WIP… Friday?!WIP… Friday?!WIP… Friday?!June 12, 2026June 12, 2026June 12, 2026

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Hey, everyone! I’m here with another work-in-progress post! I’ve been programming all week on Atmocopter, so there’s not a whole lot to show off visually, hence the later-in-the-week WIP post.

Here’s everything I got done!

• Made the player’s and enemy’s shots have a larger cloud displacer, and made clouds displace longer on projectile impact. This gives the player a little boost to help figure out what’s behind the clouds.
  
• Rebalanced timing of the Hopbot-L enemy. It now stays in the idle-closed state for less time and in the idle-open state for a little longer so you can hit it more, but I also decreased the time between its attacks. The GIF below isn’t representative of the new timing, but I wanted to share him again because he’s so dang cute.
  

• Fixed Cyclopter’s lightning attack knocking away hover platforms, which was pretty unfair.
  
• Made Sentry missiles destructible. (Thanks to the player at VGM Con who suggested that!)
• Made fan switch object always stop on first frame when deactivated. Some players were finding it hard to read what the object was if they had spun it a bit with wind from a fan and then pulled the fan away.
  Here’s the first frame…
  
  Versus one of the middle frames:
  
  The middle frames are much harder to read and also aren’t representative of the object’s collision!
• And the biggest change: Bringing objects from previous rooms is now disallowed! While players found it fun to figure out they could grab and bring objects like hover platforms to the next room, it really ended up breaking the game flow too much. Now that this is disallowed, I feel much more comfortable having puzzles remain complete when the player dies and respawns. All the puzzle objects will still be there, but you won’t be able to take them with you!

I was hoping to get an in-game GIF of an animated tileset in action this week, but I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole of refactoring. The engine technically supports animated tilesets and would just need a few small changes to make them work, but I wanted to make sure my editor could also handle it. That lead to realizing that the asset importing code is really complicated and that the external asset refreshing code can’t make use of the asset importing code, so I’m currently working on changing it up.

So, let’s instead look at some animated tiles for the tileset via Aseprite!

Above, you can see some tiles with simple animated flashing lights. I don’t want to overdo the animated tiles! I’ve also redesigned some of the alternate tiles for this tileset. In the top left you can also check out a few tiles that are used in the editor! The green arrows are transition tiles that I use to mark room exits, and the skull is used to mark bottomless pits.

Above are a few more interesting animated tiles. This world is “Propulsion Lab,” so I figured it needed some fans and turbines! There are still a few tiles left to draw, so I’ll be working on that soon.

Long story short- Lots of cool stuff in the works for Atmocopter as I gear up for 2D Con later this summer! See you next week with our regularly-scheduled pixel art assets.

-Will

Super Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects Gigapackv2.4.0v2.4.0v2.4.0

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Hey, everyone! I’m here on this wonderful Friday night to present Super Pixel Effects Gigapack version 2.4.0! This time, we’re focusing on some straightforward fantasy effects, plus the biggest and bounciest “?” you’ve ever seen!

In addition to the buff/debuff you saw on WIP Wednesday, this update features two looping status effect animations: poison, and sparkling (great for indicating a rare item!). Finally, the last newcomer is an expressive giant question mark! It’d make a great help icon, or perhaps the visual flair for a pivotal story moment in your game. The question mark pauses in the middle of the animation- Feel free to hang on that frame as long as you want, before playing the rest to have it disappear. I really love the buff/debuff, but I think the question mark is my favorite of the bunch this time!

Ready to get it for your game?

Super Pixel Effects Gigapack v2.4.0 can be downloaded from its dedicated Patreon page.
This download is currently available to $5+ patrons.

The free version is available here. Try it out!

Not into Patreon? Never fear- The Gigapack can also be purchased below!

Thank you for your support- See you next week on Work-In-Progress Wednesday!

-Will

WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:June 3, 2026June 3, 2026June 3, 2026

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Hey, everyone- It’s Work-In-Progress Wednesday!

Upcoming Gigapack Effects

I’ve got two brand-new Gigapack effects to show off. Let’s check ’em out:

These two related effects are buff and debuff spells! Thanks to the arrows, it’s immediately obvious that some kind of stat is getting boosted or diminished. These would be perfect for an RPG or any other kind of game where a player charges up for the next turn or the enemy casts a weakening spell on you!

What’s Next?

I’ve got some big news for this Summer… Atmocopter will be back at 2D Con from August 21 – 23!

