Glossary

Glossary

Every term you might meet in Arcadia Studio, this manual, or making games in general, in plain words. Each entry has a tag saying what it's about, and many say where to find it in Arcadia Studio and which page of this manual explains it.

Tags: App (a part of Arcadia Studio) · Game (game-making ideas) · Graphics · Audio · Scripting · Minecraft · Web & desktop · Publishing · File (a kind of file) · Library (other software Arcadia Studio uses) · Computing (general computer words).

Jump to: Symbols · A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z

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Symbols

${name} · Scripting — Replaced by the value of the screen variable name wherever it's written in Text, Tooltip and similar fields. Altitude: ${altitude} shows the current altitude. See Controls reference.

${row.item}, ${row.name}, ${row.count}, ${row.index} · Scripting — Placeholders in a row template, filled from each row of an Item List. See Item lists and row templates.

${event_value} · Scripting — The player's input (typed text, a slider value, a row number) in a server action. It is never pasted into a command. See Events and actions.

{rank}, {name}, {score}, {stat.level}, {medal} · Publishing — Placeholders in a leaderboard widget's row text. | splits a row into columns and \n starts a new line. See Leaderboard pages.

{title}, {label}, {players}, {period} · Publishing — Placeholders any label on a leaderboard page can use: the game's title, the score's name, how many players are on the board, and the chosen period.

#RRGGBB and #AARRGGBB · Graphics — How colours are written: red, green and blue as two hex digits each (#FF8000 is orange). The 8-digit form puts the opacity (alpha) first: #80FF8000 is half-see-through orange. See Properties and appearance.

@N and once · Graphics — In a sprite clip, @12 means 12 frames per second and once means stop on the last frame instead of looping: jump: 7,8,9 @8 once. See Pixel art and sprites.

/<project id>.open and .close · Minecraft — Commands every project gets: .open shows its Main screen, .close closes it. Adding a player name needs permission level 2. See Projects and screens.

/wysicraft and /wui · Minecraft — The runtime's own commands (/wui is the short form): reload portable packs, list screens, open <screen> [player]. See Exporting and installing.

2D · Game — Flat games drawn on a plane with width and height only, like Mario, Tetris or Stardew Valley. Everything Arcadia Studio makes is 2D: screens, menus and games are pictures and shapes placed by X and Y.

3D · Game — Games with depth as well as width and height, drawn from a camera inside a world of 3D models, like Minecraft itself or Fortnite. Arcadia Studio doesn't make 3D games; it makes 2D screens and games (which can run inside a 3D game like Minecraft).

8-bit · Audio — The sound (and look) of 1980s consoles like the NES: simple square, triangle and noise waves. The Music maker and Sound effect maker make 8-bit sounds; Import audio as 8-bit and Song from audio turn recordings into them. See Music and sound effects.

9-slice · Graphics — A way of stretching a picture so its corners keep their size and only the middle and edges stretch, so one small frame image fits any size of panel without looking squashed. Arcadia's own standard leaderboard page supports it. Arcadia Studio's skins don't: a skin picture stretches to fill the whole control (with Radius rounding its corners).

A

Absolute coordinates · App — X and Y are always measured from the screen's top-left corner, even for a control inside a panel. See Panels and parenting.

Action · Scripting — One built-in step that runs when an event happens: set a control's text, play a sound, open another screen, run a command. An event can have up to 64 on each side (client and server). See Events and actions.

Add component · App — The + Add component button (web & desktop) that adds a behaviour card to a control, like in Unity: Collider, Rigidbody, Character controller, Top-down mover, Follower or Pickup. See Advanced tools.

Addon API · Minecraft — Java code other mods can call to open Arcadia Studio screens, change controls and add their own server actions (WysicraftApi). See Addon API.

Advanced menu · App — The menu with the web & desktop tools: Inputs, Input creator, Animations, State graphs, Shaders, Particle maker, Particles, Collider editor, Tile painter, Collision layers, and leaderboard pages. Hidden for Minecraft-only projects.

Advanced toolbox · App — The Advanced · web & desktop section of the Toolbox (Advanced → Show / hide the Advanced toolbox): box, circle and polygon colliders, Camera, Particles and Tilemap.

Airship Controls · App — The sample project the Quick start tutorial builds. See Quick start tutorial.

Alignment · Graphics — Where text sits inside its control: left, center or right.

Align and distribute · App — Commands that line controls up by an edge or centre, or space three or more evenly (Edit → Align, or right-click). See Align and distribute.

Alpha · Graphics — How see-through a colour or pixel is, from fully transparent to solid. The AA in #AARRGGBB.

Anchor · App — Which edges of its parent a control keeps its distance from when the parent or the screen changes size: left, right, top, bottom, center or stretch. See Anchors and responsive layouts.

Animated texture · Graphics — A picture that plays by itself: its frames stacked in one PNG, with a .png.mcmeta file giving the timing, the way Minecraft animates water and lava. See Assets and items.

Animation (keyframe) · Game — A control moving, resizing or fading over time along keyframes (Advanced → Animations, web & desktop), with easing, looping and autoplay. See Advanced tools.

Anti-aliasing · Graphics — Softening the jagged edges of lines and text with in-between colours. Pixel art usually turns it off to stay crisp.

