Hi adventurers! This is Javi, CEO of Pixelatto. When we post here or in social media usually we talk as a team, but today I wanted to take the (metaphorical) stage on this special occasion: on a day like this, we released Reventure a year ago. It’s a great occasion to stop for just a moment and look at back at the incredible path that led us to this moment.
Now, when I say “incredible” I really mean that, if time travellers had come to me a couple of years ago to tell me about the success of Reventure, I would have probably laughed. For a start, Pixelatto was not exactly an indie dev studio yet.
It was a development studio, sure, but back when I started up, I wanted to play it safe, learn the trade and get as much experience as possible. I felt (and still feel) massive respect for games as a media, and I knew how hard and competitive this industry can be, especially for newcomers. So I started to work as a freelancer for third parties, creating tools and assets for devs… all of it was -related- to video games, but not development of an actual videogame.
https://media.giphy.com/media/R4uJVLXbOVDBS/giphy.gif
Me during the first years of Pixelatto
It wasn’t glamorous, but it allowed us (me, back then) to grow, learn and pay the bills. Pixelatto grew to become an actual (if small) team. Then I made a small game for a jam session with my peculiar art style and 6 different endings as its main feature. That was the seed that would eventually become Reventure. People were surprised with such a small game having many different endings, so I thought, “you want endings? I’ll give you some!”. And started working on it.
A year and several months later, the game was out there. I realized soon that due to our limited budget (oh boy, such an euphemism) I’d have to chose between hiring an artist for a better aesthetic or having 100 endings. The claim “100 different endings” was just too strong to consider otherwise. We worked to make a virtue out of necessity, and that’s how the unique, pixels-as-big-as-fists artstyle of Reventure was born, despite of my ever-growing imposter syndrome. As long as it had artistic coherence and players could easily understand what was going on, it would be fine. I would be fine.
When Reventure started, I was the only full-time member of the team; there were some freelance collaborators, part-time workers… let’s say that, on average, the team consisted of 2 and a half persons (the half person there is fine, I swear). Then one day, after what felt like climbing the highest mountain in the world doing a handstand, the game was ready.
I was alone at that precise moment. I couldn’t financially keep the team until release, and to be totally candid, I thought Pixelatto would not recover. I had a plan B, C, D and probably up to Z12, but I suspected that Reventure was going to be the last game in a long time. I hit the “Publish” button thinking that, well, at least the worst has passed now and I’ll get some rest.
Oh boy, was I wrong.
The numbers ramp up, the messages pile up… love, support and bug reports everywhere. I started working in hotfixes as fast as I could. Then when I thought “it’s night time, finally they’re going to sleep and I can get some rest myself”, America woke up, decided they also liked Reventure a the loop began again. Twitter, Discord, Facebook – everything on fire.
https://media.giphy.com/media/z9AUvhAEiXOqA/giphy-downsized-medium.gif
Me during Reventure launch week
It just overwhelmed me, so I did what any sensible person would do. Well, no, I did not quit making games – I called for help. I phoned everyone I thought could help me at that moment. I even called Alberto back, a programmer-intraining whom I had just let go after his internship finished. He was literally in another city enjoying a new position in a bigger company. I asked him to come back – and he and the others did. Together, we started putting all the fires out, fixed everything, and led Reventure to be the big success that it is thanks to the incredible support of our amazing community.
When we thought it was complete, we started a Switch version, after that iOS and Android… and more to come.
We’re a bigger team now, with 6 people as core members and more than 5 regular contributors on top of that working in areas like audio, music, marketing, etc. And we are convinced this is just the beginning of a (hopefully long and fun) path – as long as you, our beautiful community, keep walking the path along with us.
What now? Well, we have some cards up our sleeve… but we can’t show anything yet. Let’s just say that we recommend you to stay tuned in the days to come, especially during the weekend and by next Monday. There is some amazing stuff incoming.
We will explore and expand the Reventure universe, but don’t expect a “Reventure 2”, at least for now – it is in our very soul to go off the beaten path.
We want to experiment with other things, see where the world of Reventure can lead us. Later this year, we will start a crowdfunding campaign to kickstart our next project. I can’t announce what it is about yet – but we’ll announce it via our newsletter as soon as we can!
I want to end this “thank you” letter expressing my endless gratitude to the rest of the Pixelatto team. Also to you, our players – you got us this far, and hopefully we will still live more than 100 adventures together!
Thanks for being awesome
- Javi
