In a previous article, we introduced you to Freddi Malavasi, associate producer and communications manager at the Lyon-based studio Draw Me A Pixel. At the start of 2026, they announced their upcoming game, Crushed In Time, for which a demo is now available. This intriguing project, which could be categorised as a ‘point-and-stretch’ game, caught our eye. That was all it took for us to pop a few questions to Freddi to find out more. The small team, in the midst of a rush (not a crunch), has little time to go into detail, but we may have more in store for you after the release of Crushed In Time.
Point’n Think: Hello Freddi. First of all, thank you for agreeing to answer our questions whilst development is in full swing and your schedules must be packed. To give a bit of context to those who might not be familiar with the studio, could you describe Draw Me A Pixel?
Freddi: Draw Me A Pixel is a French video game studio that operates entirely remotely. Our team is spread out all over France: Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie, Brittany, Île-de-France, and we even have an Austrian on the team. Our first game, There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension, seems to have found its audience, so we decided we weren’t going to stop there and would try to finally make people hate us with Crushed In Time, its spin-off which takes the form of a flexible point-and-click game.
Point’n Think: Before finding its audience, There Is No Game faced quite a few difficulties. What lessons were learnt from that first project? What impact did they have on the one we’re discussing today?
Freddi: Having joined the team after the release of There Is No Game, it’s a bit difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what impact the game has had on our current production. But what’s beyond doubt is that the success of that first title has allowed Draw Me A Pixel to develop Crushed In Time completely independently, without a publisher. The team’s founders are very experienced people who have (also) worked within large organisations and now place great importance on their freedom, whether creative or financial.
Point’n Think: During our conversation with Freddi, the message was clear: the studio’s second project wouldn’t be a sequel. However, we do see characters from There Is No Game. Why this choice? Are the worlds of the two games connected?
Freddi: It’s a choice that makes sense to us: we’re attached to the world of There Is No Game. Game, GiGi, Princess or Sherlock Holmes… These are characters whose stories we want to tell. But Pascal Cammisotto, our Director/Writer, is keen to stick to a fundamental principle: what more can we bring to the table with our games? A sequel was therefore too easy and obvious, so the choice fell on a spin-off featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, whom we met in Chapter 2 of There Is No Game. But whilst in There Is No Game the player sought to smash everything to launch the game or fight Mr Glitch, Crushed In Time invites us to repair the damage in a game that has mysteriously been released with bugs, and with a missing character. In short, it’s the same philosophy, but seen from a different angle. And as if that weren’t enough, there’s also a somewhat novel gameplay mechanic that lets us interact with the world as if everything were elastic. For example, rather than clicking on the key to put it in your inventory and then use it on the door, you’ll have to find a way to flick it into the lock. This is, however, a rough summary of the gameplay, which will offer a handful of different interactions, all based on elasticity.
Point’n Think: Speaking of the characters, we interact with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, icons of pop culture. Is it difficult to make such well-known, overused figures your own?
Freddi: That’s a question Pascal would be happy to answer if he could just get his head out of the project!
From my point of view, I think the main difficulty when borrowing such well-known figures is managing to stay true to them without offending those who only know the clichés. Let me explain: a lot of people reacted to the fact that, in our demo, Sherlock Holmes tells Dr Watson he needs to drink his coffee. Because, in the public’s eyes, Sherlock Holmes is English, so we assume he injects tea directly into his windpipe six times a day. Yet Holmes drinks a huge amount of coffee in the novels. Not to mention his drug use… We’ve left the drugs out, but these little details show a desire to stay true to the source material, rather than simply settling for a character with an English accent who solves cases.
Finally, regarding the difficulty of taking on such iconic figures, I remain torn: on the one hand, it’s easier because it offers the comfort of familiar territory. Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, which helps speed up the establishment of the world and the introduction of the characters. But on the other hand, it adds a layer of complications, because people are inevitably waiting to pounce on any misstep. You can’t just portray the Sherlock and Watson that everyone knows; a twist is absolutely essential. That’s what we did with Crushed In Time, by altering the classic dynamic of this duo. Here, Sherlock Holmes is lazy, full of himself, convinced he knows everything… In short, he’s a bit of a nightmare, except when he’s really motivated. And on the other hand, we have a cowardly, superstitious Dr Watson, who picks up on the inconsistencies and oddities of their world a bit too easily. All in all, you could sum it up as ‘Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, but…’.
