Luke Barwikowski, Flame X Hall

The original concept for Pixels, one of the most popular Web3 games on the planet, came to its founder after he quit his comfortable tech job to travel and work in New Zealand in his early 20s.

“I moved to New Zealand because I wanted to mess up my life a bit,” Luke Barwikowski told Hall of Flames.

Barwikowski, who has a double degree in computer science and economics, was working as a software engineer in San Francisco and “felt like he was thinking too much for a 23-year-old.”

Now 28 and based in Miami, Barwikowski's time in New Zealand was an odd job – working on a dairy farm, a surf hostel and eventually on a yacht – all while running in the early days of building Pixels.

A week before he was due to travel from New Zealand to Fiji, he received immediate approval for the Pixels launch.

“I talked to the guy I work with on the startup accelerator about this great opportunity to sail from New Zealand; is it okay if I start in a week?”

A few years later, Pixel – a daily game with more than 2 million users – continued its sailing adventure, not knowing that its fully stagnant value would reach $2.65 billion. He did so in February this year.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing.

He said he wasn't good at fundraising in general, so he started the game with his own savings for the first year. Later, he convinced a couple of investors to back him, but still building a game isn't cheap, and that funding quickly ran out.

At one point, it was down to just $25,000 — enough to keep the company going for two more months.

He was close to the line, but Pixel managed to score $2.4 million in a 2022 funding round led by Animoca Brands, and that turned out to be a game changer for Barwikowski.

“I had $200 in my personal bank account, $800 in my business bank, and the next day I had like a million dollars in my bank account,” he laughs.

How did Luke Barwikowski develop the X sequel?

Barwikowski has 39,500 followers on his account and about 321,200 followers on the Pixels account.

Barwikowski said the increase in followers on the board was not due to a change in content; It's just more about the popularity of the game and the regular interaction with players.

“I've been posting the same content since I started,” he says.

“It was a lot more shocking when I had 600 followers than now,” he laughs.

Barwikowski shares tons of Pixels content, holds weekly AMAs with users, and stays very active in the community, so players feel like they really know him.

“We've taken a public approach from day one,” he says.

What kind of content does Luke Barwikowski make?

Barwikowski likes to use the X label to provide insights into the basics of Web3 gaming.

“Mainly what works and what doesn't,” he says.

Barwikowski knows that Pixel is one of the few Web3 games with a live token economy that's been around for a while and is always down to share what he's learned with other Web3 game devs.

“We have a lot of unique insights into how to make it work better. We're not trying to protect any of that information.”

Barwikowski doesn't mind sharing what he knows—he believes that when there are more talented people in a space, things grow better.

“I also tweeted some of these things to alert the market,” he said.

“We talk a lot about both defense and detection; I want the decision-makers in the field to know how to properly evaluate plays,” he added.

Luke Barwikowski Predictions?

Barwikowski thinks the crypto market has been neglecting his fundamental projects lately, but he feels a “total change” is coming soon.

“I feel the infrastructure plays are wrong,” he says.

By 2025, he says, application layers will start to take over.

They gave a shout out to Pudgy Penguin on their soft token listing on December 17th and hopes that more projects can pull off something as soft as PENGU by 2025.

“They had an amazing start and I think they did everything right.”

“I don't think people realize this, but it's really hard to listen to a successful demo,” he says.

I think you've done a good model by making sure the float is there, but the group incentives are also fixed. Basically, the only locked signs were around the team for that launch, which is great; I love that model. “

Ciaran Lyon

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He is also a freelance comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.