New Asset Pack: Sci-Fi UI “Mechapunk”

New Asset Pack:New Asset Pack:New Asset Pack:Sci-Fi UI “Mechapunk”Sci-Fi UI “Mechapunk”Sci-Fi UI “Mechapunk”

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Hey everyone, I’m here today with the new user interface asset pack! Let’s dive in.

Like the other UI packs, this pack includes lots of different color themes for almost everything. It’s very flexible!
Read on for more awesome screenshots and a download link for patrons, or purchase below!

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WIP Wednesday: March 20, 2024

WIP WednesdayWIP WednesdayWIP WednesdayMarch 20, 2024March 20, 2024March 20, 2024

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Hey everyone, I’m here for a late-night Work-In-Progress Wednesday!

Here’s a quick look into what I’ve been working on lately, and what’s coming up next.

Sci-fi UI: “Mechapunk”

The next pixel art GUI is on the way! Above is a sneak peek at the main window theme. Expect a lot of windows decorated with heavy metal! Like the previous GUI packs, it’ll also include icons and controller button glyphs. Coming up later this year I’ll be looking to expand those common assets to include keyboard and mouse input glyphs.

Upcoming Explosion Pack

I’m just starting to work on a new pack of pixel art explosions, and I’d like your input on what kind of explosions you’d like to see! I’m currently planning a little bit of everything, but let me know if there are any specific kinds of explosions you want to see for this pack. Here’s a couple examples of explosions I’ve done for previous packs.

A very “video-gamey” symmetrical explosion:

A more realistic explosion (but still a little stylized):

A more cartoony explosion:

Let me know what you’d like to see!

Zephyr Time!

Zephyr, my new corgi, is doing very well and is starting to grow up a little! She’s about three and a half months old now.


Above: A rare moment where Zephyr’s sitting still enough to be photographed without being blurry.

We’ve been working on learning to go for walks with our neighborhood dog friends. She loves other dogs, and walking with them seems to improve her focus a little. We take lots of solo walks too, but there’s a lot more mischief involved! She likes to pick things up, but is very good about dropping them when I ask. An area we still need improvement on is her herding instinct- At least a couple times per walk, she’ll try and bite at my shoes, socks, or pants. I think that’s something she’ll grow out of as long as I keep redirecting her!


Above: Hanging out after one of our night outings, with special guest appearance by Lt. Commander Data.


Above: Finally relaxed enough to lie down and chill.

I still take her out around midnight or so each night, just to make sure she doesn’t have any accidents overnight. Afterwards, we often hang out and watch stuff. I think Star Trek helps get her to sleep, haha!

That’s all for now- I’ll see you soon with the new GUI pack and next week with our first look at new juicy explosions.

– Will

New Asset Pack: Super Pixel Impact FX Pack 2

New Asset Pack:New Asset Pack:New Asset Pack:Impact FX Pack 2Impact FX Pack 2Impact FX Pack 2

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Hey everyone, I’m here today with a new asset pack! Thank you for your patience- I’ll make up for the wait with some of the best impact effects I’ve drawn yet! Let’s take a look.

Like Impact FX 1, there are ten new effect types. There’s more variation in this pack than the first one: It includes toon impacts, cinematic impacts, sci-fi impacts, fantasy impacts, and dust impacts.

The effect animations come in both large and small sizes, and in seven color themes each!

Read on for some awesome screenshots and a download link for patrons, or purchase below!

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WIP Monday: February 26, 2024

WIP MondayWIP MondayWIP MondayFebruary 26, 2024February 26, 2024February 26, 2024

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Hi everyone, I’m here for a Work-In-Progress Monday!

Once again my schedule has been thwarted, but this time by covid-19. I got sick last week and tested positive, and basically lost a whole week of work time while I recovered. I’m feeling like I’m around 90% better now. I was able to get the paxlovid anti-viral, which I think helped a lot. It was my first time with the virus after nearly 4 years of playing it safe. I feel very lucky that it wasn’t worse!

Anyway, this is a quick look at what I’ve been working on. Let’s dive in!