I’m super excited to continue work on the game, and am hoping to do a big sprint on it and get a whole lot of stuff done. I’d love to bring a new world to the game with fresh new mechanics, but I’d also really like to create the game’s hub area, which has never existed in any previous iteration of the game… So I’m gonna try and do both! Wish me luck.

Gigapack updates will be shifting to a bi-weekly cadence after the next update. Here’s my tentative schedule for this month:

Looking forward to sharing lots of Atmocopter progress and pixel art in all those WIP Wednesdays! It’s not on the schedule, but I’m also mulling a revival of Super Pixel Harvest & Crafting in a similar format to the Gigapack. Possibly this Fall? I love drawing effects, but I kinda miss drawing icons!

That’s all for today- I’ll see you Friday with the next Gigapack update!

-Will

Super Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects Gigapackv2.3.0v2.3.0v2.3.0

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Hey, everyone! I’m here tonight with Super Pixel Effects Gigapack version 2.3.0: The SPLATTER update!

Let’s check out the animations:

So juicy! And they come in different shapes and sizes, too. Perfect for blood effects, alien guts, splashes, and more! They could even double as smoke, using the included gray color theme.

Ready to get it for your game?

Super Pixel Effects Gigapack v2.3.0 can be downloaded from its dedicated Patreon page.
This download is currently available to $5+ patrons.

The free version is available here. Try it out!

Not into Patreon? Never fear- The Gigapack can also be purchased below!

Thank you for your support- See you next time!

-Will

WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:May 27, 2026May 27, 2026May 27, 2026

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Hey, everyone! I’m here again today for another Work-In-Progress Wednesday. This week, I’m working on new splatter animations for the Gigapack!

Upcoming Gigapack Effects

Above, you can see the first completed effect for the next update. Nice and juicy- Definitely one of my best!
I’m planning on making “burst” splatters like above as well as directional splatters, using pieces of the same animations. That means you’ll be able to splat however you want in your games!

Below, you can see a work-in-progress version of another burst splatter.

As you can see, I start with just a single color and animate the silhouette of the splatter. Sometimes I start from the first frame and animate forwards, but I also like to start with the most impactful frame and then draw backwards to the initial frame.

Then, I animate forwards from the most impactful frame and have it dissipate to finish out the animation.

I feel like doing it this way helps me better guide how the splatter should flow, instead of working forwards from the beginning and then watching it and thinking “Oh, that’s not quite right” and having to redo several frames of motion. I also try to think of it like an actual fluid, at least a little bit. The same process works for smoke effects!

Zephyr Time

It’s been a while since we had some Zephyr time! Zeph is doing great and having a fun summer. She just got groomed and feels super soft!

Above: Zephyr chilling out on a hot day.

Above: Little girl in a little field of little flowers.

Above: Me and Zeph posing, with her on an old bench.

That’s all for today- See you Friday with lots of splatters!

-Will

Super Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects Gigapackv2.2.0v2.2.0v2.2.0

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Hey, everyone! I’m here again with more effects in Super Pixel Effects Gigapack version 2.2.0!

Let’s check ’em out:

Five brand new effects have arrived: Two sci-fi charge-up effects, two muzzle flashes (also in the sci-fi category), and a “Level Up” text effect! As always, both large and small versions are included.

If you look closely, compared to the version from the WIP post on Wednesday the green/blue charge-up effect has been updated to have a better balance of the linear particles. The second charge-up effect is a little bigger, but maybe less volatile-looking. Muzzle flashes are a new type of effect for the pack- The first is a small one which I modeled a bit after a real muzzle flash, and the second is a larger, more stylized one suitable for the launch of a big attack. And I think the “Level Up” text speaks for itself!

Ready to get it for your game?

Super Pixel Effects Gigapack v2.2.0 can be downloaded from its dedicated Patreon page.
This download is currently available to $5+ patrons.

The free version is available here. Try it out!

Not into Patreon? Never fear- The Gigapack can also be purchased below!

Thank you for your support- See you next time!

-Will

Mini-WIP Wednesday:Mini-WIP Wednesday:Mini-WIP Wednesday:May 20, 2026May 20, 2026May 20, 2026

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Hey, everyone! I’m here today for just a real quick Work-In-Progress Wednesday, and a sneak peek of one of the new effect animations coming your way this Friday!

