Gold Coin Pixel Art Template
A 16×16 pickup in warm golds — the cleanest example of concentric design and a ready-made spin-cycle starter.
Palette · 4 colors
Create your own
Design breakdown
01Concentric structure
Outer gold ring, darker inner ring, bright core: three concentric regions. The inner ring is what says 'coin' instead of 'button' — and because the design is circular, spin animation only ever redraws the middle.
02Warm ramp with hue-shifted shadow
Light moves cream → gold → amber, and the shadow steps toward plum rather than brown-black. That cool-leaning shadow is what keeps the coin luminous instead of rusty.
03The glint rule
Exactly one white glint on the upper-left rim. Coins with two glints read as glass; the single highlight is the classic 'metal' signal at this size.
How to customize
- Swap the golds for silvers (cool grays) or coppers (deeper ambers) — same ramp structure, different metal.
- Put a 3×3 symbol in the core (star, lightning bolt) to theme the currency.
- Darken the inner ring one step to make the coin look older or rarer.
Animation ideas
- Spin: 4–6 frames narrowing the core to a vertical bar and back, ~120ms per frame.
- Flip bounce: pair the spin with a 1px vertical hop on the two middle frames.
- Magnet pulse: briefly enlarge the outer ring 1px every few loops to attract attention.
Related
16×16 Coin — Pickup Example
How a coin pickup reads at 16×16: a circular silhouette with an inner ring, amber ramp with hue-shifted shadow, and the pixel budget kept under six colors.
OpenGuidePixel Art Color Palette Guide
How to build a pixel art palette: how many colors you need, hue shifting instead of darkening, and how to keep every color pulling its weight.
OpenReferenceAnimation Frame Guide
Frame counts and timing for pixel art animations: how many frames each animation type needs and what milliseconds-per-frame to start from.
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