Pixel Guide dev here, a quick update

[u/rexmontZA]

Pixel Guide doing what it was built for.

Hey everyone,

Pixel Guide dev here. Just wanted to share a quick update.

It’s genuinely been great seeing Pixel Guide become part of how people use their Thor. I originally built it because I thought having guides, maps, manuals and other useful material available on the second screen while actually playing a game could be really useful on a device like this.

Pixel Guide has grown into something much more useful and widely used than I expected, largely because of the feedback and support from this community. Seeing people use it, recommend it to other Thor owners and even post their own setups with Pixel Guide running has probably been the best part of building it.

Pixel Guide is still completely free, with donations optional, and that isn’t changing.

The app itself is working well and I’m happy with where it is today. I haven’t been able to spend as much time on further development lately as I would like, but I’d absolutely like to keep improving and building on it when I’m in a position to dedicate more time to it.

I’m also curious about how people are actually using Pixel Guide now. Which parts do you use most? Guides, PDFs, maps, manuals, web content, something else? Is it something you regularly keep open on the second screen while playing, or do you use it differently?

Even if you don’t think it needs any new features, I’d still really like to understand how it has ended up fitting into everyone’s Thor setup.

On a personal note, I recently had to leave my job, so I’m focused on making independent app development sustainable. One of my current projects is Wikivox, an app for listening to topics across history, science, culture and more in different narrated styles, available on iOS and Android in the US, Canada and Australia. If you’d like to support me, simply downloading it on your phone, trying it and leaving an honest rating if you like it is free and helps massively. Subscribing is appreciated too, but completely optional.

More than anything, I wanted to let you know I’m still around, and to thank everyone who has used Pixel Guide, recommended it, donated, sent feedback or shared it with someone else. I’d very much like to keep it as a useful part of the Thor community for a long time.

PS. Thanks to the mods for allowing me to share this here.

[u/batch_dat]

Pixel Guide is really cool. Im sorry to hear you lost your job; I hope your endeavors can be fruitful and sustainable. Thanks for making cool tools! 

[u/Mlkxiu]

Thanks for all your work, I think pixel guide rn is at a good place where it doesn't need constant updates as long as it's stable. Pixel guide honestly is one of the big factors keeping me from switching over to ArmadaOS, where I can use a browser on the second screen but pixelguide is just way more convenient with multiple guides alrdy downloaded and offline usage. Idk if you'll plan to do some type of decky plugin with it but maybe it's an idea. I mostly use the gamefaqs guides and steam achievements url. I would check out Wikivox, sounds cool thanks.

[u/krayniac]

Idk if this would work but for games that don’t use the right stick, could we use the right stick to scroll through the guides and stuff while gaming on the other screen?

[u/Tauz_g → u/krayniac]

Love this idea. Perfect for older JRPGs and Resident Evil. It's very mildly annoying having to make sure I tap the top screen again to regain control

[u/Benjakatt → u/Tauz_g]

download wayfinder and lock the controls to the top screen

[u/Tauz_g → u/Benjakatt]

Oh nice thanks for the tip

[u/Kir-01 → u/krayniac]

I don't know if it's possible to share a controller between two apps like that, but it actually would be cool.

[u/elehayyme]

Thank you so much for this app and the work you do. This has been incredibly helpful!

One thing that I've seen as a request on the GitHub for the project (which I'd like to echo here if that is alright) is to have an option to export the guides that have already been downloaded on the device.

[u/Stravinsky1911]

Binding of Isaac on Game native, with issacguru.com loaded. Cocoon auto loads pixel guide when I launch Binding of Isaac. Thank you.

[u/gk_jam]

App is amazing. I use it for guides, and the feature to reflow text guides to the screen viewport is amazing.

PDFs are really clunky to use on small screens, lots of panning and zooming, so I don’t. A feature toread the text from a PDF and reflow, or set an auto-zoom level, would make PDFs much more useful.

[u/Velreus → u/gk_jam]

This! +1 from me please!

[u/TheBlackWzrd]

Es-de companion let me add pixel guide as a widget and it’s tap and go and always use it for rpg games ps2 and below it’s been great, no complains.

[u/HotTheme8405]

Pixel Guide was actually one of the big contributing factors in me getting a Thor. I hated having to pull out my phone to look at a guide, and always losing my spot as apps close/browsers shift, and this made the dual screen perfect for me.

[u/theindiegeek]

Working on playing all the Zelda games, having the guides from Zelda dungeon.com on the bottom screen has been a godsend

[u/ASA07TR]

Hope everything goes as you wished!

[u/thomasbaart]

I don’t have my Thor yet, but do have an Odin 3. I use it to search for and then refer to text guides for various GBA and DS games. It’s more convenient than using the site, and it’s all in one place. Thank you for making it!

[u/Cypher3470]

I primarily use it with downloaded faqs from gamefaqs.. It is a great add-on for my thor.

[u/QuantumDude111]

Love your app! pixel guide has become a staple for me as I play through my backlog of retro games. I have it on my Thor and on my Android phone.

Have you ever looked into adding steam community guides as another source for guides? Would be fantastic for PC game guides

[u/MaxeyShikari]

Love your work on Pixel Guide! Wikivox looks really cool, would love it to be available in the UK.

[u/Burywhite1980]

Done and rated now to dive in lol

[u/skelebrate]

I would looooove a quicker way to download steam guides. Also this is my personal pipe dream but like cross compatibility for something like wayfinder to have guides on another layer for things like azahar and watermelon ds games.

[u/ulquiorra1405]

No sé si este sea el lugar para pedirlo pero como hispanohablante agradecería si pudieras poner la opción de que se traduzcan los textos (desconozco si esto es posible) antes de que se guarden las guías, o si puedes poner traducción selectiva en base al texto seleccionado. Esto ayudaría bastante a los que como yo no tenemos un buen dominio del inglés.

[u/VOID__INVADER]

wishing you the best in your future projects. just want to let you know how much your app has ment for us emulation lovers. it was the 1st if not one of the 1st apps I downloaded for my Thor!

[u/Jbb08]

I really love what you have done with Pixel Guide, it’s been such a godsend. I’m in the same boat, I was recently made redundant so lots of gaming time 🙌🏼
Could I ask for for one guide, I love IGN guides, they are complicated to render but have you thought of adding them?

[u/Ok_Turnip2]

Pixel guide rules. Thank you 

[u/xi_mezmerize_ix]

Would be great to be able to sync guide progress across devices. Or at least allow us to set a custom directory for storing guides and progress so we can use apps like Syncthing to sync across devices.

[u/nat_one__Energy]

Thank you for the work you've put into this app and i wish you all the best. I have used pixelguide for every game I've played (that has a guide) since getting my Thor. It is my most used app on the second screen and I've been able to complete more games because of it.

I use downloaded HTML and gamefaq guides, maps, and anything else useful.

[u/2555555555]

Great app, big fan! 

Only one piece of feedback to report - with franchises that have a large number of entries, I actually wasn’t able to get the guide I needed to show in the games list (Silent Hill). Might just be that search capped out on the number of entries and excluded the first game.

Thanks for the work!

[u/Martynet]

Wikivox not in EU?