Impact FX Pack 2

The next asset pack is underway, although it’ll be delayed until next week due to me getting sick! Above is the first animation in the pack, a “toon impact.” It’d be perfect for a Kirby-esque game, or for a comedic moment in a more serious game. I’m looking forward to doing some dust puff impacts and more!

Continue reading for lots more WIP goodness + puppy pics!

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Welcoming Zephyr!

Welcoming Zephyr!Welcoming Zephyr!Welcoming Zephyr!

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Hey everyone! This is part 2 of today’s DOUBLE-POST! Looking for the new asset pack? Check out part 1 here.

I’m very happy to announce to everyone that we have a new member of the family: Say hello to ZEPHYR!!

Above: Day one! So tiny!

Zephyr joined us on January 26. She’s about ten and a half weeks old and her ears just popped up recently. She’s a corgi, but has a fluffy coat, which is a first for us!

Above: This past Monday on a walk around the park. Zephyr’s waving “Hi!”

Read on for more pictures!

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New Asset Pack: Super Pixel Props: Sci-fi Pack 1

New Asset Pack:New Asset Pack:New Asset Pack:Sci-fi Props Pack 1Sci-fi Props Pack 1Sci-fi Props Pack 1

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Hey everyone, I’m here today with a new asset pack! This is part 1 of a special DOUBLE-POST today! Part 2 is here, with lots of puppy pictures of Zephyr!

Let’s dive in to some sci-fi goodness.

This asset pack includes a wide variety of computer terminals, monitors, gadgets, and industrial props that you might find in an evil laboratory!

Read on for some awesome screenshots and a download link for patrons, or purchase below!

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WIP Thursday: January 25, 2024

WIP ThursdayWIP ThursdayWIP ThursdayJanuary 25, 2024January 25, 2024January 25, 2024

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Hey everyone, I’m here for a Work-In-Progress… Thursday?! Better late than never!

All jokes aside, I’ve been super busy this week with my family. For weeks now we’ve been adding to a memory project for Garnet, and this week we’re putting the finishing touches on it. We made lists of everything we love about her, everything she loved about life, and a list of all her tricks and nicknames. The amount of butt-related nicknames is off the charts! It’s bittersweet, and I’m finishing up a picture collage for her today before we put her on the shelf in my office together as a family.

That’s not all that’s kept me busy, however… I’ve got some very good news: I’m happy to announce that we’ll be adding a new spark of joy to our family tomorrow! She’s an eight-week old corgi puppy, and we can’t wait to give her a wonderful home and all the love in the world. There’s been a lot of prep work for her- We did a bunch of cleaning and planning, picked her out a collar and her first toys, and set up a pen area where she’ll have access to her kennel and pee pad, plus some space to have fun. I’ll share pictures and her name next week! (I’ve been keeping her name a family secret until she hears it herself.)

Pixel Art Progress!

Even with all the goings-on, I’ve been continuing work on the next asset pack. Here’s the latest progress:

Above is a view of some of the more industrial sci-fi props in the pack. There’s gas canisters, wire decorations, machinery, and more! The monitors I’ve been drawing all have a few different animations or displays, including (of course) the infamous blue screen. This pack is going to be very fun!

The pack is nearing completion, but with everything I still have to do before the new puppy arrives (she’s coming a day earlier than we first thought!), I need to reschedule the pack release to sometime next week. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can with puppy pics and the finished pack- See you then!

– Will

WIP Wednesday: January 17, 2024

WIP WednesdayWIP WednesdayWIP WednesdayJanuary 17, 2024January 17, 2024January 17, 2024

This post is also available on my Patreon. Join up and get pixel art for your game!

Hey everyone, I’m here with the first Work-In-Progress Wednesday of the new year! Here’s a quick look at the next pack.

Sci-fi Props Pack 1

Here’s the first look at some sci-fi platformer props! You’ll be able to make anything with this pack from a mundane office to a mad scientist’s laboratory. I started drawing a little bit of both- Oldschool CRT monitors and a tower PC, and a “supercomputer” straight out of the 70s or 80s. Next I’ll be drawing all sorts of machinery, crates, barrels, and several more computers and computer terminals. One of the challenges in this pack is color- So much of this kind of equipment is gray, so I need to figure out ways to add splashes of color without making it look too cartoony. I’m thinking for some of the props, a yellow/black caution pattern will be a big help in that area. Looking forward to completing the pack for next week- Stay tuned!

