Haunted House Lightning: Storm clouds roll over a hilltop haunted mansion as lightning strikes behind it in double flashes that throw the house into silhouette, bats burst from the tower and rain slants down.

Haunted House Lightning

Storm clouds roll over a hilltop haunted mansion as lightning strikes behind it in double flashes that throw the house into silhouette, bats burst from the tower and rain slants down. A seamless 2D horror background loop.

Haunted House Lightning is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 4 seconds, drawn on a 512 by 288 canvas. It is built from 5 particle emitters and 2 lightning bolts. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

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.

Haunted House Lightning at 8 moments, from 0 s to 3.5 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Haunted House Lightning gets its crackle from 2 lightning bolts (a new jagged path on every strike), backed by 5 particle emitters. One technique stands out: post filters (bloom and vignette). A scene layer (ground or a prop) shows in the studio for context and stays out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 4 s, and 3 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 2.55 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Storm clouds" in the studio and edit Colour A and Colour B. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Sky flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.55 s. Colour: blue.
  2. Sky flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 2.55 s. Colour: blue.
  3. Lightning, Lightninglightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 4 s. It forks into branches.
  4. Storm cloudsparticlesA steady stream of smoke puffs across a box. Colour: deep blue.
  5. BatsparticlesOne burst of 7 little creatures from a disc at 0.67 s. They sway from side to side. Colour: black.
  6. Rainparticles / additiveA steady stream of streaks along a line. Colour: blue.

DETAILS

Length
4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
512 x 288, HD
Layers
5 emitters and 2 lightning bolts
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
bluewhitedeep blue
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
haunted house, lightning, storm, mansion, halloween, background, rain, horror

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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