API · Computing — "Application programming interface": the set of commands one program offers another. The script API is what your scripts can call (ctx.ui.setText…); the Addon API is what other mods can call.

API key · Computing — A secret string that lets a program act for your account, like a password for one purpose. itch.io publishing can use one; keep it private.

App (Windows app) · Web & desktop — A program you double-click. Arcadia Studio's Windows app export wraps your game in a small program (under 1 MB plus the game) that shows it with WebView2. See Web and desktop apps.

app.ini · File — The settings file inside an exported Windows app: its window title and starting size.

Arcade · Publishing — A site of games you play in the browser. Arcadia is Arcadia Studio's.

Arcadia · Publishing — A community-driven web arcade (default address https://arcadia.arcadiastudio.games) with built-in leaderboards, where games made in Arcadia Studio can be published. See Publishing to Arcadia.

Arcadia Studio · App — This app: a Windows editor for designing Minecraft screens and 2D web and desktop games by placing controls on a canvas. It used to be called Wysicraft.

.arcadia · File — An Arcadia Studio project file: one file holding every screen, script, picture, sound and setting. Double-click it to open it. Projects saved before the rename are .wysicraftproj and still open. See Projects and screens.

Arpeggio · Audio — The notes of a chord played quickly one after another instead of together: the classic 8-bit way of making chords from a single voice.

Arrange · App — Changing which controls draw in front: Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward, Send to back (Edit → Arrange, or right-click).

Aspect ratio · Graphics — The shape of a screen as width to height: 16:9 is widescreen, 4:3 is squarer, 16:10 is what Arcadia's pictures use (1280 × 800).

Asset · App — Any picture, sound or font a project uses. The Assets panel lists them, with search, rename, replace and "find uses". See Assets and items.

Ask Agent · App — The button at the top of Properties (and in the Input creator) that asks your AI assistant's command-line tool to do something for you, from inside the editor. See AI assistants (MCP).

Atomic save · App — Saving so that if something goes wrong halfway, the previous file is left exactly as it was.

Autoplay · Audio — A Sound control or animation that starts by itself when the screen opens.

Autosave (recovery draft) · App — Every 30 seconds, changed work is copied to a recovery folder, never over your real file. File → Recover unsaved project… brings it back after a crash.

AvalonDock · Library — The open-source library that gives Arcadia Studio its dockable, floating and auto-hiding panels.

Axis · Game — How far a gamepad stick (or a finger drag) is pushed in one direction, from 0 to 1. Scripts read it with ctx.input.axis(name).

B

Background · Graphics — The fill behind a control (its Fill color), or the picture or colour behind a whole screen.

Basic Pitch · Library — A model by Spotify that listens to a recording and writes down the notes. Song from audio uses it to turn a song into an 8-bit cover. It's built into Arcadia Studio.

Batching · Graphics — Drawing many things with one instruction to the graphics card. Web and desktop games batch tiles, particles and sprites, which is how 50,000 particles can run smoothly.

Bearer token · Computing — A secret sent with each request to prove you're allowed in ("the bearer of this token"). The MCP server and Arcadia use them.

Behavior · App — The Properties section with Visible, Enabled, Tooltip and the Visible if / Enabled if conditions.

Bit crush · Audio — Deliberately lowering sound quality for a crunchy, lo-fi, retro effect.

Bitmap / raster · Graphics — A picture made of a grid of pixels (PNG, JPEG). The opposite is a vector image, made of shapes.

Blend colors · Graphics — In the pixel editor, mixing a see-through colour with what's underneath instead of replacing it.

Body · Game — A control that takes part in physics: static (never moves), dynamic (falls and bounces) or kinematic (moved by scripts). See Advanced tools.

Bold / Italic / Underline · Graphics — Text styles, set under Appearance.

Border · Graphics — The outline around a control: its colour and width (0 hides it).

BPM (tempo) · Audio — Beats per minute: how fast music goes. 120 BPM is two beats a second.

Breakpoint · Computing — In web design, a screen width where a layout switches to a different arrangement. Arcadia Studio's responsive layouts don't use breakpoints; controls move by their anchors.

Browser · Computing — The app you visit websites with: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari. Web exports and Arcadia games play in it.

Bug · Computing — A mistake in a program that makes it do the wrong thing.

Build · Computing — A finished, runnable version of a program or game made from its source, and the act of making it.

butler · Library — itch.io's own command-line uploader, bundled with Arcadia Studio for Publish to itch.io. It sends only what changed since the last upload. See Publishing to itch.io.

Button · App — A clickable control. Its click event runs actions or a script. See Controls reference.

C

Cache · Computing — A saved copy kept so something loads faster next time. Browsers cache game files, which is why an old version can show until the cache refreshes.

Camera · Game — The window onto a game world larger than the screen (web & desktop): only what's inside the first visible Camera control is shown, scaled to fill the screen. Move it to scroll. See Advanced tools.

Canvas · App — The big area in the middle where you design, and more generally the drawing surface a game is painted on.

Card · App — A component's block of settings in Properties, with a ✕ to remove it and its numbers editable in place.

Channel · Publishing — On itch.io, a slot on a game's page that a build goes to, such as html5 for the web version or windows for the Windows app. A name containing win, linux, mac or android marks it as a download for that system. See Publishing to itch.io.

