Pixel Art Sandstorm: A pixel art sandstorm over desert dunes: dark and light dust banks, sand ribbons, fast grain streaks and tumbling grit blow across the screen, thickening in two gusts per loop.

Pixel Art Sandstorm

A pixel art sandstorm over desert dunes: dark and light dust banks, sand ribbons, fast grain streaks and tumbling grit blow across the screen, thickening in two gusts per loop. Loops and tiles left to right, for desert levels and wasteland travel.

Pixel Art Sandstorm is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 4 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 7 particle emitters. Some particles draw ribbon trails.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 120 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 square, seamless texture for a Beam that runs bottom to top, its bottom edge at Attachment0. Set TextureMode to Wrap and TextureLength to the Width; TextureSpeed scrolls it from Attachment0 to Attachment1. 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 4 s loop.

Pixel Art Sandstorm at 8 moments, from 0 s to 3.5 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Sandstorm is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 6 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: ribbon trails, flipbook sprites, particles stretched along their motion and keyframed parameters. 6 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

Every layer emits continuously and the 4 s loop closes seamlessly, so it can run for as long as you need. To change its colour, select "Dark dust banks" 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. Dark dust banksparticlesA stream of rings across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. They play a flipbook animation. Colour: deep orange.
  2. Light dust banksparticlesA stream of rings across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. They play a flipbook animation. Colour: orange.
  3. Far grainsparticlesA steady stream of image sprites across a box. They sway from side to side. Colour: orange.
  4. Sand ribbonsparticlesA stream of ribbon trails across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. They sway from side to side. Colour: pale gold.
  5. Grain streaksparticlesA stream of image sprites across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colours range between orange and pale orange.
  6. Tumbling gritparticlesA stream of image sprites across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. They sway from side to side and spin. Colour: deep orange.

DETAILS

Length
4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
7 emitters
Blend
Mostly normal
Colours
orangepale golddeep orangepale orange
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, sandstorm, sand, desert, dust, wind, weather, tileable

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.

Step by step: Unity, Godot 4, Roblox, GameMaker, Phaser and PixiJS, Aseprite, Web games (live runtime).

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