Pixel Art Star Collect: A pixel art star pickup: the star pops in and turns, then bursts with a ring and sparkles and flies up to the corner with a sparkle trail, landing in a flash at the counter.

Pixel Art Star Collect

A pixel art star pickup: the star pops in and turns, then bursts with a ring and sparkles and flies up to the corner with a sparkle trail, landing in a flash at the counter. Plays once per loop, for collectibles in platformers and mobile games.

Pixel Art Star Collect is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 1.8 seconds, drawn on a 256 by 256 canvas at 4x pixels. It is built from 7 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 54 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 1.8, 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 1.8 s loop.

Pixel Art Star Collect at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.58 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Star Collect is pixel art, drawn at 4x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 7 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: flipbook sprites, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom).

It loops seamlessly every 1.8 s, and 5 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.22 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Star 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. Star glowparticles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  2. Pickup ringparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.84 s. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  3. Star sparklesparticles / additiveOne burst of 6 rings from a ring at 0.84 s. They play a flipbook animation and slow down with drag. Colours range between pale gold and white.
  4. Sparkle trailparticles / additiveA stream of image sprites, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  5. StarspriteA placed image. Extras: spin and keyframed motion.
  6. Counter flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.22 s. Colour: white.
  7. Counter ringparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.22 s. Colour runs from white to gold over each life.
  8. Counter glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.22 s. Colour: gold.

DETAILS

Length
1.8 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
256 x 256, pixel art at 4x
Layers
7 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whitegoldpale goldorange
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, star, star pickup, collect, collectible, hud, reward, platformer

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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