Glossary
Every editor term with a one-line meaning, grouped by topic
This is the canonical list of the project's 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
The same terms are in the editor's own guide: Reference → Glossary.
The wording there and here matches word for word
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 a lifetime, a transform and a parent |
| Rect | An object that draws nothing: a transform, a lifetime and children. Every other type adds to it |
| Shape | Real geometry an object draws - not a picture. Around 500 are generated by the game |
| Collider | What an object is HIT by. It need not agree with 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: it produces its own objects every frame from a few parameters |
| Inframe Object | An object an effect spawned. The engine owns it, and it cannot be selected or edited |
| Theme | A palette a level refers to by index, so recolouring is one edit rather than hundreds |
Time and animation
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Frame | The unit of level time. A frame is a cell, and time is the boundary between two of them |
| Keyframe | One authored value at one frame. What lies between two keys is interpolated |
| Track | One animatable property's own row of keys - position, rotation, volume |
| Timeline | The frame axis the level is authored on, one tab per kind of content |
| Span | When an object exists: a start frame and a length, never an end frame |
| Playhead | The frame being shown right now |
| Ease | How a value moves from the previous key to this one |
| Marker | A named point on the level's own ruler, for finding a place again |
| Checkpoint | Where a death sends the player back to |
Placement and drawing
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Anchor | An edge that follows its parent's own, so shrinking the parent carries the child with it |
| Layer | Draw order, and it is relative to the parent: a child's layer is added to its parent's |
| 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: other content under the magnet, the music under the beat toggle |
Music
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Beat | The music's own grid, authored by the level and read by nothing at playback |
| Beat Segment | One stretch of constant tempo, with its own tempo, phase and bar length |
| BPM | Beats per minute - how fast one beat segment runs |
| Tap | One press while tapping a tempo in. Enough of them describe a beat segment |
Automation and data
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Generator | Authoring automation: it produces level content from a few parameters |
| Modifier | A generator that edits or removes what is already there instead of adding |
| Seed | The number every random value in a level is resolved from, so a run replays the same |
| Raw Data | The whole saved model as one editable tree. Nothing here is validated, on purpose |