Pixel Art Shotgun Blast: Pixel art shotgun blast: a big star of fire and flame cone, a spray of pellet tracers that pepper the target with spark pops, smoke that hangs and drifts, then a pump that flips out a red shell.

Pixel Art Shotgun Blast

Pixel art shotgun blast: a big star of fire and flame cone, a spray of pellet tracers that pepper the target with spark pops, smoke that hangs and drifts, then a pump that flips out a red shell. Use it for shotguns and spread weapons in shooters, roguelites and run-and-gun games; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Shotgun Blast is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 1.2 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 10 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 36 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 1.2, 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 1.2 s loop.

Pixel Art Shotgun Blast at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.05 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Shotgun Blast 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: sub-emitters set off by other particles, collisions, turbulence, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (bloom and colour grade). 4 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 1.2 s, and 8 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0.14 s to 0.66 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Muzzle 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. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Floor light, Muzzle glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.14 s. Colour: orange.
  2. Blast smokeparticlesOne burst of 12 smoke puffs from a disc at 0.16 s. They wander on turbulence, grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colours range between light grey and grey.
  3. Flame coneparticles / additiveOne burst of 18 soft glows at 0.14 s. They turn to face where they move and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
  4. Muzzle starparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.14 s. Colour: white.
  5. Pelletsparticles / additiveOne burst of 11 streaks at 0.14 s. They set off "Pellet hit" on impact, set off "Pellet sparks" on impact and vanish when they hit something. Colours range between white and pale gold.
  6. Pellet hitparticles / additiveSparks set off by "Pellets". They shrink as they age. Colours range between white and pale gold.
  7. Pellet sparksparticles / additiveStreaks set off by "Pellets". They fall under gravity and bounce when they hit something. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  8. Straw bitsparticlesOne burst of 12 pixels from a disc at 0.22 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something, spin and slow down with drag. Colour: gold.
  9. ShellparticlesA single particle at 0.66 s. It spins. Colour: red.

DETAILS

Length
1.2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
10 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whiteorangepale goldgold
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
pixel art, shotgun, gun, muzzle flash, pellets, shooter, blast

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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