Should You Play Ethereum Farming Game ‘Pixels’ If You Don’t Care About Crypto?
I’m not a crypto man. I don’t have a pockets and I haven’t invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any foolish meme cash. And whereas I really like video video games and have written about them for years, the world of crypto gaming is uncharted territory for me.
As such, Pixels—the Ethereum-based on-line farming recreation—is one thing new for me, although it instantly jogs my memory of one other massively common recreation: Pixels is basically the charming indie gem Stardew Valley, however with a crypto twist.
I can not stress how comparable this recreation is, visually and mechanically, to Stardew Valley. I’ve been taking part in each video games in latest weeks to see how a lot the crypto aspect adjustments the sport, whether or not it’s an enchancment or detriment to enjoyment—and whether or not “Web2 avid gamers” like myself can take pleasure in Pixels with out realizing or dealing with crypto.
Is Pixels value taking part in in the event you don’t care about crypto? And did it finally make me need to have interaction with this house on a deeper degree? Right here’s my take.
First steps
Getting began in Pixels is straightforward sufficient. Form of. All you must do is head to the Pixels web site, punch in your e-mail handle or telephone quantity, and also you’re in. You don’t presently want a crypto pockets to play, although the login display mentions {that a} Ronin pockets will quickly be wanted. That might be a future hurdle for anybody who doesn’t need to contact the tech.
A screenshot from Pixels. Picture: Decrypt
There’s some fast onboarding to the sport’s main currencies—popberries, gems, and cash, plus the on-chain PIXEL token on Ethereum that gamers can earn (and that is value actual cash). Gems are the foreign money which you could buy via exterior means and are used to purchase beauty objects and such. Popberries you will develop, and cash you will acquire by fulfilling orders.
So how do you fulfill orders? A useful non-playable character (NPC) information named Barney walks you thru utilizing fundamental instruments. Once I say that Pixels feels precisely like Stardew Valley, you will see what I imply right here. Your first suite of instruments features a rusty watering can and a fundamental axe, pickaxe, and shears—almost the identical set of beginning instruments as in Stardew, and even the naming of the rusty watering can is identical. There is no hoe, although, as a result of you must use cash to buy new soil squares.
Your small plot of land comes with a home, six soil squares, 4 bushes, and a mine. The mine is not one thing you go into—you simply ship a cart in there, and a random quantity generator determines whether or not you get considered one of numerous ores, rocks, and the like.
A chilly place
In some methods, Pixels gives some good comfort parts in comparison with Stardew. The place Stardew desires you to stroll between totally different locations, you possibly can transfer between your farm and town in Pixels with simply a few fast clicks. The sport additionally would not appear as involved about you being near your bushes, mine, or plots to work together with them. With that mentioned, they are much bigger than Stardew—however you possibly can click on on stuff actually quick if you would like.
A screenshot from Pixels. Picture: Decrypt
However the similarities to Stardew are largely superficial. Sure, you are farming, logging, and mining, and also you degree these abilities as much as carry out them extra shortly or to construct extra complicated objects. You even have an vitality bar to find out how a lot stuff you are able to do in a given sitting.
However you are not constructing relationships with different characters—considered one of Stardew Valley’s most rewarding features. There’s additionally no passage of time. Stardew Valley has a day and evening cycle, in addition to seasons that change the look of the sport considerably. After an extended spelunking journey within the recreation’s cave system, you will come out to close whole darkness. The relationships and passage of time assist to make Stardew Valley really feel like an actual, heat place.
Pixels, as compared, appears like a liminal house—however not within the cool, spooky manner. The few NPCs that exist are purely practical, standing in for menus for acts like procuring or buying and selling gems. They haven’t any character. Since you purchase issues via their benches somewhat than via the NPCs immediately, it additionally appears like there is not any purpose for them to be there.
And with no passage of time, it is all the time daytime. You by no means sleep, and the dearth of seasons make the sport really feel countless. How lengthy have I been right here? Every week? A yr? The place Stardew Valley is a spot I would love to hang around, Pixels appears like a bizarre, creepy dream.
Crypto guidelines the whole lot round me
Once you get all the way down to it, Pixels is usually a sequence of timers. Earlier than lengthy, you will have a stoneworking oven, a woodworking bench, and a metalworking bench in your own home. However principally what you are doing is simply clicking on them to provide one factor at a time, on a fairly prolonged timer. The checklist of things is small to start out with, and grows slowly.
That is additionally an online-only recreation. It is accessible solely via a browser, and if you head to city, you will discover swarms of different gamers zipping round in weird outfits they’ve bought with their gems—or displaying their owned NFT avatars.
A screenshot from Pixels. Picture: Decrypt
Something resembling enjoyable and development is locked behind gems. Doing sufficient within the recreation to make gems in Pixels in the beginning is, so far as I can inform, inconceivable. It will be dozens of hours earlier than you possibly can even contemplate the concept.
Interacting with currencies appears like the first aim of Pixels, and gameplay comes second to that purpose. If you wish to work together with the sport, it is all however obligatory that you simply work together with the crypto/NFT parts of it. Merely put, Stardew Valley gives an analogous expertise mechanically, however is far more feature-rich and far more rewarding in each manner.
As a result of I am not notably enthusiastic about cryptocurrency, there’s not likely a purpose for me to proceed to play Pixels. Stardew Valley does the whole lot Pixels does, however provides heat to it. It is about constructing a group no less than as a lot as it’s about farming fruit and veggies, making this mechanical imitation really feel hole in its present type.
Pixels actually feels about how I anticipated a crypto recreation to really feel—empty and repetitive. And it is not that crypto video games cannot be good! There is definitely room on the market for somebody to crack the query of what gameplay loop would work in a recreation the place you play to earn real-world cryptocurrency. However the by-product Pixels, regardless of how charming it might look, isn’t it.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Editor’s notice: For an additional tackle Pixels from somebody who’s already immersed on this planet of crypto, be sure you learn our authentic overview from February 2024.
