Major update

Shadowforge 20 — New Tools & Drawing Improvements

Shadowforge · published 31 Aug 2026, 06:06 UTC · build 25030772

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Hey everyone!

Shadowforge 20 is another major step forward for the editor, with a focus on adding new ways to manipulate pixel art while continuing to improve the core drawing experience.

Pixel Halver

One of the biggest additions in Shadowforge 20 is the new Pixel Halver tool, available from the Image menu.

Pixel Halver lets you experiment with reducing, redistributing, and scattering pixels across your artwork. You can control the pixel size, amount, distance, scattering behavior, and randomization to create anything from subtle pixel variation to much more broken-up and stylized effects.

It also includes options for preserving dark outlines and shading so important details can remain intact.

The tool has been designed with a manual preview system and performance safeguards so that opening it doesn't immediately start processing a large canvas.

Improved Blur Brush

The Blur Brush has been worked on again for Shadowforge 20.

The brush now follows the actual shape and transparency of the selected brush sprite instead of treating its entire rectangular area as part of the brush.

This means transparent areas remain transparent and irregular brush shapes should retain their proper silhouette.

The blur/soft edge also scales with the size of the selected brush, keeping smaller pixel brushes much tighter instead of producing an excessively large blurred area.

Multi Brush Compatibility

Blur Brush behavior continues to work together with Multi Brush, allowing the mirrored brush to use the same effect while you're creating symmetrical artwork.

More Work on the Core Editor

Shadowforge 20 continues the work started throughout versions 18 and 19: getting the different drawing, selection, shader, and image-editing systems to behave like parts of one editor rather than isolated features.

There have been a lot of changes behind the scenes while these systems have been rebuilt and connected together, and I'll continue fixing problems as they appear.

Thank you to everyone using Shadowforge and reporting issues.

Welcome to Shadowforge 20.

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