Asset pack · · 5 min read
Sci-Fi Starships: pixel art spaceship sprites for shoot 'em ups
Pixel art spaceship sprites for shmups and bullet hells: 12 ships in top-down and side view, each with its own weapon, and a free ship in every pack.
Spaceship sprites for vertical and horizontal shmups
Sci-Fi Starships is our series of pixel art spaceships for shoot 'em ups and bullet hells. Every ship is animated from the top, for vertical shooters, and from the side, for horizontal ones, and every ship has its own weapon, so you can build a playable prototype from a single pack.
The series is set in one universe with four factions, each with its own palette and shapes. The ships come out in small packs, so you can pick exactly what your game needs. Three packs are out now, with 12 ships in total, and every pack has one ship you can download for free.
- Solar Dominion: the humans, sleek white fighters with blue ion engines.
- Iron Marauders: space pirates flying scrap-metal warships.
- Void Brood: a bio-alien swarm.
- Astral Covenant: an ancient psionic civilisation.
Pack 1: Solar Dominion Fighters
Four player fighters of the Solar Dominion, each with its own weapon. Free sample: Kestrel, with every animation, colour and its weapon.
Get it on itch.io: mekai-games.itch.io/sci-fi-starships-pack-1-solar-dominion-fighters
- Starlance, interceptor: needle nose, crescent blades and a blue ion engine. Weapon: Ion Lance, rapid ion needles that charge into a long ion lance.
- Twinfang, heavy gunship: twin booms and a long cannon. Weapon: Rail Cannons, heavy slugs that charge into a rail bolt wrapped in lightning.
- Wraith, stealth fighter: dark hull and violet plasma engines. Weapon: Void Darts, a three-way spread that charges into a void orb.
- Kestrel, light fighter: fast and agile, orange squadron. Weapon: Flak Pellets, twin bursts that charge into a cluster of spinning pellets.
Pack 2: Iron Marauders Raiders
The first enemies of the series: four scrap-metal pirate raiders built to swarm the player. Besides the top and side views, every ship also has a nose-down top view, ready to fly down the screen toward the player. Free sample: Jackal, with every animation, colour and its weapon.
Get it on itch.io: mekai-games.itch.io/sci-fi-starships-pack-2-iron-marauders-raiders
- Raider, raider fighter: spiked wings, horn cannons and one roaring engine. Weapon: Scrap Cannons, lumps of hot scrap that charge into a roaring fireball.
- Jackal, scout: small, fast, with a needle nose. Weapon: Needle Spitter, fast fire needles that charge into a three-needle spread.
- Cutlass, interceptor: wide blade wings. Weapon: Saw Launcher, spinning saw blades that charge into a giant saw.
- Buccaneer, gunship: twin cannon pods and twin engines. Weapon: Rocket Pods, smoking rockets that charge into a skull rocket.
Pack 3: Solar Dominion Squadron
Four more Solar Dominion fighters, to give the player a full squadron to choose from. Free sample: Halberd, with every animation, colour and its weapon.
Get it on itch.io: mekai-games.itch.io/sci-fi-starships-pack-3-solar-dominion-squadron
- Sovereign, command fighter: gold trim and twin engine pods. Weapon: Sunburst Cannons, golden star bolts that charge into a small sun with spinning rays.
- Bastion, heavy assault: three cannons, three engines and armoured pods. Weapon: Siege Cannons, plasma shells that charge into a siege shell pushing a shockwave.
- Seraph, blade fighter: crescent wings and violet engines. Weapon: Crescent Waves, twin crescent waves that charge into a giant crescent with an echo wave.
- Halberd, escort fighter: light and quick, with gold swept wings. Weapon: Pulse Lasers, rapid laser pulses that charge into a halberd bolt.
Top-down and side-view animations
The top view (64 px wide cells) has idle, bank left and bank right in two steps each, boost, hit, destroy and warp in. The side view (48 px high cells) has idle, boost, hit, destroy and warp in. Engine flames flicker, banks come in two steps, the destroy animation breaks the ship apart in a fireball and the warp brings it on screen in a streak of light.
That is 76 frames per ship across the two views, and 1,216 frames per pack counting the 4 colour schemes. The ships of Pack 2 also have the extra nose-down top view.
A weapon for every ship
Every weapon has its shot, a charge-up effect, the charged shot, muzzle flashes and impacts, in top and side view, on 48 x 48 px cells. Its JSON gives a spawn point and a suggested speed for the projectiles.
The ship JSON stores the gun positions for every frame of every animation, banks included. Spawn your shots there and they leave the barrels, even while the ship is banking.
What is in the zip
Each pack works with Godot, Unity, GameMaker, Defold, Construct, Phaser and any engine that reads sprite sheets. In Godot 4 you copy the starships folder into your project and play the animations right away.
- Sprite sheets (PNG, one row per animation) and every frame as a single PNG
- A JSON file per ship with frame timings, loop flags, gun positions per frame, a hull hitbox and a 4 x 4 px core hitbox for bullet hell games
- The ship's own weapon: sheets, JSON and Godot SpriteFrames
- Godot 4 SpriteFrames for every view
- Aseprite sources with one tag per animation
- 4 colour schemes per ship
Free spaceship sprites in every pack
Every pack is name your own price: you can download its free ship for 0 € or leave a donation, and the zip with all four ships is €3.99. The free ship is complete, with every animation, all 4 colours and its weapon, so you can try it in your game before you buy.
Licence, in short: use the ships in commercial and non-commercial games, edit and recolour them freely, but do not resell or redistribute the assets themselves. Credit is appreciated, not required: Sci-Fi Starships by MEKAI GAMES.
Pack 4, Iron Marauders: War Fleet, is coming on 11 November. All the packs of the series are listed here: mekai-games.itch.io/sci-fi-starships