Pixelshire Update : The Road Ahead

Dev Log – March Update

Hey @everyone,

This might be a long one, so for anyone who wants a summary and would rather skip the full read: I have restarted development of Pixelshire for both Steam and Nintendo Switch. The game will not be re-released until it is fully ready, and not before 2027. I will also be sharing updates every quarter, unless something important comes up earlier, as progress in the near future will be mostly technical.🌻

As some of you may already know, I recently restarted development on Pixelshire with a clear goal: to bring the game back to Steam and release it on Nintendo Switch. These are my first priority platforms. After that, releasing on Xbox and PlayStation should be much easier. I already have approval for all major console platforms.

The work I’m doing is not only for Steam or Switch specifically. Pixelshire is built on a hybrid system, which means that any change, fix, improvement, or new implementation benefits every platform version instantly. So I won’t be doing separate development for Steam or Switch beyond some platform-specific requirements, such as technical compliance, icons, and other mandatory platform tasks. So don’t worry about favoring Switch over Steam or anything like that.

Right now, the main priority is the technical stability of the game. This has been the most difficult area throughout development, with a lot of bugs and performance issues from the mess created in previous years. Another major priority is improving and adjusting parts of the game based on the feedback I’ve received from the community, which is a very important part of the project. I’m also planning to change things here and there by adding, changing, or removing some content, so the experience will be different even for those who already played the game before.

Most of the work done during February and March has been highly technical, so I don’t have anything exciting to show yet. That will likely remain the case for a while, because I do not want to focus on adding new content before the game is in a genuinely solid technical state.

Just to tease one new feature that will likely be finalized in the future: the Lost Isles, a set of randomly generated islands designed to offer a different adventure each time you visit. This is something I had already been prototyping even before 2025.

That said, I want to be fully honest with you about a few important things:

1. I’m not going anywhere.

I was here, I am here, and I will continue to be here, no matter what, for those who already bought the game and for those who haven’t yet. If I was going to disappear, I would already be long gone. The delay in restarting development was largely caused by disputes and other issues with the previous publisher, while I was also working on another project. That chapter is effectively over, and from what I’ve seen, they have already begun liquidation procedures, for anyone who cares. I’m not removing all responsibility from my own shoulders when it comes to the launch, but I also want people to understand the kind of situation I was dealing with behind the scenes. Liability issues, CEO suing each other, and many other exceptional situations were part of this company. This might be irrelevant to the update, but I want you to understand what kind of company I was dealing with. This is the last time I’ll speak about them or this whole mess. I’m closing the subject here, and moving forward.

https://maximument.com/investor-relations/press-releases/

2. I will not repeat the mistakes that were made before.

I’m not going to lie to you, and I’m not going to release the game before it’s ready, no matter how long it takes. Pixelshire will not come back until it is in a good state. This will not happen during 2026. My current target is 2027 at the earliest. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but this needs to be right.

3. There won’t be any publisher involved in this project again, plain and simple.

4. There won’t be pre-orders in any of my projects.

I was always against pre-order stuff, and I won’t do that in my games either.

5. There won’t be any paid updates, DLC, or anything like that.

If you own the game, you’ll receive all future updates at no extra cost.

6. About Steam purchases and pre-orders:

I want to say clearly that I haven’t made a single penny from Pixelshire sales on Steam, Amazon (console retail/physical pre-orders), or any other platform out there.

7. There won’t be any physical version, and at the moment the game is not on sale anywhere.

Don’t buy anything like that from anywhere. If you did, refund it if you can.

8. There is still a complication regarding the Steam backend, which is not relevant right now, but I still want to be transparent about it.

Even though the game was removed from Steam, it is still being treated as a dispute-related game. I hope this will change in the future once the publisher is fully out of business. If not, I will probably either take legal action or release it as a new listing. This is not an immediate problem, since the game will not be re-released for a while, but I wanted to mention it and be fully transparent. The important part is this: anyone who already owns the game will receive updates and will not have to pay anything again.

I know this may not be the update people were hoping for, or what some of you wanted to hear, but I’d rather be honest and take the time needed than rush things again.

Thank you for sticking with me and for continuing to support Pixelshire.

— Vasilis

Discord channel:
discord.gg/7yRtmKr