Character controller · Game — A component for platformer movement: runs on the left and right inputs and jumps only from the ground. Its SPEED, JUMP and GROUND_GRIP numbers are on its card.

Check (Arcadia, itch.io) · Publishing — A dry run before publishing: Arcadia Studio's own rules, then the site's answer, without anything being published.

Checkbox · App — An on/off box; its value is true or false, with checked and unchecked events.

Checksum (SHA-256) · Computing — A fingerprint of a file: change one byte and it changes completely. App updates and Electron downloads are checked against theirs, as is the bundled butler when Arcadia Studio is built, and Arcadia trusts official web runtimes by theirs.

Cheats (allow) · Minecraft — A world setting that lets players run commands. Screens that run commands need it (or the right permission level).

Chiptune · Audio — Music made with (or in the style of) old console sound chips. What the Music maker writes.

Clip · Graphics — A named run of frames in a sprite sheet, like idle, run or jump, with its speed and whether it loops. See Pixel art and sprites.

Clip to screen · App — A screen setting: nothing outside the screen's own area is drawn or clickable, so things can slide in from off screen.

Clipping · Graphics — Hiding whatever is outside an area. A panel clips its children.

Client · Minecraft — The player's own copy of the game. Client-side actions and scripts run there: instant, but untrusted.

CLI (command-line interface) · Computing — A program you use by typing commands, like butler, Claude Code or Codex. Ask Agent runs one for you.

Code · Computing — Instructions for a computer, written in a programming language such as JavaScript.

Collider · Game — An invisible shape (box, circle or polygon) that other bodies bump into, or, as a trigger, pass through and report. See Advanced tools.

Collider editor · App — Advanced → Collider editor for the selection, or double-click a polygon collider: draw its points, bend edges into curves, and trace over a picture.

Collision · Game — Two bodies touching. Fires collide, collide_stay and collide_end events.

Collision layers · Game — Advanced → Collision layers: names for the 16 layers a collider can sit on, so "Collides with" reads as words ("player", "walls") instead of numbers. Lets you decide what bumps into what.

Command · Minecraft — A line starting with / that tells Minecraft to do something (/give, /tp, /say). The command server action runs a fixed one as the player.

Component (reusable) · App — A layout designed once and placed many times; the placed copies (instances) stay linked to their source. See Reusable components.

Component (behaviour) · Game — A card that gives a control a behaviour, like in Unity: Collider, Rigidbody, Character controller, Top-down mover, Follower, Pickup. See Advanced tools.

Compression · Computing — Making files smaller, either without losing anything (lossless: PNG, ZIP) or by dropping detail you won't notice (lossy: JPEG, MP3, OGG).

Condition · Scripting — A test over screen variables, like score >= 10 AND lives > 0, used by Visible if and Enabled if. See Properties and appearance.

Console · Computing — A text log of what a program is doing. Preview's console shows clicks, actions, console.log output and errors.

Container · Minecraft — A Minecraft screen with real item slots, like a chest or crafting table. Screens with Item Slots open as one.

Context (ctx) · Scripting — The object every script function receives: which control fired, the value, and the APIs (ctx.ui, ctx.state, ctx.input, ctx.physics…). See Scripting.

Control · App — Anything you place on a screen from the Toolbox: button, label, image, panel, slider and so on. Also called an element. See Controls reference.

Controls (Arcadia) · Publishing — The text that tells players how to play, such as "WASD to move · Space to jump".

Cooldown (Minimum interval) · Minecraft — How long a player must wait before the same server action runs again, in ticks (20 = one second).

Cover · Publishing — The main picture of a game on Arcadia: its card in the arcade and the big picture on its page (1280 × 800, up to 2 MB).

CPU · Computing — The computer's main processor, which runs game logic and scripts.

Crafting grid / Crafting result · Minecraft — Item Slots that work like a crafting table: up to 3 × 3 input slots using the game's own recipes, and the slot the crafted item appears in.

Crafting table (stamp) · Minecraft — A Toolbox stamp that lays out a 3 × 3 crafting grid, its result and the player's inventory, like Minecraft's crafting table.

Creator profile · Publishing — Your account as a game maker on Arcadia, needed to publish.

CSS · Web & desktop — The language web pages use for colours, fonts and layout. Leaderboard pages use it.

Curve (collider) · Game — A point in the Collider editor turned into a smooth bend (press C).

D

Debug · Computing — Finding and fixing bugs. Preview's console and profiler help.

Default · Computing — The value something has until you change it.

Demucs · Library — A model by Meta that splits a song into its instruments (vocals, drums, bass, the rest), called stems. Song from audio can use it; it's an optional one-time 166 MB download, not bundled. See Music and sound effects.

Dependencies · Minecraft — Other mods a project needs installed, such as kubejs. Minecraft won't load the project without them.

Design size · App — A responsive screen's Width and Height: the size its layout was designed at, before anchors adapt it.

Desktop · Web & desktop — Running as a program on a computer, rather than in a browser. Arcadia Studio exports Windows apps and Electron apps.

Device code (linking) · Publishing — The short code (like QHTB-7K2M) you approve in the browser to link Arcadia Studio to your Arcadia account. No password is typed in the app.

