Pixel Art Level Up Pillar: A pixel art level up: a golden ring writes itself round the hero, then a pillar of light bursts up through him with a floor shockwave, gold sparks, climbing rings and rising arrows before it narrows away.

Pixel Art Level Up Pillar

A pixel art level up: a golden ring writes itself round the hero, then a pillar of light bursts up through him with a floor shockwave, gold sparks, climbing rings and rising arrows before it narrows away. Plays once per loop, for RPG and action game level ups.

Pixel Art Level Up Pillar 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 6 particle emitters and 7 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 Level Up Pillar at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.28 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Level Up Pillar is drawn with 7 glowing strokes, lines with a hot core and a soft glow traced along their shapes, plus 6 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: flipbook sprites, particles stretched along their motion, keyframed parameters 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 2 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.52 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To recolour the line, select "Floor ring (far)" and change Core and Glow; Start and End set how much of it is drawn. Pixel size in the Pixel art panel sets how chunky it looks.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Floor glowparticles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  2. Floor ring (far), Floor ring (near)stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle. Its start and end are keyframed, so it writes itself on and off.
  3. Gathering motesparticles / additiveA stream of image sprites from a ring, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colours range between white and gold.
  4. Light pillar, Pillar coresprite / additiveA placed image. Extras: keyframed motion.
  5. Shock ring, Climbing ring 1, Climbing ring 2 +2stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  6. Gold sparksparticles / additiveOne burst of 34 image sprites from a disc at 0.42 s. They fall under gravity and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  7. Up arrowsparticles / additiveA stream of rings across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colours range between gold and pale gold.
  8. Twinklesparticles / additive9 single particles at set times. They play a flipbook animation. Colour: pale gold.
  9. Drifting sparklesparticles / additiveA stream of image sprites across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colour runs from white to gold over each life.

DETAILS

Length
2.6 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
6 emitters and 7 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
orangepale goldwhitegold
Sprites
Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
pixel art, level up, level up pixel art, pillar of light, rpg, gold, reward, buff

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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