Pixel Art Ice Hit: Pixel art ice hit: a shard streaks in and crystal spikes jut out of the target and freeze in place with a frost ring and cold mist, then shatter into chips that bounce while the frost thaws.

Pixel Art Ice Hit

Pixel art ice hit: a shard streaks in and crystal spikes jut out of the target and freeze in place with a frost ring and cold mist, then shatter into chips that bounce while the frost thaws. Use it for ice spells, frost damage and freezing hits in action games and RPGs; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Ice Hit is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 1.4 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 10 particle emitters and 3 glowing strokes. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 42 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 1.4, 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 1.4 s loop.

Pixel Art Ice Hit at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.22 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Ice Hit is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 10 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, sub-emitters set off by other particles, collisions, particles stretched along their motion 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 1.4 s, and 7 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.16 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Flash 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. Floor frost, Frost coreparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.14 s. Colour: cyan.
  2. Ice shard streakstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path. Its start and end are keyframed, so it writes itself on and off.
  3. Ice spikesparticles / additiveOne burst of 8 rings from a ring at 0.14 s. They set off "Ice chips" when they die, set off "Chip glints" when they die, grow as they age and turn to face where they move. Colour: white.
  4. Ice chipsparticles / additivePixels set off by "Ice spikes". They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something, spin and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to blue over each life.
  5. Chip glintsparticles / additiveSparks set off by "Ice spikes". They swell and then shrink away. Colour: white.
  6. Frost ring, Frost ring outerstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  7. Cold mistparticlesOne burst of 10 smoke puffs at 0.16 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  8. Frost flakesparticles / additiveA stream of snowflakes from a disc, its rate keyframed over the loop. They sway from side to side and swell and then shrink away. Colours range between white and pale cyan.
  9. Frost sparksparticles / additiveOne burst of 14 streaks at 0.14 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to cyan over each life.
  10. Flash glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.14 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: cyan.

One more layer is in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
1.4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
10 emitters and 3 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whitecyanpale cyanblue
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
pixel art, ice, frost, freeze, ice hit, impact, damage

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 Combat

Pixel Art Critical Hit Star particle effectPixel Art Critical Hit StarPixel Art Fire Hit particle effectPixel Art Fire HitPixel Art Hit Effect particle effectPixel Art Hit EffectPixel Art Ice Shard Projectile particle effectPixel Art Ice Shard ProjectilePixel Art Blood Hit particle effectPixel Art Blood HitPixel Art Cannon Shot particle effectPixel Art Cannon ShotPixel Art Electric Shock particle effectPixel Art Electric ShockPixel Art Hammer Smash particle effectPixel Art Hammer Smash

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Frost Arrow particle effectFrost ArrowIce Shard Burst particle effectIce Shard BurstPixel Art Frozen Status particle effectPixel Art Frozen StatusPixel Art Ice Lance particle effectPixel Art Ice LanceCel-Shaded Ice Shards particle effectCel-Shaded Ice ShardsCryo Grenade particle effectCryo Grenade

All Pixel Art Combat effects or the full library.