UPDATE 132026.10.12Studio splash, take two

Rust drips

The Reasons Games badge now starts clean. Rust drips crawl down it from the letters, rivets and edges, a few drops fall off the bottom and land in the dark, and it ends on the full dripping badge before the title comes up. The splash now runs about six seconds so you can watch it happen.

CLIP

The launch, recorded from the game window: the clean badge fades in, the rust runs down it, drops fall off into the dark, and it fades into the title, where the airship flies in and the START button appears.

What's new

The badge fades up clean, with no rust on it, settles with its soft metal clank, and stays clean for a moment.
Then the rust starts to run. The drips begin slowly and pick up speed, each one at its own pace, so you can follow individual drips crawling down. A small wet bead swells at the tip of each big one.
Three drops reach the bottom of the badge, swell, break off and fall into the dark, landing with a tiny splat and a soft plink.
It finishes on the full dripping badge, exactly the original art, holds there with one faint glint of light, and fades into the title.
The splash now lasts about six seconds. Any key, click or Cross still skips straight to the title, at any point.

How it was made

The developer made a second version of the badge with the drips removed. It was cut out the same way as the first, and checked against it: same outline, same letters, same cracks, with no shift at all. Only the drips differ.
Both versions were sampled on the badge's own 184x176 pixel grid. The pixels that differ are the drips: 2,350 pixels in 41 separate runs. Each run was traced from the point it hangs from (a letter, a rivet or the plate's edge) down to its tip, so every drip grows downward with no gaps and no pixels popping in ahead of it. Neighbouring streaks in one drip move at slightly different speeds.
Aseprite builds the frames from that plan. The badge layer is the clean art; the drip layer adds each pixel when its drip reaches it, using the drip's own colours from the original art. The drops are drawn in the same rust colours, falling with gravity 30 pixels below the badge. The last frame matches the original art exactly, pixel for pixel, and a test checks it.
The clip below was recorded from the real game window with its sound, not rendered offline, so the colours are what you see when you play.

Screens

The rust spreading, left to right: clean, the first short drips at the top edge and under the letters, longer streaks, then long drips across the plate reaching toward its point.

One drop, enlarged 4x: a bead swells at the end of the drip, lets go, falls through the dark, and lands as a tiny splat.

The end of the splash in the game window: the full dripping badge, the same as the original art.

Tools used

Higgsfield	A second version of the badge art with the rust drips painted out, made by the developer from the original.
Python	Lined the two versions up pixel for pixel and pulled out the drips: 41 separate runs of rust, each with the point it hangs from.
Aseprite 1.3	The animation: 81 frames, 50 ms each, drawn only from the badge's own rust colours.
Godot 4.7	The new six-second timing, the drops' sounds, the skip, and the hand-off to the title.
ElevenLabs	One new sound: a soft, small plink for each drop that lands.
Claude + Hermes	Built the tools, the animation and the tests, and checked every frame and caption.

How to try it

Launch the game and watch the Reasons Games badge: clean at first, then the rust runs and three drops fall off it.
Press any key, click, or press Cross on PS5 to skip to the title whenever you like.

Known issues

The splash is now about six seconds long. Any key skips it.

Ironfall dev log · Update 13 of 18 · All updates