After some time away from publishing, Xitilon is returning to Xbox. It’s coming up to nearly three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and around that time, we spoke with the Ukraine-based game developer and publisher about his experience living through the first moments of Europe’s biggest land invasion since World War II. Now, we’ve caught up with Xitilon to see what’s in store for Xbox players and how he’s holding up.Xitilon has multiple games planned for Xbox in 2025It’s been a while since Xitilon regularly published games on Xbox, but this will change in 2025Xitilon says the situation where he is in Ukraine is “vaguely stabilizing,” though there are still frequent blackoutsOn top of one game published already this year, Xitilon has six more titles in the worksSince our last interview in early 2022, Xitilon’s publishing on Xbox has been sporadic. Known for bringing a flurry of easy gamerscore games, such as Castle of No Escape and ReactorX, to the platform, we’ve only seen a handful of titles make their way to Xbox in recent years. According to Xitilon, his time has been spent bringing smaller games to PlayStation, games that are “too small” for Xbox, but as the situation is “vaguely stabilizing” where he is, Xitilon has a lot of plans for Team Green in 2025. That being said, Xitilon is still contending with blackouts, constant air-raid warnings, and living life under martial law.”I’ve had a few months of long blackouts (and network and water supply interruptions) due to the bombings of the power stations,” Xitilon says. “Luckily, the winter isn’t very cold, but I still kept warm with a gas stove, which is a pretty risky thing. “As we’re not directly on the front line, a lot of jobless, homeless people evacuate here to start a new life. Generally, we’re safe, but the air raid warnings happen often, and occasionally, something explodes somewhere, setting off the alarm of every car on the block. Sometimes, you can hear explosions, but it’s our own anti-air defense working. In other cases, it’s just training, not an actual defense. The usual lightning and thunder also exist, but as a result of the situation, your first thought is, ‘What’s this new bombing about?'” Journey of Johann: Grasslands launches for Xbox next weekXitilon’s emotions are “rollercoasting” between feelings of stress and uncertainty, and that reality, after all this time under threat, “raises unusual questions.” He says that he “sometimes can’t tell between an explosion and neighboring refugee children slamming a ball into a metal garage door” and that he’s unable to listen to music or play games that feature siren noises or the sounds of machinery and engines. “I switch to something else as soon as I hear that.” According to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, in 2022 alone, air-raid sirens rang out across Ukraine 14,870 times. After three years of air-raid warnings and explosions, Xitilon is almost becoming indifferent about these sirens. “Would you go down to a bomb shelter if you hear an air raid siren? Sure thing. Would you go down if that happens for the 10th time, 20th time, or 50th time? After a year of martial law? How about three years? My only reaction to them now is to go further into the building, to be behind two walls, unless we expect a lot of missiles [at that exact moment].”Crystal Ball of Firmament coming to Xbox in 2025Each day, adapting to the frequent, random blackouts, Xitilon continues to work on games, though he’s mostly now porting titles for new external clients as it’s currently easier to get a one-time project out of the door than supporting a game with updates for years. If you’ve been following Xitilon’s work and noticed that publishing rights for games have switched back over to their respective developers, this is the reason why. The electricity and internet are just too unreliable. Xitilon wants to empower indie game developers and help them with their projects, not just take a cut of the revenue. In some cases, Xitilon says he has been able to financially support some smaller developers in the country so they can continue to make games after being forced to relocate and/or after losing jobs or equipment. Although Xitilon is primarily known for releasing quick completions and 1,000 Gamerscore updates for these games, it seems that we could be in for some tougher titles in 2025. While Xitilon advises developers of what’s possible and why when it comes to title updates, adding easy achievements to a game is always up to the developer. “Some game developers are against the updates or don’t believe they should roll out an update without new content, despite rules being clear,” Xitilon says. “It’s in full compliance with the official Xbox rules.” He adds there are plans to launch “a lot of hard games” through ID@Xbox this year. Tile-based puzzle game Ah, Love! heads to Xbox in 2025Last month, Xitilon published his first game of 2025: Cyber Tank 2, a Sokoban-style puzzle game that is peppered with some interesting mechanics, such as crumbling floors and teleporters. Naturally, Cyber Tank 2 is an easy completion (if you follow a guide), and there are three versions, each with their own stack of achievements, available in a cheap bundle. Also coming to Xbox in the months ahead are action-adventure puzzle-platformer Journey of Johann, tile-based puzzle game Ah, Love!, a compilation of arcade-like bite-sized games with One Button Games 5-in-1 Vol. 2, precision platformer Fall Asleep, top-down puzzle game Space Filler, and Crystal Ball of Firmament, a platformer where you fast forward time to influence the environment and enemies.From the outside looking in, it’s hard to see when this war will end, especially with Putin recently refusing direct talks with Zelenskyy. Xitilon tells me the Ukrainian people are doing their best to live a normal life, infrastructure has improved, and there is optimism the war could be over by the summer or next year. He will often overhear people muttering phrases like “Everything is going to be okay somehow” or “Aren’t we all doing okay, in the end?” For Xitilon, things are uncertain, but he just keeps on going in the hopes of being able to return to making his own games one day in the future. “It could be much worse, is all I can say.”With Xitilon not on social media, you can keep up with news about upcoming games on his website.
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