Pixel Maniacs

Factsheet

Developer:
Pixel Maniacs
Based in Nuremberg, Germany

Founding date:
September 1, 2010

Website:
pixel-maniacs.com

Press / Business contact:
press@pixel-maniacs.com

Social:
Twitter / X
Bluesky
Facebook
Twitch
YouTube
Instagram
TikTok

Releases:
Chromagun
Escape The Loop
Chromagun Vr
Cant Drive This

Address:
Rednitzstrasse 18
90449 Nuremberg
Germany

Phone:
+49 (911) 580 547 67

Description

Pixel Maniacs is an indie game development studio based out of Nuremberg, Germany. The company behind Pixel Maniacs – the Benjamin Lochmann New Media GmbH – was founded in 2003, and has since gone through several stages, eventually ending up in game development. In 2016, with the release of our debut title ChromaGun, we acquired the brand Pixel Maniacs, under which we develop and release all our games.

History

The Benjamin Lochmann New Media GmbH – the company behind the brand Pixel Maniacs – was founded in 2003 by CEO Benjamin Lochmann. Back then, the company was creating various web projects, some of which are currently still active – such as lerntippsammlung.de, a popular German portal offering help with homework and reports to students.

Shortly after the AppStore was launched, Ben had the idea of developing and publishing a small app. He created an app called "Mäxle mit Fake-Button", a type of Liar's Dice, which featured an invisible button, granting the player guaranteed victory. The app's launch went particularly well, which led Ben to hire the company's first employee, Joe. Ever since then, the company has steadily grown – at the height of the app-business, Benjamin Lochmann New Media GmbH had developed and published more than 150 apps across stores, and employed 6 developers.

In 2015, we participated in Ludum Dare, a popular game jam, with fans all over the world. We didn't expect anything to come from it, as we were simply participating for fun. However, the result of this game jam, was the first prototype for ChromaGun, which was to become our debut release. Even during the 72-hour jam we realized how much fun developing a game was – this was the first time any of us had ever used Unity – and when feedback from the community was incredibly positive, we decided to put ChromaGun into production. Of course, at that time we were still developing mobile apps, so we ported ChromaGun to mobile. That didn't work out very well, and we hypothesized a first-person-puzzler to simply not be appealing on mobile. So we decided to take ChromaGun to the next step. We started a Steam Greenlight campaign, which we passed in only a few weeks, and thus began our journey into desktop game development.

After we had published ChromaGun on Steam in 2016, we began porting the game to PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Playstation VR, and gained incredible experience from it. During that time, we participated in another Ludum Dare, during which our second game Can't Drive This was born – a multiplayer party racing game. We're also currently working on the pre-production of our third title, Escape the Loop. We've made great friends in the industry over the past years, and are actively working to furthering the gaming industry, in Nuremberg, Germany and worldwide. In December 2016 we were partnered on Twitch, where we regularly host Pixel Blah - a talk-show, in which we invite guests form the industry to talk about all things gamedev. Together with our friends over at GentleTroll, we host Indie Outpost, a meetup for game developers and those interested to network, chat and learn. Additionally, we speak at events, consult newcomers, and regularly act as gaming correspondents for egoFM.

Projects

• Chromagun
• Escape The Loop
• Chromagun Vr
• Cant Drive This

Team & Repeating Collaborator

Benjamin Lochmann
Founder, CEO

Johann Bauer
Lead Software Engineer

Andreas Scholz
Software Engineer

Steve Crouse
Creative Director

Markus Esch
Artist, Technical Artist

Manfred Bischof
SEO Strategist

Contact

General Contact
info@pixel-maniacs.com

Press Inquiries, Key Requests
press@pixel-maniacs.com

Job Info
jobs@pixel-maniacs.com