This week, we’ll be giving the sci-fi genre some love with brand new “charge up” effects! The one above is the first one completed, and after I finished drawing it I knew I had to show it off. At first, it didn’t have the electricity effect… But I’m really glad I added it! It makes it feel so powerful, like an explosion or attack is about to go off any second.

Aside from art, I’ve also been working on the Gigapack workflow behind the scenes. My checklist for releasing a Gigapack update currently has 46 steps (and that’s AFTER drawing the art!), so automating a little more of it is a good idea all around, because it reduces the chance that I’ll mess something up. Since last week, the workflow has been improved in the following ways:

• The asset list is now automatically copied to the final export folders
• The visual guide and readme are now automatically copied to the “New in Gigapack” folder
• Visual guide GIF generation time is improved on my end (It no longer loads all the frames of every animation if it detects that the GIF already exists.)
• Demo GIF should now be easier to create on my end
• Added checklist item: Copy changelog to “New in Gigapack”

So… that part might not be super exciting, but it is to me! I love a good checklist, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist. If you’re using the “New in Gigapack” zips to upgrade during each update, you’ll now also get the changelog and visual guide changes along with it. Looking forward to using this workflow to make future updates the best they can be!

That’s all for today- See you Friday with new effects!

-Will

Super Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects GigapackSuper Pixel Effects Gigapackv2.1.0v2.1.0v2.1.0

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Hey, everyone! I’m here with a late-night update, bringing you Super Pixel Effects Gigapack version 2.1.0!

This update is all about text effects! I made two demo GIFs this time, to show both the small effects and the large effects.

They’ll look pretty similar, but you can notice that the pixels are much smoother in the second GIF because it’s using a larger font. (The zoom level of the GIF keeps them about the same size for demo purposes.)

This unique update is powered by a new tool I’m working on. With my custom pixel art fonts as input, I can do some clever stuff with my game engine to make these juicy text effects possible. This makes this update the first Gigapack update to technically feature not-fully-hand-pixeled art, since the scaling of each glyph (letter) is done by the application. Nothing I couldn’t do by hand in Aseprite, though! I’ve always embraced experimentation in pixel art, whether it’s Blender 3D, particle simulations, or in this case, a text effect maker! Basically, anything goes as long as I’m in control as the artist- No AI, ever.

The effects turned out just the way I envisioned! Each glyph bounces into place, squashing and stretching as it goes. The keyframes are hand-coded, for now. Once the text has fully appeared, it pauses for a few frames. You can hold this pause as long as you want in your own games, before proceeding to the text’s disappear animation.

I’m hoping I can continue work on this tool and eventually make it available, but for now you can look forward to new text effects in future updates. Of course, lots of hand-pixeled animations are coming your way as well!

Also in this update: All spritesheets have been re-exported to be more reasonable dimensions! No more 8000px+ wide single-row sheets for long animations. All dimensions are now a power of 2 and my sheet maker now tries to make somewhat square-ish sheets.

Ready to get it for your game?

Super Pixel Effects Gigapack v2.1.0 can be downloaded from its dedicated Patreon page.
This download is currently available to $5+ patrons.

The free version is available here. Try it out!

Not into Patreon? Never fear- The Gigapack can also be purchased below!

WIP… Thursday?!WIP… Thursday?!WIP… Thursday?!May 7, 2026May 7, 2026May 7, 2026

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Hey, everyone! I’m here for a Work-In-Progress Wednesday Thursday! On top of already running behind from being sick last week (feeling better this week!), I’ve been dealing with some of my folks’ medical stuff and just got back from the emergency vet to get Zephyr to barf after eating a human medicine pill. (She’s fine!)

So, this is just gonna be a little check-in post, and the next Gigapack update will get moved to next Friday. Here’s a few things I’ve been up to:

Gigapack Spritesheets Update

This issue was brought up by a new patron- Some of the spritesheets in the Gigapack are kind of big. Not tall necessarily, but wide. Some long animations can have a sheet over 8000 pixels wide! This hadn’t been a huge issue before, but some of these sheets are running into some users’ max texture sizes, so I definitely wanted to address the spritesheet layout in the next update.

In the first pic above, you can see the “before…”

And in the second pic, “after!” The original method of spritesheet generation was purely horizontal sheets, while this new method makes more rectangular or square sheets. Each sheet’s width and height is a power of 2, so using them in-game is as optimized as possible! Parsing the sheet’s metadata is the best way to do that- It’s always in the format “filename.png = x y w h”. If you’re importing to Unity or another tool and wish to slice the sheet into individual frames, just take a peek at the metadata to get the frame size and you should be good to go.

