Luke Rockowsky, X Hall of Flame

The original concept for Pixels, one of the most popular Web3 games on the planet, was born after its founder left a cushy tech job in his early 20s to travel and work in New Zealand.

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

Barwikowski, who holds a dual degree in computer science and economics, worked as a software engineer in San Francisco and felt “I knew too much for a 23-year-old.”

Barwikowski, now 28 and living in Miami, said his time in New Zealand was a blur of odd jobs, including working on a dairy farm, a surf hostel and eventually working as a sailor on a sailboat while juggling the early stages of building Pixels.

A week before sailing from New Zealand to Fiji, he was accepted into Pixels’ startup accelerator.

“I was talking to someone I was working with on the startup accelerator side and he said there was a great opportunity to sail in New Zealand. “Is it okay if I start a week later?”

He set out on a sailing adventure unaware that Pixels, a leisurely game with over 2 million daily users, would achieve a fully diluted valuation of nearly $2.65 billion just a few years later. It was the same in February of this year.

But not everything went smoothly, pun intended.

He said he wasn’t very good when it came to financing, so he started playing with his own savings during the first year. He later convinced a couple of investors to back him, but making games still isn’t cheap and he ran out of money pretty quickly.

At one point, his assets were only $25,000. This was enough to sustain the company for two more months.

Although he was skimming close to the line, Pixels won $2.4 million in a funding round led by Animoca Brands in 2022, which turned out to be a game-changer for Barwikowski.

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

How did Luke Barwikowski grow his X following?

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

Barwikowski said the overall increase in follower counts was not due to content changes. It’s just about the popularity of the game and regular interaction with gamers.

“I’ve been posting the same kind of content since I started,” he says.

“When I had 600 followers, I was much more intimidated than I am now.” He laughed.

Barwikowski shares tons of Pixels content, does weekly AMAs with users, and is active in the community, so gamers feel like they really know him.

“We took an open approach from the beginning,” he says.

What content does Luke Barwikowski provide?

Barwikowski loves using his X account to provide insight into the fundamentals of Web3 games.

“It’s mainly what works and what doesn’t,” he says.

Barwikowski knows that Pixels is one of the few Web3 games with a live token economy that has been running for a while, so he’s always sharing what he learns with other Web3 game developers.

“We have a lot of unique insight into how to make this work best. “We are not trying to control any information.”

Barwikowski doesn’t shy away from sharing what he knows. He believes that the more people skilled in a field, the better everything grows.

“I also tweet some of this stuff to warn the market,” he says.

“We talk a lot about prevention and detection. “I want to make sure that the people making the decisions also know how to properly evaluate the game,” he adds.

Luke Barwikowski’s prediction?

Barwikowski believes the cryptocurrency market has been ignoring fundamental projects recently, but believes a “general change” is coming soon.

“I think the infrastructure sector is mispriced,” he says.

He said the application layer will begin to dominate from 2025.

He expressed gratitude for the smooth token listing of Pudgy Penguins on December 17 and hopes that more projects will be able to run as smoothly as PENGU in 2025.

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

“I don’t think people realize this, but it’s really, really hard to do successful token listening,” he says.

“I think they’ve created a really good model of making sure there’s float, but team incentives are aligned as well. Basically, it was the only token locked around the team for that release. This is great. “I like that model.”

subscribe

The most interesting read on blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Ciaran Lyon

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian cryptocurrency journalist. He is also a stand-up comedian and radio and TV presenter for Triple J, SBS and The Project.