Glossary
The project's main list of terms. The game's interface, these docs and every other text about Bullet Hero use these words, and a new term is added here first
Level content
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Level | Everything one playthrough is made of: objects, audio, events and its own resources |
| Object | One authored thing on the timeline, with its own lifetime, transform and parent |
| Rect | An object that draws nothing: a transform, a lifetime and children. Every other type adds its own on top of it |
| Shape | Real geometry an object draws, not a picture. The game generates around 500 of them itself |
| Collider | What an object hits with. It may not match what the object draws |
| Prefab | A reusable template of objects, placed into a level as many times as needed |
| Prefab Mode | Editing a template's own content instead of the level around it |
| Effect | A spawner: every frame it creates its own objects from a few parameters |
| Inframe Object | An object an effect spawned. The engine owns it: it cannot be selected or edited |
| Theme | A palette a level refers to by index: recolouring is one edit, not a hundred |
Time and animation
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Frame | The unit of level time. A frame is a cell, and time is the boundary between two cells |
| Keyframe | One authored value at one frame. Between two keyframes the value is interpolated |
| Track | A row of keyframes of one animatable property: position, rotation, volume |
| Timeline | The frame axis the level is authored on: one tab for each kind of content |
| Span | When an object exists: a start frame and a length, but not an end frame |
| Playhead | The frame being shown right now |
| Ease | How a value moves from the previous keyframe to this one |
| Marker | A named point on the level's ruler, for getting back to the right place |
| Checkpoint | Where a death sends the player back to |
Placement and drawing
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Anchor | An edge that follows the parent's edge: shrink the parent and the child moves with it |
| Layer | Draw order, and it is relative: a child's layer is added to its parent's layer |
| Pivot | The point an object rotates and scales about, in its own box |
| Gizmo | The drag handles drawn on the selected object in the viewport |
| Snapping | Pulling a drag onto something: onto content under the magnet, onto the music under the beat toggle |
Music
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Beat | The music's own grid: the author sets it, and nothing reads it during play |
| Beat Segment | One stretch of constant tempo with its own tempo, phase and bar length |
| BPM | Beats per minute - how fast a beat segment runs |
| Tap | One press while you tap out the tempo. Enough of them describe a beat segment |
Automation and data
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Generator | Authoring automation: it makes level content from a few parameters |
| Modifier | A generator that edits or removes what already exists instead of adding |
| Seed | The number every random value in a level is derived from: a run replays exactly the same |
| Raw Data | The whole saved model as one editable tree. Nothing is checked here, and that is on purpose |
| AI Assistant | An AI client connected to the editor over MCP. It edits the open level while you watch, one undo step per batch |
Resources and sharing
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Library | Resources on the device for reuse across levels: your library, your collections and the ones you subscribed to |
| Collection | A folder of reusable resources of up to seven kinds. Importing copies out of it, so the level does not depend on it |
| Difficulty | How hard a level is: one number the author sets and a moderator may overwrite. A player sees it as a tier, from Auto to Singularity |