Pixel Art Boss Explosion: Pixel art boss explosion: small blasts pop one after another over the boss while it flickers and shakes, faster and faster, then a white-out finale with a huge fireball, a shock ring, light spokes and flying rocks.

Pixel Art Boss Explosion

Pixel art boss explosion: small blasts pop one after another over the boss while it flickers and shakes, faster and faster, then a white-out finale with a huge fireball, a shock ring, light spokes and flying rocks. Use it for boss deaths and big enemy kills in action games, shmups and platformers; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Boss Explosion is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 2.6 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 18 particle emitters and 2 glowing strokes. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 78 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 2.6, 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 2.6 s loop.

Pixel Art Boss Explosion at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.28 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Boss Explosion is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 18 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, sub-emitters set off by other particles, collisions, turbulence and post filters (bloom and colour grade). 3 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 2.6 s, and 15 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.19 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Fireball" in the studio and edit the Colour over Life gradient. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are. Pixel size in the Pixel art panel sets how chunky it looks.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Floor lightparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.15 s. Colour: orange.
  2. Pop fireparticles / additive11 timed bursts of soft glows from a disc, 77 in all. They float upward and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to deep red over each life.
  3. Pop flashparticles / additive11 single particles at set times. Colour: white.
  4. Pop sparksparticles / additive11 timed bursts of streaks, 66 in all. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  5. Pop ringparticles / additive11 single particles at set times. They grow as they age. Colours range between white and pale gold.
  6. SmokeparticlesSmoke puffs set off by "Fireball" and "Fire plume". They spawn "Smoke lit tops" as they appear, float upward, wander on turbulence and grow as they age. Colour: dark grey.
  7. Smoke lit topsparticlesSmoke puffs set off by "Smoke". They float upward, wander on turbulence, grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from grey to dark grey over each life.
  8. Fireballparticles / additiveOne burst of 39 soft glows from a disc at 1.17 s. They set off "Smoke" when they die, float upward, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to deep red over each life.
  9. Fire plumeparticles / additiveOne burst of 13 soft glows from a disc at 1.19 s. They set off "Smoke" when they die, float upward, grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from pale gold to deep red over each life.
  10. Flame licksparticles / additiveOne burst of 16 streaks at 1.17 s. They float upward and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.

10 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
2.6 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
18 emitters and 2 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whiteorangepale goldgrey
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0), Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
pixel art, boss explosion, boss defeat, explosion, chain explosion, death, finale

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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