Dim game behind UI · Minecraft — A screen setting that darkens the world behind a screen. Off by default.

Docking · App — Snapping panels (Toolbox, Properties, Layers, Output…) into place around the canvas, as tabs, floating windows or auto-hidden strips. See The workspace.

Download size · Web & desktop — How much a player downloads to play. Arcadia Studio warns past 100 MB for the web and 500 MB for desktop.

Draw call · Graphics — One instruction to the graphics card to draw something. Fewer is faster; see batching.

Dropdown · App — A control for picking one option from a list. Its value is the chosen option's number, starting at 0.

Drum kit · Audio — A Music maker layer whose rows are drums (kick, snare, hi-hat…) instead of notes.

Duplicate · App — Copying the selection in place (Ctrl+D). Copies get new numbered IDs.

Dynamic body · Game — A body moved by physics: it falls with gravity, collides and bounces.

E

Easing · Game — How an animation speeds up and slows down: linear, ease in, ease out, ease in-out, or step.

Electron · Library — A framework that turns web pages into desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux (about 100 MB each). Arcadia Studio downloads it when you export Electron apps. See Web and desktop apps.

Element · App — Another word for a control.

Enabled · App — Whether a control responds to clicks and typing. Disabled controls still show.

Engine · Computing — The core software that runs a game: drawing, input, physics and scripts. Arcadia Studio has a web runtime and a Minecraft runtime.

Envelope (ADSR) · Audio — How a sound's loudness changes over its length: Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release.

Event · Scripting — Something that happens and can run actions or a script: a click, typing, a screen opening, a tick, two bodies touching. See Events and actions.

Export · App — Turning a project into something to use elsewhere: a Minecraft JAR, a web page, a Windows app. File → Export… (Ctrl+E). See Exporting and installing.

Extension (file) · Computing — The letters after the dot in a file name that say what kind of file it is: .png, .arcadia, .jar.

F

F5 / Ctrl+F5 / F7 · App — Preview, Test in Minecraft, and Validate. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Fill · Graphics — A control's background colour or picture. Fill enabled turns it on or off. In the pixel editor, the Fill tool paints a whole area of one colour.

Fit game to window · App — A Preview option (on by default) that scales the game to fill the Preview window. Only the view changes, not the game. See Preview.

Fit to viewport · App — A screen setting that shrinks a fixed-layout screen to fit a smaller game window, and in a web game also grows it to fill the page (on by default).

Floating selection · Graphics — In the pixel editor, pixels you've moved that float above the layer until you press Enter or pick another tool.

Folder export · Web & desktop — A web page export as a folder: index.html plus its script and pictures, as Arcadia and itch.io want it.

Follower · Game — A component that moves a control toward the nearest control with a given tag. Its TARGET_TAG, SPEED and STOP_AT are on its card.

Font / typeface · Graphics — The style of lettering. Arcadia Studio has Minecraft's fonts, built-in web families (web:sans, web:serif…) and fonts you import (.ttf, .otf, .woff, .woff2).

Format · Computing — The way a kind of file is organised; also, for a leaderboard, how a score is shown (points, number or time).

FPS (frames per second) · Graphics — How many times a second the picture is redrawn. 60 is smooth; below 30 looks choppy. The profiler shows it.

Frame · Graphics — One picture in an animation, or one redraw of the screen. In a sprite sheet, one equal-sized cell.

Frame (screen) · Minecraft — Minecraft's grey window border and title behind a screen: Show frame / title. Off by default.

G

Game loop · Game — The cycle a game repeats many times a second: read input, update the world, draw it. The tick event is your hook into it.

Game variable · Scripting — A variable of the whole game (Project settings), used like a screen variable but kept when another screen opens; saved ones come back next visit. See Where to keep state.

Gamepad · Game — A controller like an Xbox or PlayStation pad. Web and desktop games can read gamepads through Inputs.

General MIDI · Audio — The standard numbering of 128 instruments (piano is 1, and so on), so songs sound right with any SoundFont.

GeneralUser GS · Library — The free SoundFont bundled with Arcadia Studio (32 MB), used when a song uses recorded instruments instead of chip sounds. FluidR3 GM, FatBoy and Arachno can be downloaded as alternatives.

Genre · Publishing — A game's type (Action, Arcade, Puzzle, Platformer…). Arcadia takes up to three.

GLSL · Graphics — The programming language for shaders. Arcadia Studio's web shaders use GLSL ES 3.00.

GPU (graphics card) · Computing — The processor that draws the picture. Browsers use it when hardware acceleration is on, which is what keeps big web games smooth.

GraalVM (GraalJS) · Library — The JavaScript engine the Arcadia Studio runtime uses to run your scripts inside Minecraft.

Gradle · Library — The build tool Test in Minecraft uses to set up and launch a Minecraft test instance.

Gravity · Game — The pull that makes dynamic bodies fall, set per screen in pixels per second squared (web & desktop).

Grid (and snap) · App — The canvas's guide lines; with Snap to grid on, moved controls land on them. The size is in Project settings.

Group · App — A named folder of controls in Layers, for organising (Ctrl+G). Unlike a panel it doesn't draw, clip or move things in the game. See Layers and groups.

