itch.io

Hi everyone 👋

My husband and I started making a game, and it got super frustrating, because we realized most project tools were built for software companies, not game studios. If you’ve ever tried to fit concept art, a bug list, a playtest checklist and “is the vertical slice actually on track?” into a generic ticket board, you know the feeling. Small teams end up running five tools held together with Discord pins, and the time lost to that comes straight out of making the game.

We’re building Pixl Quest to fix that for indie and small studios. It’s opening as a free closed beta on November 2, and we’re looking for teams who want to help shape it.

What it does today

Quests: tasks with dashboards for the kind of work they are. Design quests hold reference photos, color palettes and assets. Development quests hold code snippets, a bug tracker and a test checklist. Everyone gets status, comments and tasks.

Scrolls: your team’s docs (art direction, systems notes, how you work), linked to the quests they explain.

Vault: approved assets from finished work, organized and easy to export.

Triumphs: milestones like “vertical slice” or “Steam demo” that fill in as linked quests get done.

Import from the tool you use now, and export any time. Your work isn’t locked in.

Why we’re asking for help rather than selling

We’d rather build this with small studios than guess at what you need. Beta teams will shape what we build next: what’s missing, what’s annoying, what you’d never use. The beta is free. If you decide to stay afterwards, beta studios get 30% off their first year on the Studio or Custom plans, but there’s no catch and no card needed to try it.

Who it’s for

Indie teams of roughly 2–50 people

Solo devs who want more structure than a notes app

Studios juggling art, code and production in one place

How to join

Email info@pixlquest.com with your studio name, team size, and what you’re working on. A sentence or two is plenty. If you just want to follow along, or tell us what your current setup gets wrong, we’d love to hear that too. Reply here or reach out any time.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with whatever you’re building.

https://emily1207.itch.io/pixlquest

Of course, I'm curious! What's been your biggest headache building this?

It's really hard to troubleshoot from a web version. The look is great, but some things like being able to change your viewpoint and your hand position make it a little difficult to play! 

Thank you for such detail! This is very helpful!

No worries. If you ever are interested down the road, once we launch you can sign up on pixlquest.com!

Oh yes, I've heard of obsidian. My husband and I are actually creating a project management system ourselves. Were getting ready to launch our beta so if you would be interested in trying it out you can reach out to me at emily.mora@pixlquest.com. Or you can view our site at Pixlquest.com

Oh nice! I like the waves idea, I think the minigames are fun but, personally, I think it should be mostly old arcade style games and not as much of the question type mini games. I would think it would be a "lets see how well you know these old games" challenge!

Oh ok nice! I'm curious, how are you organizing all your tasks that you need to complete for this? It is just in your head or do you have a structure in place? 

Ya I get that! For me it's usually fine at first but then gets messier and messier as we go! Were actually starting our beta for our project management platform, would you be interested in joining? 

I love this idea and your artwork looks great! What has been your biggest challenge inn making this? Is it more of the development or just keeping all the things you have to complete organized? 

I love this idea! Is this supposed to be a "play until you loose" type of game or is there an ultimate goal?

My husband and I took a break from building games and we are in the process of making a platform to organize game projects cause we haven't seen a good platform to keep game projects organized! Right now we are really wanting to get more info from other devs. How are you guys currently keeping you tasks, bugs, and assets organized? If you are working with other devs or designers, how do you stay organized when collaborating with them?

That's awesome! My husband and I actually started making a game, but we stopped because we realized there was no great place to keep our game organized while building it, so we put our game on halt and actually made a project management system for us and other game developers! were about to go into our beta so if you wanted to join let me know! I think you two would be a good fit!

Nice! How have you been keeping track of all the little tasks you need to complete? Do you a have a system or is it more laid back?

That's awesome! It looks like you are coming up with a great brand for this game! I'm curious how are you keeping track of all the tasks that you need to get done? Are you organizing it somewhere or it is just stuck in your head? 

Nice! I'm curious where are you organizing you list of issues? My husband and I are working on a platform to help organize game devs projects, and I am trying to figure out how devs are organizing their projects now!

Of course, our website is Pixlquest.com and you can either send me your email or you can email info@pixlquest.com and I can get you setup! The Beta is starting Nov. 2nd. 

