Pixel Art Lightning Bolt Projectile: Pixel art lightning bolt projectile: a crackling ball of lightning flies at the target with forks jumping to the floor beneath it, then a bolt slams into the target with a flash, an electric ring and arcs crawling over it.

Pixel Art Lightning Bolt Projectile

Pixel art lightning bolt projectile: a crackling ball of lightning flies at the target with forks jumping to the floor beneath it, then a bolt slams into the target with a flash, an electric ring and arcs crawling over it. Use it for thunder spells and shock attacks in RPGs and action games; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Lightning Bolt Projectile 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 11 particle emitters, 5 lightning bolts and 1 glowing stroke. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds. Some particles draw ribbon trails.

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 Lightning Bolt Projectile at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.22 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Lightning Bolt Projectile gets its crackle from 5 lightning bolts (a new jagged path on every strike), backed by 11 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, ribbon trails, sub-emitters set off by other particles, 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 1.4 s, and 10 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.63 s, so the layers arrive one after another. The bolts strike on their own timers, every 0.08 to 1.4 s. 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 lightparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.6 s. Colour: cyan.
  2. Ground forklightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 0.08 s. It forks into branches.
  3. Ground fork backlightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 0.1 s. It forks into branches.
  4. Ball zapsparticles / additiveSparks set off by "Ball halo". They shrink as they age. Colours range between white and cyan.
  5. Ribbonparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.16 s. Colours range between pale gold and cyan.
  6. Ball haloparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.16 s. Colour: blue.
  7. Ball bodyparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.16 s. Colour: cyan.
  8. Ball heart, Flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.16 s. Colour: white.
  9. Impact boltlightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 1.4 s. It forks into branches.
  10. Crawl arclightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 0.09 s. It forks into branches.

6 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
1.4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
11 emitters, 5 lightning bolts and 1 glowing stroke
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whitecyanpale goldblue
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, lightning bolt, projectile, lightning, electric, spell, shock

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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