GUI · Computing — "Graphical user interface": windows, buttons and menus, as opposed to typed commands.

GUI pixel · Minecraft — Minecraft's unit for screens. Its GUI Scale setting decides how many real pixels one GUI pixel is. At 100% zoom the canvas shows one GUI pixel as two screen pixels.

GUI Scale · Minecraft — The player's Minecraft setting for how big menus are, which changes how much room a screen has.

H

Hardware acceleration · Computing — Letting the browser use the graphics card to draw. With it off, large web games can stall and freeze.

Header row · Publishing — The line above a leaderboard list, like #|Player|{label}.

Hex · Computing — Counting in sixteen (0–9 then A–F), used for colours: FF is 255.

Hidden (itch.io) · Publishing — Start a new channel hidden: its first upload isn't downloadable until you make it visible on itch.io.

Hitbox · Game — The invisible shape used to decide when things touch, often simpler than the picture. Colliders are hitboxes.

host.js · Web & desktop — An editable file in a web export where you connect the game to your own code: what server actions and commands do outside Minecraft. It's kept when you export again. See Web and desktop apps.

Hotbar · Minecraft — The row of nine slots at the bottom of the player's inventory (slots 0–8).

Hover · Computing — The mouse resting over something. Controls have hover, mouse_enter and mouse_leave events.

HTML · Web & desktop — The language web pages are written in. Web exports and leaderboard pages are HTML pages; itch.io calls browser games "HTML" games.

HTTP / HTTPS · Computing — How browsers and apps talk to web servers; HTTPS is the encrypted kind.

HUD · Game — "Heads-up display": the score, health and so on that stay on screen while the game world moves. Attach them to the camera so they stay in view.

I

ID · App — A control's, screen's or project's unique name: lowercase letters, digits and _, starting with a letter. Scripts and actions refer to things by ID.

Image · App — A control that shows a picture from the project or from Minecraft.

Import · Computing — Bringing a file into a project: pictures, sounds, fonts, scripts, MIDI files, leaderboards.

Import audio as 8-bit · Audio — Project → Import audio as 8-bit…: makes a recording sound like an old console (NES, Game Boy, Atari or arcade presets).

Import texture · App — Project → Import texture…: adds PNG pictures to the project.

Input · Game — A named action like jump or left, tied to keys, gamepad buttons, stick directions and touch drags (Advanced → Inputs, web & desktop). Scripts ask ctx.input.isDown("jump"). See Advanced tools.

Input creator · App — Advanced → Input creator (with the assistant): build a set of inputs for a device with your AI assistant's help, then review, test and save them.

Installation ZIP · Minecraft — An export with separate server and client JARs; the client one leaves out server scripts.

Installer · Computing — The setup program that puts an app on your computer (ArcadiaStudio-Setup.exe). The portable ZIP runs without installing.

Instance · App — A placed copy of a reusable component, still linked to its source.

Isolation (Isolate group) · App — Editing only one group's members while everything else is dimmed and locked. Double-click a group to enter it, press Escape to leave.

Item · Minecraft — Anything a player can hold, like minecraft:diamond. Item IDs are written namespace:item_id.

Item Icon · Minecraft — A control showing an item's inventory picture, including modded items.

Item List · Minecraft — A scrolling list of items with optional buttons on each row. See Item lists and row templates.

Item Slots · Minecraft — Real inventory slots in a Minecraft screen: players drag, split and shift-click items as in any inventory, and the server moves them. Player inventory, storage, crafting grid or crafting result.

itch.io · Publishing — A popular website for indie games, where anyone can publish. File → Publish to itch.io uploads your game's web version and Windows app there. See Publishing to itch.io.

J

JAR · Minecraft — A Java archive: the file a Minecraft mod comes in. A project JAR holds your screens, pictures, scripts and the runtime; put it in the mods folder.

Java · Computing — A programming language, and the software that runs programs written in it. Minecraft Java Edition runs on it; Test in Minecraft needs Java 21.

JavaScript · Scripting — The programming language of web pages, and of Arcadia Studio's scripts, in Minecraft as well as on the web. See Scripting.

Jint · Library — A JavaScript engine for .NET. Arcadia Studio uses it to check your scripts for mistakes before saving, without running them.

JPEG · File — A picture format that squeezes photos small by dropping fine detail. Fine for covers and screenshots; not for pixel art.

JSON · File — A simple text format for data, like {"score": 10, "name": "Ada"}. Project files, settings and leaderboard data use it.

K

Kept script state · Scripting — A Project setting for web & desktop games, Scripts keep their variables between events: each script runs from the top once, then only the event's function, so top-level variables last until the game starts over. See Where to keep state.

Key repeat · Game — How often a held key sends the key event again (50–2000 ms, or 0 for once per press).

Keyboard shortcuts · App — Key combinations for commands; change them in View → Keyboard shortcuts…. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Keyframe · Game — A point in time where you set a value (position, size, opacity); an animation moves smoothly between keyframes.

Kinematic body · Game — A body moved by scripts or animations rather than physics; it pushes dynamic bodies out of the way.

KubeJS · Minecraft — A popular mod that lets modpack makers change Minecraft with JavaScript files. Arcadia Studio can run server scripts through it and export for it. See KubeJS integration.