Yes of course! :) And I definitely understand the difficulty with organizing! My husband and I actually started making a game, but we stopped because we realized there was no great place to keep our game organized while building it, so we actually put our game on halt and made a project management system for us and thought it would be good for other game developers too! were about to go into our beta so if you wanted to join let me know! I think you would be a good fit!

It looks great so far! The city screenshot really stands out for me! It's cool seeing the different parts of the game coming together!

I'm curious how you coordinate everything between the different people working on it.

The camera follow looks great now! I think think the way it's moving really matches the feel of the game. 

It's interesting seeing how much work goes into getting a feature like this working properly.

When you're dealing with something that requires a lot of revisions, how do you typically keep track of everything that needs to be changed? Do you have a system for it, or is it more of an informal process?

Wow, congrats! This looks great! It's always cool seeing a project come together.

What's been the biggest challenge getting to this point? Has it just been development, or is it more keeping all the tasks you need to do organized?

This looks great! How did you come up with this design?

I love the spinning animation of the pause menu! 

I'm curious, what's been the biggest challenge getting to this point? Was it more on the development side, or keeping everything organized and moving forward?

Have you fiddled with blender yet? I know it can be daunting, but if you are just wanting simple low poly 3-d images then you may be able to make some pretty quickly there!

I definitely get the frustration! My husband and I actually started making a game, but we stopped because we realized there was no great place to keep our game organized while building it, so we put our game on halt and actually made a project management system for us and other game developers! were about to go into our beta so if you wanted to join let me know! I think you would be a good fit!

Thanks, We still have a game in the works it's just been put on the back burner while we are making this! and Yes we do! Our Website is Pixlquest.com. The beta is starting Nov. 2nd, you can either message me your email or you can email us at info@pixlquest.com so I can invite you to the beta!

Yes the fighting was pretty easy to figure out, just if a "Q" or "Press Q" or something like that could show up when you are in range to interact with something. Just my opinion! :)

Nice! My husband and I actually started making a game, but we stopped because we realized there was no great place to keep our game organized while building it, so we put our game on halt and actually made a project management system for us and other game developers! were about to go into our beta so if you wanted to join let me know!

Ya there is so much that goes into getting a game off the ground.

I'm curious, when you're dealing with getting all the little tasks done to go from prototype to an actual game, how do you usually keep track of everything that needs to be changed? Do you have a system for it, or are you just trying to remember it all?

Thanks for being willing to look at my games too! My husband and I actually started making a game, but we stopped because we actually realized there was no great place to keep our game organized while building it, so we put our game on halt and actually made a project management system for us and other game developers! were about to go into our beta so if you wanted to join let me know! I think you would be a good fit!

This looks like its really coming together. I like the look of the ships and water. I'm curious was this or original vision or has it progressed over time? 

This looks awesome! I love that it has a video game and board game feel to it! 

What's been the biggest challenge getting to this point? Was it more on the development side, or keeping everything organized and moving forward?

The main thing that I would say is that the controls should be more apparent and maybe pop-up when the user needs to use them, by the time I got to the sign I forgot what the "interact" key was.  I'm curious. Is this something other viewers have seem as well?

The only thing I would add is not putting the "notes" in just a straight line to give a little more contrast! 
I'm curious, was this your vision from the beginning, or did it evolve as you started testing the game?

I totally get that. My husband and I started making a game between having jobs and it got super frustrating. We actually realized there was no great place to keep out game organized so we put our game on halt and actually made a project management system for us and other game developers! were about to go into our beta so if you wanted to join let me know! It's a closed beta cause storing data cost so much so we can only have limited people on it! But I think you would be a good fit!

That is amazing you have gotten to you e demo stage! 

What's been the biggest challenge getting to this point? Was it more on the development side, or keeping everything organized and moving forward?

This looks great! I love the swampy feel! I'm curious what have been your biggest hurtle so far in making Autumn Forgager

Congrats on completing your first section of your game! It's always cool seeing a project come together.

What's been the biggest challenge getting to this point? Was it more on the development side, or keeping everything organized and moving forward?

I'm researching development workflows while building Pixl Quest, a project-management tool.

I'm curious how small teams manage things like bugs, feature requests, deadlines, and communication between artists and programmers.

Do you use a dedicated project-management tool, or is Discord plus a spreadsheet enough?

I'd love to hear what your current setup looks like and what you wish it did better.