In the next update, all spritesheets will be updated to use this new layout.

Localization

So, this is a new one for me. I’ve never really implemented any sort of localization stuff in my games or tools, but as I continue working on SparkBolt Studio and as I write the script for Atmocopter, I’ve been thinking about how I’d go about it. If you’re unfamiliar, “localization” is the process of adapting and translating a product’s text for other regions.

The first step is to have some test data. I wrote some test messages in a spreadsheet and gave them unique IDs, which I’ll use in the game or app instead of directly putting these strings in the program. Then I wrote some Japanese translations (which may or may not be perfect, it’s been a while since I wrote any), and designed a new type of asset for my engine so it can load them.

As you can see above, I’m able to select a language and successfully display the message! For now I’m only displaying it through Dear ImGui, since I haven’t exported a Japanese sprite font to use with the engine’s text class.

Emoji, on the other hand, don’t display since I haven’t added them to the font. I’m not sure how far I’m willing to go to support them at this point, but for now they make a good “missing glyph” test case!

It’s kind of interesting that I’m just getting to a point where I feel like I can write some actual lines of dialogue for Atmocopter, just as I’m getting to the point where I can have an asset format that supports it. While I was at the hospital waiting for my dad yesterday, I got a lot done on Atmocopter’s story outline, so I’m excited to continue work on it!

Next Gigapack Update: New Text Symbols

The next Gigapack update will include text symbols made with a brand new font!

This font is nice and quirky, and I’m going to spell out things like…

• “Wow!”
• “Bonus!”
• “Radical!”
• “Nice!”

…And so on. I haven’t decided yet how the animations will play out, but expect them to be happy, bouncy, and colorful!

Schedule

Here’s my updated tentative schedule for the next month:

I’ll be on a much-needed break starting this weekend, but until then I’m going to continue work on new effects so I can bring you that update next Friday. Zephyr and I are going to enjoy the springtime!

Thank you for your support, and see you again soon! Can’t wait to get more pixel art to you!

-Will

WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:April 29, 2026April 29, 2026April 29, 2026

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Hey, everyone! “I’m here today for another Work-In-Progress Wednesday….” is what I’d like to say, but I’ve been sick this week and am still working on getting better.

So, instead of a look forward, let’s take a look backward today and check out some blasts from the past:

• HeliRobo Prototype: Devlog #1
  The very first video devlog I made, almost exactly 11 years ago! This video shows the origins of Atmocopter. I started playtesting the player’s movement in a level from a totally different game! And boy, was that movement different from today. The player controlled much more like a helicopter or one of those old “lander” style games. From these humble origins, Atmocopter was born!

• Atmocopter Update! Devlog #10
  Coming about a year after the first devlog, the tenth devlog shows a good look at how Atmocopter was shaping up. Notably, the player still has helicopter-style controls, and puzzles are limited to dodging obstacles while managing a grabbed object. (Atmocopter can’t attack yet!)

• A Tale of Two Atmocopters: Devlog #23
  Finally, about two and a half years after the first devlog, this special devlog offers a showcase of old versus new. In this video I compared the old version of Atmocopter to a much newer version, which offers much better graphics, improved player controls, and a way for Atmocopter to attack. Having an attack was such a big deal- I was able to implement so many new challenges and even a boss thanks to that.

Of course, we know what happened after that! Atmocopter became a fully-fledged platformer, and is better off for it. All three of these videos showcase Atmocopter with helicopter-like controls, and I feel like players were fighting them all the time. That was part of the design and the experience, but I felt like it was hiding a better experience underneath. Even when I made it a little easier and later on even removed gravity for the player entirely, it still didn’t feel great and it was still hard to make levels, because I couldn’t plan around where the player is likely to be.

Long story short, I’m looking forward to developing the game further and (finally) bringing Atmocopter to completion soon! 11+ years is a long time for a project, although it was never my full-time project and a lot of other opportunities and side-quests came up along the way. I feel like that’s almost a good thing though, because I can tell how much I’ve improved as a programmer, artist, and designer over that time, and now I feel like I really CAN complete this game. (Especially with a better engine!)

Anyway- That’s all for today! Going to just take it easy while I get better. Once I’m feeling good I’ll update the pixel art schedule- Things will probably have to shift around a bit. See you next time!

-Will