L

Label · App — A control that shows text, including variables like ${score}.

Layer (Layers panel) · App — Every control on a screen, listed front to back. The eye hides, the lock locks, drag to reorder. See Layers and groups.

Layer (pixel editor) · Graphics — A sheet of pixels stacked over others, so you can edit parts of a picture separately.

Layer (music) · Audio — One part of a song in the Music maker, with its own instrument and notes.

Layout · Graphics — Where things are placed on a screen. The Properties Layout section holds X, Y, Width and Height.

Leaderboard · Publishing — A ranked list of players' scores. Arcadia keeps one for a game by reading its variables; no code needed. See Publishing to Arcadia.

Leaderboard page · Publishing — The page players see for a game's leaderboard on Arcadia. Design your own on the canvas (Advanced → Create leaderboard, Open leaderboard…, Import leaderboard…) with lists, a podium, rank boxes and more. See Leaderboard pages.

Leaderboard list · Publishing — The leaderboard widget behind the Top 10 panel and Top 100 (scrolling) stamps: rows of rank, name and score.

Leaderboard podium · Publishing — The Top 3 podium widget: 1st, 2nd and 3rd on gold, silver and bronze steps.

Leaderboard range panel · Publishing — The Range panel widget: players pick which ranks to see, or find a player by name.

Leaderboard rank box · Publishing — The First / Second / Third place widget: one box for one place.

Leaderboard slider · Publishing — The Top 5 slider widget: the top players as cards that slide along.

.lb · File — A leaderboard page file. Inside a project they're leaderboards/<id>.lb; saved on their own they carry their pictures too, to use in another project.

Library · Computing — Ready-made code a program uses instead of writing it all itself.

License · Computing — The rules for using software or art. MIT, Apache and BSD are permissive open-source licenses; Arcadia Studio's third-party notices list them all.

Linking (Arcadia) · Publishing — Connecting this computer to your Arcadia account once, so you can publish without typing a password.

Load details from Arcadia · Publishing — Copies a game's current details (title, description, pictures, leaderboard and more) from Arcadia into Publish to Arcadia, after they were edited on the website.

Load App — Stops a control from being clicked, moved or selected on the canvas (Ctrl+L). It doesn't affect the game.

Loop · Audio — Playing again from the start when the end is reached. Also a script that repeats.

Lossless / lossy · Computing — Compression that keeps everything (PNG, WAV, FLAC) or that drops some detail to be smaller (JPEG, MP3, OGG).

M

Magic wand · Graphics — A pixel editor tool that selects an area of one colour.

Main screen · App — The screen a project opens with (/<project id>.open, or the start of a web game).

Made for · App — A Project setting: Minecraft and web & desktop, Minecraft only, or web & desktop only. It decides which tools are offered and what's checked.

Manifest · File — The file describing a project or pack: its ID, name, version and screens (project.json, or manifest.json in a pack).

MCP (Model Context Protocol) · App — A standard way for AI assistants to use an app's tools. Arcadia Studio's built-in MCP server lets an assistant like Claude read and edit your project (Project → MCP server (AI assistants)…). See AI assistants (MCP).

McpExports · App — The folder where an assistant's exports go: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Arcadia Studio\McpExports.

.mcmeta (.png.mcmeta) · File — Minecraft's animation file that sits beside a PNG, giving each frame's time.

Medal / crown (rank icon) · Publishing — A gold, silver or bronze crown, medal, trophy or star to put by 1st, 2nd and 3rd on a leaderboard page, or your own picture.

MeltySynth · Library — The library that plays SoundFonts (recorded instruments) for the Music maker.

Metronome · Audio — A steady click on each beat to play along with while recording.

MIDI (.mid) · Audio — A file of notes rather than sound: which note, when and how loud, for an instrument to play. The Music maker imports and exports MIDI.

Mirror · Graphics — A pixel editor option that copies what you draw onto the other half of the picture.

Mobile friendly · Publishing — A game that plays on phones and tablets: touch controls, fits a small screen. Tick Plays on phones and tablets when publishing to Arcadia.

Mod · Minecraft — A modification that adds to or changes Minecraft. Your exported JAR is a mod.

Mod loader · Minecraft — The program that loads mods into Minecraft. Arcadia Studio's screens use NeoForge.

Modpack · Minecraft — A collection of mods, settings and scripts put together to play as one experience.

Moderator · Publishing — A person who reviews uploads on Arcadia before they go live.

Music maker · Audio — Project → Music maker…: write 8-bit songs with layers, a piano roll, drums, recording and sheet music. See Music and sound effects.

Mute · App — A Preview tick box that turns the preview's sound off without changing the game.

N

Namespace · Minecraft — The part before the colon in an ID, saying who it belongs to: minecraft:diamond or myproject:click.

NAudio · Library — The library Arcadia Studio uses to play, record and convert sound on Windows.

NeoForge · Minecraft — The mod loader Arcadia Studio's screens run on (21.1.250 or newer for Minecraft 1.21.1).

Nesting · App — Putting things inside other things: panels in panels, groups in groups (up to 32 levels).

.NET · Library — Microsoft's platform Arcadia Studio is built on. It's included with the app; nothing to install.

Nudge · App — Moving the selection with the arrow keys: 1 GUI pixel, or 10 with Shift.

