Pixel Art Thunderstorm: A pixel art thunderstorm loop: rain falls in three depths and splashes on the ground while a forked lightning bolt strikes once per loop and lights up the clouds and sky.

Pixel Art Thunderstorm

A pixel art thunderstorm loop: rain falls in three depths and splashes on the ground while a forked lightning bolt strikes once per loop and lights up the clouds and sky. For night storms in platformers and RPG maps.

Pixel Art Thunderstorm is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 3 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 14 particle emitters and 2 lightning bolts.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 90 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 3, 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 3 s loop.

Pixel Art Thunderstorm at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.63 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Thunderstorm gets its crackle from 2 lightning bolts (a new jagged path on every strike), backed by 14 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: sub-emitters set off by other particles, flipbook sprites, collisions, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (bloom and colour grade). 7 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 3 s, and 6 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 2.25 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Storm clouds" 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. Sky flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.05 s. Colour: blue.
  2. Distant bolt, Lightning boltlightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 3 s. It forks into branches.
  3. Storm cloudsparticlesA steady stream of rings across a box. They play a flipbook animation. Colour: deep blue.
  4. Cloud lightparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.03 s. Colour: pale blue.
  5. Far rainparticlesA steady stream of image sprites along a line. They vanish when they hit something. Colour: deep blue.
  6. RainparticlesA steady stream of image sprites along a line. They set off "Small splash" on impact and vanish when they hit something. Colour: blue.
  7. Wet glintsparticlesA steady stream of image sprites across a box. Colour: deep blue.
  8. Small splashparticlesImage sprites set off by "Rain". They fall under gravity. Colour: blue.
  9. Strike lightparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.05 s. Colour: pale blue.
  10. Strike sparksparticles / additiveOne burst of 14 image sprites at 1.06 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to blue over each life.

5 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
14 emitters and 2 lightning bolts
Blend
Mostly normal
Colours
bluepale bluewhitedeep blue
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, thunderstorm, rain, lightning, storm, weather, pixel rain, loop

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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