Flickering Light Bulb: A bare light bulb sways on its cord, buzzes, stutters and dies with a spark, glows faintly, then flickers back on, its light cone and floor pool following the swing while a moth circles.

Flickering Light Bulb

A bare light bulb sways on its cord, buzzes, stutters and dies with a spark, glows faintly, then flickers back on, its light cone and floor pool following the swing while a moth circles. A seamless 2D horror prop loop.

Flickering Light Bulb is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 4 seconds, drawn on a 256 by 384 canvas. It is built from 3 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 120 frames at 30 fps. Use it in commercial games, no credit needed.

Licence: use it in any project, including paid commercial games such as a game sold on Steam. There is no per-project licence to buy and no credit needed. Terms.

Roblox: the download is a flipbook for a ParticleEmitter. Set FlipbookLayout to Grid8x8, FlipbookMode to OneShot and Lifetime to 4, then emit one particle per cycle. Roblox setup.

REMIX WITH AI

Try:

Left empty, it just opens in the agent, free. Each change is one AI build, and you start with free builds.

Engine data for Unity, Godot, GameMaker and Aseprite comes with a plan: open it in the studio.

OPEN IN THE STUDIO

Change the colours, timing or size, or export for Unity, Godot 4, GameMaker, Phaser, PixiJS and Aseprite.

Try variations: new colours, motion and shapes of this effect, free in the studio.

FRAME BY FRAME

8 evenly spaced moments across the 4 s loop.

Flickering Light Bulb at 8 moments, from 0 s to 3.5 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Flickering Light Bulb is a compact effect made from 3 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: paths, collisions, particles stretched along their motion, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom and vignette). 2 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 4 s, and one layer fires in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. To change its colour, select "Socket sparks" in the studio and edit the Colour over Life gradient. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Room glowsprite / additiveA placed glow.
  2. Floor lightsprite / additiveA placed glow. Extras: keyframed motion.
  3. Light cone, Bulb glowsprite / additiveA placed image. Extras: keyframed motion.
  4. Light bulbspriteA placed image. Extras: keyframed motion.
  5. Socket sparksparticles / additive2 timed bursts of streaks from a disc, 14 in all. They fall under gravity and bounce when they hit something. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  6. MothparticlesA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop. It travels along a path.
  7. Dust in lightparticles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows across a box. They sway from side to side. Colours range between gold and orange.

DETAILS

Length
4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
256 x 384, HD
Layers
3 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
goldwhitedeep orangeorange
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
light bulb, flicker, lamp, abandoned, basement, horror, light, loop

USING IT IN YOUR GAME

Phaser, PixiJS
The PNG sheet is a plain grid of frames that both can slice. A TexturePacker JSON atlas comes with a plan, from the studio.
Unity
Import the PNG sheet as a Sprite with Mode set to Multiple and slice it, or open the effect in the studio for a ready-made grid.
Godot 4, GameMaker, Aseprite
Open it in the studio and pick your engine in Export: with a plan, it writes the files that engine imports.
Web and chat
The GIF plays anywhere; the APNG keeps soft edges on any background.
Blend mode
This effect is made of light. For the same glow in your game, draw the sprite with additive blending, or export it on black from the studio for additive shaders.

Step by step: Unity, Godot 4, Roblox, GameMaker, Phaser and PixiJS, Aseprite, Web games (live runtime). Drawn with additive blending: see glow effects without a black box.

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