NVorbis / OggVorbisEncoder · Library — The libraries that read and write OGG sound files.

O

OAuth · Computing — A standard way of letting an app act for your account after you approve it on the website, without giving it your password.

Object (spawned) · Game — A copy of a template control made while the game runs (ctx.ui.spawn), like bullets or enemies; up to 5,000 per screen.

OGG (.ogg) · Audio — A compressed sound format, and the only one Minecraft plays. Arcadia Studio saves sounds as OGG by default.

Onion skin · Graphics — Showing the previous frame faintly while you draw the next, to keep animation smooth.

ONNX Runtime · Library — Microsoft's engine for running AI models on your computer. It runs Basic Pitch and Demucs for Song from audio.

Opacity · Graphics — How solid something is, from 0 (invisible) to 1 (solid).

Open source · Computing — Software whose source code anyone can read and, within its license, reuse.

Output · App — The panel listing what Arcadia Studio did: saves, exports, validation results and errors.

Override · App — A change made to one instance of a component (its text, colour, size) that updating from the source keeps.

P

Panel · App — A rectangle that holds other controls: it moves, clips, hides and anchors them together. See Panels and parenting.

Parent · App — The panel a control sits inside. Its children move with it.

Particle maker · Game — Advanced → Particle maker…: make sparks, explosions, smoke, rain and more from a preset or from nothing, with a live preview. A Particles control plays the effect.

Particles · Game — Many tiny moving pictures that together make effects like fire or snow. Advanced → Particles… lists the project's effects; the Particles control plays one (web & desktop).

Path / pathfinding · Game — Finding a way around walls to a target. Spawned objects can find their way over a tilemap (seek with path); scripts call ctx.physics.findPath.

Period · Publishing — Which scores a leaderboard shows: all time, this week or today.

Period tabs · Publishing — The leaderboard widget with All time / This week / Today tabs that switch every list on the page.

Permission level · Minecraft — How much a player may do: 0 everyone, 1 moderator, 2 operator, 3 administrator, 4 owner. Server actions can require a level.

Physics · Game — Simulated falling, colliding, bouncing and sliding (web & desktop). Things don't rotate.

Pickup · Game — A component that disappears when touched and adds to a screen variable (WORTH on its card): coins, gems, hearts.

Piano roll · Audio — The Music maker's note grid: time runs right, pitch goes up.

Pixel · Graphics — One dot of a picture or screen.

Pixel art · Graphics — Pictures drawn pixel by pixel, usually small and crisp, in the style of older games.

Pixel editor · App — Project → Pixel editor…: draw pixel art and animations with layers, frames and a palette, saved as a transparent PNG. See Pixel art and sprites.

Platformer · Game — A game about running and jumping between platforms, like Mario. The Character controller component moves a player like this.

PNG · File — The picture format Arcadia Studio uses: lossless, with transparency, perfect for pixel art.

Podium · Publishing — See Leaderboard podium.

Pointer · Scripting — The mouse or a finger. ctx.input.pointer() tells a script where the latest press on the floor is, for tap-to-move. See Scripting.

Portable · Computing — Runs from a folder without installing. Arcadia Studio's ZIP is portable; a .wysicraft pack is a portable Minecraft pack.

Preset · Computing — A ready-made starting point you can adjust: a sound effect, an instrument, a particle effect.

Preview · App — Project → Preview (F5): play the screen or game in its own window, with a console, JavaScript scratchpad and profiler. See Preview.

Profiler · App — A Preview overlay showing where each frame's time goes (logic, physics, drawing, scripts), to find what's slow.

Progress Bar · App — A control showing a value as a filled bar between a minimum and maximum.

Project · App — Everything that makes up one thing you're building: its screens, scripts, pictures, sounds and settings, saved as one .arcadia file.

Project settings · App — Project → Project settings…: the project's name, ID, author, version, grid and dependencies.

Prototype · Game — A quick, rough version of a game to test an idea.

Publish · Publishing — Putting a game online for others to play: File → Publish to Arcadia… or Publish to itch.io….

Q

Quick start · App — The tutorial that builds a working screen in about ten minutes. See Quick start tutorial.

R

RAM · Computing — A computer's working memory, where running programs keep what they're using.

Rank icon · Publishing — The leaderboard widget for crowns and medals: see Medal / crown.

Raycast · Game — Checking what an imaginary straight line hits first (ctx.physics.raycast), used for line of sight, lasers and aiming.

Recovery · App — See Autosave. File → Recover unsaved project….

Render · Graphics — To draw. The renderer is the part of an engine that draws.

Resolution · Graphics — How many pixels a picture or screen has, like 1280 × 800.

Resource pack · Minecraft — A Minecraft pack of replacement pictures and sounds. It can override a project's images.

Resource path / resource ID · Minecraft — The address of a picture or sound, like myproject:textures/gui/image/logo.png. See Assets and items.

Responsive layout · App — A screen setting: controls move and stretch by their anchors when the game window is a different size.

RGB · Graphics — Mixing red, green and blue light to make colours on a screen.

Rhino · Library — The JavaScript engine KubeJS runs on; a modpack needs it installed alongside KubeJS.

