Pixel Art Earth Spikes

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Earth Spikes is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 26 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, sprite modules, a sprite dissolve, collisions 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 1.8 s, and 21 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.23 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Slam dust" 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. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

1. Floor crackstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path. Its start and end are keyframed, so it writes itself on and off.
2. Slam dustparticlesOne burst of 8 smoke puffs across a box at 0.14 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
3. Rock spike 1, Rock spike 2, Rock spike 3 +2spriteA placed image. Extras: squash and stretch and dissolve.
4. Rubble 1, Rubble 2, Rubble 3 +2particlesA steady stream of pixels from the sprite's dissolving edge. They fall under gravity and bounce when they hit something. Colour: grey.
5. Spike dust 1particlesOne burst of 7 smoke puffs across a box at 0.24 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
6. Spike chips 1particlesOne burst of 7 pixels at 0.24 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something, spin and slow down with drag. Colour: grey.
7. Tip glint 1particles / additiveA single particle at 0.32 s. It swells and then shrinks away. Colour: white.
8. Crumble dust 1particlesOne burst of 5 smoke puffs across a box at 1.07 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
9. Spike dust 2particlesOne burst of 7 smoke puffs across a box at 0.31 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
10. Spike chips 2particlesOne burst of 7 pixels at 0.31 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something, spin and slow down with drag. Colour: grey.

14 more layers are in the studio.