Available now Phluxel 1.0 is available on Steam — try the free Steam demo or get Pro Get it on Steam →
v1.0.0 · for Windows 10 & 11 · 64-bit

Paint pixels.
Write a rule.
Watch it come alive.

Add living effects — rain, fire, snow, water, wind, glow — to your pixel art in minutes, no frame-by-frame. Paint a grid, write one tiny Phlux rule, and the GPU brings it to life in real time — then export a seamless loop as a GIF, an MP4 or a sprite sheet. Or open one of 90 ready-made scenes and change a number.

Free edition — no account needed · One-time purchase · no subscription · You own everything you make
ONE RULE. ENDLESS MOTION.
Courtyard Fountain animation. Enable JavaScript to preview.
22 / Courtyard FountainRendered with Phluxel

Drag to compare: left is the painted scene, right is the rule running. Get the Phlux script ↗

Explore the rule example — Conway’s Life
untitled.phlx — Phluxel
Rule example CPU
// Conway's Life on the green channel
LET _n = {COUNTNZ, MOORE.G}
(_n == 3) | (G > 0 & _n == 2)
   ? G = 255 : G = 0
Play Example · 128×128 · toroidal wrap
GPU
Real-time simulation engine
90
Ready-made starter scenes
128
Built-in rule templates
6
Export formats
10
Interface languages
Made with Phluxel / The Astra collection

One tool. Many worlds.

Tidal MuseumAtmosphere / water
Phlux script ↗
Lantern CurrentNight / reflection
Phlux script ↗
Saltwater StopPlace / sea light
Phlux script ↗
Courtyard FountainKinetic / water
Phlux script ↗
Harbor RadarKinetic / sweep
Phlux script ↗
Amber LaboratoryKinetic / bubbles
Phlux script ↗

Six scenes from Astra, a 28-piece collection that ships inside Phluxel. Each one is a painted still plus a single Phlux rule — nothing is animated frame by frame. Download a script, drop it on your own artwork, and turn its _motion knob while it plays.

Everything in one window

A studio for emergent pixel art

Draw, script, simulate, and export — without ever leaving the canvas. Built on a tiny rule language and a real-time engine.

The Phlux rule language

Describe how a cell becomes its next self from its neighbors. Channels, math, conditions and scatter — readable in one line, with a cheat sheet, autocomplete and a live preview in the built-in script editor.

R = (N.R + S.R + E.R + W.R) / 4 // diffuse

GPU + CPU engine

Global rules compile to GPU shaders and ping-pong render textures for buttery real-time playback — with toroidal wrapping. Per-cell logic falls back to a precise CPU interpreter automatically.

ping-pong shaderstoroidal wrapauto CPU fallback

Import anything

Drop in PNG, JPG, BMP, animated GIF or WebP — with smart downscaling and palette-lock to turn any illustration into clean pixel art — then let a rule remix it.

PNGGIFWebP→ pixel art

Export seamless loops

One-click GIF with ping-pong for perfect back-and-forth loops, plus PNG sequence, APNG, MP4, sprite sheets and palette-locked exports.

GIFMP4APNGsequencesprite sheetpalette lock

Timeline & keyframes

Animate rule parameters over time. Scrub, keyframe, and choreograph evolving simulations.

Starters & templates

90 ready-made live starters across 8 themed groups — including the 28-scene Astra collection — plus a library of 128 rule templates to remix. Go from blank to animating in a click.

Snapshots & undo

Capture multiple snapshots of a field and step back through deep, non-destructive undo history. Undo scales itself to your canvas, so even a 4000×3000 grid stays within a fixed memory budget.

Native & fast on Windows

Built on .NET 10 with a native Raylib + Dear ImGui front end, tuned for Windows 10 & 11 — docking panels, custom themes, and a fully rebindable keymap.

Windows 10 & 11.NET 10RaylibDear ImGuiBuilt-in editor + optional MonacoDark / Light / High-contrastRebindable keys
From blank to loop in minutes

Four steps to your first animation

No coding needed to start — pick a starter, or build one from scratch. You can have a shareable GIF in about five minutes.

Paint a state

Brush, fill, shapes and an eyedropper on a pixel grid. Or import an image — a few dots is enough.

Write a rule

One line of Phlux says what each cell becomes from its neighbors. Toggle Global to run it everywhere.

Press play

Watch it evolve in real time. Step frame-by-frame, tweak speed, and reset to your design anytime.

Export & share

Save a seamless ping-pong GIF, an MP4, an APNG, or a full PNG sequence. The result is the ad.

The Phlux language

A rule answers one question

Given this cell and its neighbors right now, what should it become next step? You write that as an assignment to the cell's R G B A channels. The engine applies it to every cell, over and over — and motion emerges.

  • Neighbors by name — N S E W, diagonals, relative (dx,dy) or absolute [x,y].
  • Math, logic & conditions — area folds like COUNTNZ, the ? : ternary, and multi-cell scatter output.
  • Safe by design — divide-by-zero is 0, not NaN. Every doc example is verified against the live grammar.
recipes.phlux
// 1 · a glowing decay trail
R *= 0.97; G *= 0.97; B *= 0.99

// 2 · a left-to-right gradient
R = X / GW * 255

// 3 · Conway's Game of Life (green)
LET _n = {COUNTNZ, MOORE.G}
(_n == 3) | (G > 0 & _n == 2)
   ? G = 255 : G = 0

// 4 · paint a whole cell with a color literal
[255, 255, 0, 0]   // opaque red

Read the full Phlux language reference — or open it in-app under Help ▸ Phlux Language Reference

Live, right here

Pixel art that comes to life

Eight scenes from the built-in Astra collection, exported straight out of Phluxel as GIFs and dropped on this page unedited. Each one is a painted still plus one Phlux rule — no frame-by-frame animation anywhere.