Point’n Think: Between There Is No Game and Crushed In Time, we’ve moved from 2D pixel art to 3D cartoon. Did this radical change have an impact on the development process?
Freddi: The development of Crushed In Time was a bit chaotic because of that. Initially, the game was supposed to be in 2D like There Is No Game. Then we ran into technical problems with, amongst other things, the characters’ movements and their interactions with objects. So we decided to switch to 3D, which made our lives easier… only to create other issues. For example, we have to play around with, or even cheat with, the camera angles to maintain visual consistency, despite the unstructured look. When you see a quirky mansion room with crooked walls, doors and windows, creating it involved placing the right elements in the right spots relative to the camera. You see a scene where everything is in its place. But we, in the Unity editor, see fragmented spaces that demanded a great deal of creativity.
Point’n Think: With the title Crushed In Time and the trailers, we can assume the plot revolves around time. It’s a recurring theme in fiction – why did you choose it?
Freddi: As I said earlier, Pascal is constantly wondering what more he can bring to the table. The aim isn’t to make yet another point-and-click game where the only difference lies in our universe and the quality of the puzzles. There Is No Game made a name for itself thanks to its meta aspect: you want to play a game, but the game itself prevents you from launching it, so you do everything you can to get it to work before discovering that the situation is more complicated than it seems. Even with a spin-off, it was clear that we had to retain what made Draw Me A Pixel so distinctive, which is why Crushed In Time is a time-travel story… about the production of a video game! We’re not taking players and characters back to the Middle Ages or the time of the pyramids, but rather through the different stages of a video game’s life, such as the beta or the master version… We thus investigate the character’s disappearance by seeing the game in a whole host of different states, not to mention a few unexpected twists that might surprise you.
Point’n Think: In an interview for Origami, 3D animator Elsa Macé discusses humour and breaking the fourth wall. These are two elements that have shaped the studio’s identity within the There Is No Game community. Is this something close to your hearts?
Freddi: I think we’d be very unhappy at Draw Me A Pixel if our games couldn’t smash through the fourth wall with a sledgehammer by cracking jokes. Whether it’s There Is No Game or Crushed In Time, these games are also (if not primarily) there to express our love for video games in general. The difference, perhaps, is that Crushed In Time goes into much greater detail about the design of a video game. But in any case, yes, our video games are about video games, and that’s something we feel very strongly about because it’s what’s brought us to where we are today, doing the work we do.
Point’n Think: The demo opens with a cutscene set in a video game studio. The protagonists discuss review bombing and their confusion about it. Is this something you’re worried about?
Freddi: Actually, it’s all part of the game’s meta narrative. The story is about a video game that was released by mistake with a bug and gets torn to shreds by the community. So your role is to repair the damage. But Crushed In Time is presented as a live disaster, as evidenced by the message ‘A Draw Me A Pixel disaster’ in the introduction. In short: something’s gone wrong with the game, we’re trying to figure out what’s happening, and you’re here to help us sort things out by playing.
But for the rest, we’re just like everyone else: we hope people will like our game and that we won’t end up in a situation where people are throwing stones at us in the street. Mind you, if we become the laughing stock of the French gaming industry, at least it’ll mean people have heard of us.
Point’n Think: Finally, what’s next for you in the short and long term?
Freddi: In the short term, we’re going to finish Crushed In Time and do our utmost to ensure that the ‘ultra-negative’ reviews remain just a joke in the opening cutscene.
In the long term, we’re all going on holiday. Even though our studio is rigorously organised to avoid overworking our team, the run-up to a game’s release remains stressful, and I think everyone will appreciate a breather once the game is available on Steam. After that, we’ll get to work on the iOS/Android and Switch ports, but all that’s another story!
Let’s let Freddi get back to the colossal task of producing a video game and prepare the gem that, if all goes well, should make an appearance this year. What we can say is that we can’t wait to discover this game from a passionate team, an inexhaustible source of great ideas. They’re certainly cooking up all sorts of surprises, and the demo, available on Steam, will give you a taste of what’s to come. Believe me, this won’t be the last we hear of Crushed In Time,so keep an eye out on social media!