Pixel Wheels
by agateau · open source
Race pixel-art cars around nine tracks seen from above, firing guns, mines and missiles at your rivals. Free, open source, and playable offline from start to finish.
Needs:Android 4.4+ · works offline
2113 Apps is independent, not affiliated with or endorsed by agateau. Official sources: agateau.com · source code on GitHub.
- Version
- 1.0.1
- Size
- 29.4 MB
- Requires
- Android 4.4+
- Updated
- 2025-12-20
Screenshots
Introduction
Pixel Wheels is a retro top-down racing game by Aurélien Gâteau. You drive small pixel-art cars round tracks seen from above and pick up bonuses on the way: a gun, mines, missiles and a turbo. It is free and open source, and the Android version needs no account and no internet connection.
What’s in the game
- Three championships of three tracks each: Country Life (Welcome!, River, Flood), Square Mountains (Let it snow, Don’t slip!, Up, up, up… and down!) and Pix Cities (Blocky Town, Tiny sur Mer, The Island).
- 15 vehicles, from a police car to a Santa truck and a harvester. Most have to be unlocked with in-game challenges.
- Three difficulty levels: Casual, Pro and Legendary.
- Quick Race for a single track and Championship for the full series, with points and total times at the end.
Controls
On a phone you choose between two touch layouts. Pie buttons, the default, put round controls in the bottom corners; Side buttons put steering on the left edge and braking and accelerating on the right. A keyboard works as well, and the game can appear on the Android TV home screen. It only runs in landscape.
Gamepads are supported, but there is an open report of a gamepad that works in the menus and does nothing in a race (see the questions below).
Open source, art included
The README sets out the licences: “The game logic is licensed under GPL 3.0 or later”, “The rest of the code is licensed under Apache 2.0” and “Assets are licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.” The music is credited separately; four tracks are by FoxSynergy under CC BY 3.0. The developer has replaced a font before because its licence “made it non-suitable for FOSS games”.
The README is also blunt about clones: “if your plan is to take the game, slap some ads on it, and release it without releasing the sources of your changes: the license forbids you to do so, go find another prey.” The file here is the developer’s own release, unchanged.
About this file
- This is the developer’s own build of version 1.0.1 from the project’s GitHub releases, signed by Aurélien Gâteau. F-Droid builds the same version from source and signs it with F-Droid’s key, so the two can’t be installed over each other; neither can the Google Play version unless it uses the same key, which we haven’t checked.
- It is the “itchio” flavour. The developer explains: “there are two APK flavors: Google and itchio. The Google one does not contain the support links, because those are against Google Play policies.” So this one has a Support page with links to the developer’s site.
- The 29.4 MB file runs on ARM and x86, 32- and 64-bit, from Android 4.4.
- It has no internet permission, and our scan found no trackers and no ad libraries. The game’s “Report bug” button opens Android’s share menu with an email to the developer and the game’s log file attached; nothing goes out unless you send it yourself.
- The permission list includes READ_PHONE_STATE and storage access. The game’s own manifest declares no permissions, so these were most likely added by one of its libraries when the app was built, and the game’s code never asks for them. On Android 6.0 and later, an app can’t read the phone state without asking you first.
What’s inside the APK
Trackers
No code matching the Exodus Privacy tracker signatures.
Native code
Runs on 64-bit and older 32-bit ARM phones.
Android versions
Built for Android 15 (target API 35).
Permissions
3 of them need your approval first.
CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017); armeabi; armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM, older and budget phones); x86 (32-bit Intel, emulators); x86_64 (64-bit Intel, emulators and Chromebooks).
Asks you first (3)
Android shows a prompt before the app can use these.
- Read shared storage (Android 12 and older) · READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
- Read phone status and identity · READ_PHONE_STATE
- Write shared storage (Android 10 and older) · WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
Defined by other apps (1)
Permissions that belong to another app or to this app itself.
- com.agateau.tinywheels.android.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION
More Information
- Package name
- com.agateau.tinywheels.android
- Version
- 1.0.1 (build 33)
- File size
- 29.4 MB (29,444,553 bytes)
- Requires
- Android 4.4 or later
- Category
- Racing Games
- Developer
- agateau
- Source code
- github.com/agateau/pixelwheels
- Released
- Dec 20, 2025
- Signer SHA-256
- 8a8ff484fdd780b3fbdb14183a5373dbe11b026edd3e6fec297e5f10aa3f32f1
- File SHA-256
- 78fe17b60412358cb3b0b9e0052df3c9a8e2b42359bdca6d56a05982eb5a9a12
- Checked
- , against the 1.0.1 release on GitHub · how we check · verify it yourself
Common questions
Is this APK the official Pixel Wheels release?
Yes. It is the file from the project’s 1.0.1 release on GitHub, byte for byte, and it matches the SHA-256 checksum GitHub publishes for it. It is signed with the certificate we recorded when we first checked Pixel Wheels (SHA-256 8a8ff484fdd780b3fbdb14183a5373dbe11b026edd3e6fec297e5f10aa3f32f1); a release signed with a different key would not be published here.
What Android version does Pixel Wheels need?
Android 4.4 or later (API level 19). Version 1.0.1 is built for Android 15 (target API 35). Runs on 64-bit and older 32-bit ARM phones.
Can Pixel Wheels access the internet?
No. The APK doesn’t request Android’s internet permission, so the app can’t go online by itself. In total it declares 4 permissions, and 3 of them need your approval first.
Does Pixel Wheels contain trackers?
No known trackers: our scan of version 1.0.1 found no code matching the Exodus Privacy tracker signatures. The scan covers known tracker libraries; it doesn’t show what data the app itself sends.
Can I play multiplayer on Android?
Not in the Android version. The multiplayer button is only built into the desktop game, where split-screen supports up to four players (“Multi-player has been changed to use a split-screen again and supports up to 4 players”, says the changelog). On Android the menu offers Quick Race and Championship against computer drivers.
How do I unlock more cars and championships?
By playing. The next championship opens when you “Finish third or better” in the previous one, and many cars come with their own challenge, such as hitting a number of vehicles with a missile. The unlock conditions are shown in the game.
My gamepad works in the menus but not in a race. Is that a known problem?
Yes, there is an open report about it: “I can use the gamepad to navigate around the menus but cannot do anything in the game.” The touch controls and a keyboard are not affected.
Why is the package name com.agateau.tinywheels.android?
The developer explains: “The game used to be called Tiny Wheels, but I found out there is already a Tiny Wheels game on Steam, so I had to rename it.” The package name stayed because Google Play doesn’t allow changing it for an existing game. If another download site shows Pixel Wheels under a different package name or developer, it isn’t the official game.
Recent releases
| Version | Released | Size |
|---|---|---|
| v1.0.1 · this download | Dec 20, 2025 | 29.4 MB |
| v1.0.0 | Dec 16, 2025 | 29.4 MB |
| v0.26.0 | Sep 11, 2024 | 28.3 MB |
| v0.25.1 | Sep 21, 2023 | 28.2 MB |
| v0.25.0 | Aug 31, 2023 | 28.2 MB |
Recent releases on the project’s GitHub. We host and check only the newest one. Full changelog.
Alternatives and related apps
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SuperTuxKart A full 3D kart racer with more tracks, story mode and online races, if your phone can handle it.Download