The real thing

This is the actual app

Not a mockup — real screenshots of Phluxel on Windows, running the Astra collection that ships with it. The painted scene, the one rule that moves it, and the knob you turn while it plays, all in one window.

Phluxel editor: Courtyard Fountain playing, its rule open in the Rule Editor and its motion knob in the Inspector
The full editor — scene, rule and live knob in one window
Phluxel Starter Gallery listing the Astra collection and the Legacy starters
90 built-in starters
Phluxel Export Animation dialog over the Harbor Radar scene
Export a seamless loop
Midnight Noodles scene playing in Phluxel
Midnight Noodles
Alpine Transit scene playing in Phluxel
Alpine Transit
Tidal Museum scene playing in Phluxel
Tidal Museum
Amber Laboratory scene playing in Phluxel
Amber Laboratory
One-time purchase

Pay once. Own it forever.

No subscriptions, no cloud lock-in. The free edition is the whole toolkit — upgrade to remove the watermark, unlock larger grids, MP4/APNG/sprite sheets and commercial-use rights. Under the hood that's a full rule-scripting language, a dual CPU/GPU simulation engine, and a keyframe timeline — not just a slider-based effects generator.

Free
The whole toolkit. Make and share your loops.
$0
Forever free · no account
  • Full Phlux editor, CPU & GPU engines
  • Timeline, import, user functions
  • Unlimited projects, fields & rules
  • GIF & PNG-sequence export
  • Watermarked · up to 128×128 · 1024px / 300 frames
  • Personal, non-commercial use
Download free

The direct download starts as Free; an itch.io or Gumroad key unlocks Pro. Steam offers a separate free Phluxel Demo and the paid Pro app. Pro has a $19.99 USD base price, paid once; regional prices, taxes and store promotions can differ. Direct Pro keys cover one person on up to two of their own devices; Steam purchases follow Steam’s account rules. For multiple users, see buying for teams.

For teams & organizations

Buying for a studio, school or company?

A Pro license is personal and covers two of your own devices, so buying for other people works differently. Tell us the headcount and what you need on the paperwork, and we will put together a quote and issue the licenses in one go.

  • Any number of seats, issued as named licenses
  • One invoice or purchase order — business number and tax details on request
  • Classroom and lab licensing for schools and universities
  • Pricing quoted per order
Request a quote Email us directly

Usually answered within one business day. Tell us the number of seats and the country you are invoicing from — that is normally all we need to quote.

Questions

Good to know

Is this a subscription?
No. Phluxel is a one-time purchase with a perpetual license — buy it once and it's yours, including future updates within the same major version. There's also a genuinely free edition to start with.
Can I use one license on multiple computers?
A direct Pro key is personal to one user and covers up to two of that user’s own devices. Steam purchases use Steam’s account and installation rules instead of a direct key. A personal license cannot be shared between different people. For a team or classroom, request named licenses.
Do I own what I create?
Yes. Everything you make is yours. The Pro edition grants a full commercial license so you can sell your loops, use them in games, videos, or client work. The Free edition is for personal, non-commercial projects and watermarks its exports — personal, non-monetized sharing (social posts, portfolios) is fine on Free, but monetized or client work needs Pro.
Do I need to know how to code?
Not to start. The Starter Gallery (90 scenes) and 128 rule templates get you animating with a single click. When you're curious, Phlux rules are usually one short, readable line — and the editor has a cheat sheet, autocomplete and inline hints.
Which platforms are supported?
Windows 10 (1809+) and Windows 11, 64-bit. The built-in script editor is the default; optional Monaco editing on Windows uses WebView2. The browser demo is a smaller CPU preview, not the full desktop app.
What are the system requirements?
Minimum: a 64-bit dual-core CPU, an OpenGL 3.3 GPU, 4 GB RAM and ~300 MB of disk. Recommended: a quad-core CPU, a dedicated GPU (for the GPU engine and large grids), and 8 GB+ RAM.
How does the GPU engine work?
Global rules are compiled to GLSL shaders and run as ping-pong render textures for real-time playback — including toroidal wrap. Per-cell rules, user functions and scatter run on a precise CPU interpreter, and Phluxel switches between them automatically.
Is my data sent anywhere?
Your projects and exports stay on your PC unless you choose to send something in feedback. Direct installed builds check for updates; Steam manages updates for its Pro and Demo apps. All editions send a rate-limited usage heartbeat when online (edition, version, language and an independent random counting ID). Pro installations with a stored direct key also send its hash and a random install ID when due to observe key sharing. These requests contain no project content. See the Privacy Policy for the fields, timing and retention.

More questions? Read the full FAQ — or send us feedback directly.

Special thanks

Shaped by our official tester

Phluxel is sharper because our tester stress-tested it, filed bugs, and pushed the details. Thank you.

Seimi Choi (최세이미)
Free to try

Make something move tonight.

Download Phluxel free, paint a few pixels, and write your first rule. Your first seamless loop is about five minutes away.

Free — no account, no sign-up ≈45 MB · installs in seconds Updates automatically Your work stays on your PC

v1.0.0 · Windows 10 & 11, 64-bit · available on Steam

First launch may show a Windows SmartScreen prompt while the app builds reputation — click More info ▸ Run anyway. Phluxel is safe and keeps your projects on your device.