Pixel Art Heart Collect: A pixel art heart pickup being collected: the heart pops in and bobs, then swells, flashes white and bursts into a ring, little floating hearts and sparkles.

Pixel Art Heart Collect

A pixel art heart pickup being collected: the heart pops in and bobs, then swells, flashes white and bursts into a ring, little floating hearts and sparkles. Plays once per loop, for health pickups in platformers and roguelikes.

Pixel Art Heart Collect is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 1.6 seconds, drawn on a 256 by 256 canvas at 4x pixels. It is built from 5 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 48 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 1.6, 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 1.6 s loop.

Pixel Art Heart Collect at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.4 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Heart Collect is pixel art, drawn at 4x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 5 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: flipbook sprites, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom).

It loops seamlessly every 1.6 s, and 4 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. To change its colour, select "Heart glow" in the studio and edit Colour A and Colour B. 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. Heart glowparticles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  2. HeartspriteA placed image. Extras: hit flash and keyframed motion.
  3. Burst ringparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.03 s. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
  4. Flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.03 s. It shrinks as it ages. Colour: white.
  5. Little heartsparticlesOne burst of 8 rings at 1.03 s. They fall under gravity and slow down with drag. Colour: white.
  6. Sparkle pixelsparticles / additiveOne burst of 12 image sprites from a ring at 1.03 s. They slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.

DETAILS

Length
1.6 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
256 x 256, pixel art at 4x
Layers
5 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whiteredpale red
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, heart, heart pickup, health, collect, pickup, heal, platformer

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.

MORE Pixel Art World

Pixel Art Star Collect particle effectPixel Art Star CollectPixel Art Coin Burst particle effectPixel Art Coin BurstPixel Art Footstep Dust particle effectPixel Art Footstep DustPixel Art Gem Shine particle effectPixel Art Gem ShinePixel Art Geyser Eruption particle effectPixel Art Geyser EruptionPixel Art Potion Bubbles particle effectPixel Art Potion BubblesPixel Art Spinning Coin particle effectPixel Art Spinning CoinPixel Art Water Splash particle effectPixel Art Water Splash

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Heart Pickup particle effectHeart PickupStar Pickup particle effectStar PickupBrick Break particle effectBrick BreakCheckpoint Activated particle effectCheckpoint ActivatedCoin Magnet particle effectCoin MagnetCoin Magnet Collect particle effectCoin Magnet Collect

All Pixel Art World effects or the full library.