Night Forge VFX Lab

How to use

Build skills yourself in the Lab, or have your AI make them through MCP.

The Lab in 6 steps

Pick a starting setOpen the Lab and press "Effect library". Search by name or browse by category (melee, ranged, area skills, shields), or press "New empty set" to build from scratch.
Set theme and styleRecolour the whole set in one click with "Theme for the whole set", then pick a "Render style": Glow, Toon with crisp edges, or Pixel for 8-bit games.
Add and tune layersChoose a "Part to add" and press "+ Add". Click a layer in the list to tune it; every slider updates live. Under "Timing & position" set the start time, speed, position, rotation, scale and mirroring.
Check it from every angleDrag the view to orbit the camera and double-click to reset it. Switch between "15 fps anime" and "Smooth 60", use "Hold at time" to step frame by frame, and press "↶ Undo" if something goes wrong.
Keep the set"Keep in browser" for this browser, "Save this set to account" to open it anywhere, "Save as .json file" to send to your team, or "Share link + post to gallery".
Export to your gameChoose the aspect ratio, size and transparent background, then press Export sprite sheet, GLB, Unity or Roblox to get a .zip with metadata. Tick "Also export one file per layer" to blend layers yourself in the engine, and hide the character layer before exporting.

Before buying you can try and tweak every set with a PREVIEW watermark. Exporting and saving to your account need the full version.

Open Lab

MCP for game developers beta

Ask the AI you already code your game with (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor and others) to design skills in plain language, without opening the Lab. It picks the parts, tunes them and saves the result as a preset in your account.

What you need

An account with update access or Lifetime, and an AI tool that supports remote (HTTP) MCP servers.

What still happens in the browser

Sprite sheets and GLB files are rendered in the browser. The AI gives you a link to the set; open it once to check it and press Export.

1. Create an API key

On the MCP page press "Create new key" and copy it (it is shown once). The key is tied to your account: do not share it or commit it to git. Go to the MCP page

2. Connect your AI tool

Endpoint (Streamable HTTP): /api/mcp Replace nfk_… with your key.

Claude Code

Run in your game project folder

claude mcp add --transport http night-forge-vfx /api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer nfk_…"

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "night-forge-vfx": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer nfk_…"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "night-forge-vfx": {
      "url": "/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer nfk_…"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Ask in plain language

No VFX vocabulary needed. Talk about your game as usual and the AI picks the parts and settings. Copy any example below to start.

Skill kits for a character

“Add skills for my swordsman: a basic attack, 2 skills and an ultimate.”
“Make a 4-move wind kit: basic attack, skill 1, skill 2 and ultimate, all in the "Wind" theme, with names starting with "Wind_".”
“Ice mage: an ice bolt, ice spikes bursting from the ground, and a blizzard as the ultimate.”
“Healer priest: self heal, a group heal as a ground circle, and a holy light shield.”

From your game code

“Read Swordsman.cs and make an effect for every skill in that class, named after the methods.”
“Look at skills.json in the project, make effects for the skills that have none, and tell me what you made.”

Remix an existing set

“Look at the "Magma Shield" set, make an ice version called "Ice Shield" and save it to my account.”
“Make "Fire Tornado" in 3 colours (fire, poison, darkness) for a boss with 3 phases.”
“That last move feels weak. Make it heavier and bigger, with an impact at the end.”

Status, buffs and debuffs

“Make small status effects that loop on a character: burning, frozen, poisoned and stunned.”
“One attack buff and one defence buff, in different colours so players can tell them apart.”

Items and UI

“A level-up effect with light rising from the ground around the character.”
“Item drops for 5 rarities (common, rare, epic, legendary, mythic), flashier as they get rarer.”
“A warp portal, a spawn point and a save point.”

Enemies and bosses

“Fire dragon boss: a warning circle on the ground before the attack, then meteors fall.”
“A clean monster death: a puff of smoke and a few small sparks.”

By game genre

“My game is side-view 2D pixel art. Make a heal effect and an attack buff in the Pixel style.”
“Top-down anime mobile game: 3 vivid skills, each at most 1.5 seconds, Toon style.”
“3D action game: an ultimate that looks right from every camera angle, exported as GLB.”

Words that help you get what you want:

Element / colour: fire, ice, lightning, light, darkness, poisonSize: small on the body / full screenPace: quick and snappy / slow and heavyDirection: horizontal slash, forward, from the sky, from the groundCamera: side view, top-down, 3DStyle: glow, toon, pixel

4. Open the link and export

Sets the AI saves appear under "My presets" in the Lab. Open the link the AI gives you, tweak if you like, then export the files for your game.

Tips

Tell it your genre, camera angle, move length, theme and style so it picks better parts.
Have it start from the closest ready-made set (list_presets / get_preset) and edit that; results beat building from zero.
Saving with an existing name overwrites it, so name sets after the skills in your game.
The AI cannot read back sets saved in your account, so ask for changes in the same conversation that made the move.
If your AI has your game project open, have it write the code that loads the sprite sheet from sheet.json into Unity, Godot or Phaser too.

Tools your AI can use

list_themesAll colour themes

list_partsAll parts, grouped by what they do

get_partA part's settings, ranges and defaults

list_presetsAll ready-made sets

get_presetJSON of a ready-made set, ready to edit

validate_effectChecks a set without saving

save_effectSaves to your account presets and returns a link that opens it in the Lab

Limited to 60 calls per minute per account. Features may change during beta. See Terms of Use