Am trăit prin boom-uri DeFi, promisiuni GameFi, lanțuri modulare care ar fi trebuit să rezolve totul. Totul începe cu această viziune mare și strălucitoare, și înainte să-ți dai seama, hype-ul se estompează și proiectul se stinge, lăsând în urmă nu doar o economie de tokeni umflată și o mulțime de oameni dezamăgiți.