Poll Results!

Thank you for voting in last week’s pixel art poll! The results are in, and there’s a lot of love across the board for different kinds of art. The most votes went to platformer props, effect animations, GUI/HUD elements, and platformer tilesets. There’s also some interest in platformer heroes and monsters, as well as game items and looping backgrounds. I’m looking forward to visiting all of those art types this year! I’ll factor the results into my schedule and let you know what’s coming up this spring!

That’s all for today- Aside from art, I’ve been doing some pretty dry programming work on my game engine and code generator. I enjoy it, but there’s not much to show off! Long story short, remember last time when I mentioned saving/loading entity relationships in the engine? Turns out I only had it half working. Whoops! That’s why it’s a good idea to write tests…

– Will

Starting A New Year!

Starting A New YearStarting A New YearStarting A New Year

Hey everyone! I’m back with the first post of the new year.

A Little Thank You

I’d like to thank you all for your support and the kind messages regarding Garnet’s passing. It’s been very tough, but we’re hanging in there together as a family. We’ve been taking turns adding to a list of things we love about Garnet. It’s been bittersweet, but has been a wonderful way to reminisce about her together. Folks around the neighborhood have also been sharing their condolences, and I don’t know what I’d do without them! A few have been asking about the future, to which I say: We’re not done having dogs in our lives, so stay tuned.

Poll Time!

I’m starting to get back in action now. I have a lot of ideas for pixel art packs this year, and I want your input on them! What kind of stuff would you like to see or use in your games? Want more props? More effect animations? Heroes? Monsters? Icons? The list goes on- Let me know what you think! Vote here in this special patron-only poll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/96291113
(Not a patron yet? What are you waiting for? Join up and get awesome pixel art for your games!)

Stuff I’m Working On…

This year I’m also planning on finishing the redesign of my game engine and completing and releasing SparkBolt Studio, an all-in-one sprite/tileset/level editor. Work is going well- I did have time to do some over the past few weeks. The redesign is using EnTT, an entity-component system, instead of the previous object-oriented approach. There’s still going to be a bit of that where I need it though. This past week I got serialization and deserialization of data (saving and loading) working for the first time. It can successfully save objects to a file, and then restore them. It can also preserve the relationships between entities- For example, a parent entity and a child entity, or an entity which “knows about” another entity by storing its handle. Those types of relationships can be saved and restored, as long as all entities involved are saved together. A good step forward, but still a lot to do!

What’s Next!

Here’s the tentative schedule for January and February.

I’m looking forward to bringing you lots more pixel art this year as well as SparkBolt Studio!

Thanks for sticking with me, and see you soon with the next asset pack.

– Will

Remembering Garnet

Remembering GarnetRemembering GarnetRemembering Garnet

Hello, everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to ring in the new year with friends and family.

Garnet, my ten and a half year old corgi, had a fantastic two weeks on her new medication. She felt like a puppy again and was able to go for good walks, run around, play, and (of course) get into trouble. She had a wonderful Christmas with us. Unfortunately, I have sad news to share.


Above: The last picture I ever took of Garnet, after opening Christmas presents.

It’s with a very heavy heart that I say that we said goodbye to Garnet on the morning of December 30 at the vet. She entered a series of seizures and could not come out of them even with last resort medication. My folks and I were able to say goodbye to her together as a family and it was very difficult but I’m glad we could all be there. My heart is broken and I am utterly broken and devastated. There are just no words for how sudden this is to me.

Hug your friends, your family, and your pets. For me, they are one in the same- Garnet was, is, and will always be an important member of my family, my best friend in the world, and my little pup.

As for me, I’m an utter mess and need to take some time to pick up the broken pieces of myself. I’ll be on break for at least another week while I figure out how to live a very different life in this new year, with Garnet in my heart instead of at my side.

Thank you for your support.
– Will

Here’s Garnet on her 10th birthday earlier this year, on a sunny Summer day. I miss you so, so much.