Rigidbody · Game — A component that makes a control fall, collide and bounce: dynamic or kinematic, with bounce and friction.

Row template · App — A screen designed as one row, reused for every row of an Item List.

Run (leaderboard) · Publishing — One play of a game from start to game over; its score is sent when Run ends when turns true.

Runtime · Computing — The part that runs your screens in the finished product. The Minecraft runtime is a mod; the web runtime is a script (wysicraft-web.js) inside every web export.

Runtime hash · Publishing — The web runtime's SHA-256 fingerprint. Arcadia trusts official runtimes by it, so each new runtime's hash is added there once.

S

Sample (audio) · Audio — One measurement of a sound wave, or a short recorded sound.

Sample rate · Audio — How many samples a second a recording has: 44,100 is CD quality. Lower sounds crunchier.

Sandbox · Computing — A walled-off space where code runs without being able to reach the rest of the computer. Preview scripts and Arcadia games run in one.

Saved games · Web & desktop — What a game keeps between visits with ctx.save: text by key, up to 512 KB a game, in the player's browser or the desktop app. See Saved games.

Scale · Graphics — Making something bigger or smaller. A text's Size scale; Minecraft's GUI Scale.

Screen · App — One page of a project: a menu, a shop, a level. A project can have up to 128 (1,000 for web & desktop). See Projects and screens.

Screen change (scripts) · Scripting — One thing a script asks the screen to do: a ctx.ui call or a ctx.state.set. One script run may make 100,000 in web & desktop games and 128 in Minecraft. See Scripting limits.

Screen settings · App — Project → Screen settings (or click an empty spot): the screen's ID, size, variables and display options.

Screen variable · Scripting — A named value a screen remembers while it's open, like score or lives. Scripts use ctx.state.get and set. They start over when the screen opens again; see Kept script state and Saved games for things that should last longer.

Screenshots (Arcadia) · Publishing — Up to 8 pictures for a game's page gallery on Arcadia.

Script · Scripting — A JavaScript file with functions that run when events happen. Client scripts run in the player's game; server scripts on the Minecraft server. See Scripting.

Scroll Panel · App — A panel whose contents scroll with the mouse wheel when they're taller than it.

SDK · Computing — "Software development kit": tools and code for building on a platform. Arcadia's leaderboard pages use its SDK (/sdk/arcadia.js).

Seek · Game — A spawned object moving toward a target by itself (ctx.ui.seek).

Select / selection · App — The controls you've picked to change. Click, box-select, or Ctrl+A.

Server · Minecraft — The computer running the Minecraft world everyone joins (in single player, it's inside your game). Server actions are trusted; the server checks every click.

Server function · Minecraft — A server action that calls code another mod or a KubeJS script has registered.

Session token · Minecraft — A secret carried with each click on a Minecraft screen so the server knows it's genuine.

Shader · Graphics — A small program the graphics card runs over every pixel, for effects like CRT scanlines, vignette or glow (Advanced → Shaders, web). See Advanced tools.

Shape · App — A control drawn as a rectangle, oval, triangle, diamond, hexagon or star, filled with a colour or picture.

Show frame / title · Minecraft — See Frame (screen).

Single-file export · Web & desktop — A whole web game in one .html file, about a third bigger than the folder export.

Skin · Graphics — A picture used as a button's or panel's fill instead of a plain colour. It stretches to the control's size; Radius rounds its corners.

Slider · App — A control you drag to pick a number between a minimum and maximum.

Slot · Minecraft — One square of an inventory that holds a stack of items. See Item Slots.

Snap · App — See Grid.

Solid (tile) · Game — Tiles in a tilemap that bodies can't pass through, listed by number like 1,3,5-9.

Sound · App — A control that plays a sound (it has no picture and shows only in Layers), with autoplay, volume, repeat and loop.

Sound effect maker · Audio — Project → Sound effect maker…: make retro sound effects (coin, jump, laser, explosion…) and mutate them.

SoundFont (.sf2) · Audio — A bank of recorded instruments. With one, the Music maker plays real-sounding instruments instead of chip sounds.

Source code · Computing — The human-readable instructions a program is built from.

Spawn / despawn · Game — Making a new copy of something while the game runs, and removing it.

Sprite · Graphics — A 2D picture that moves or animates in a game: a character, an enemy, a coin. The Sprite control plays named clips from a sprite sheet. See Pixel art and sprites.

Sprite sheet · Graphics — One image holding all of a sprite's frames side by side, all the same size.

Sprite sheet editor · App — Project → Sprite sheet editor for the selection… (or double-click a Sprite): turn a sheet into named clips.

Stack order · Graphics — Which things draw in front of which. Higher in Layers is in front.

Stamp · App — A Toolbox entry that adds a ready-made control or layout, like a star shape, a crafting table or a leaderboard top 10.

State (screen state) · Scripting — The screen's variables at a moment; see Screen variable.

State graph · Game — A map of a sprite's states (idle, run, jump) and when to switch between them, so it picks its own animation without scripts (Advanced → State graphs, web & desktop).

Static body · Game — A collider that never moves: a wall, floor or platform.

Stems · Audio — A song split into separate parts: vocals, drums, bass, and the rest. Demucs makes them.

Storage slots · Minecraft — Temporary Item Slots; whatever is left in them goes back to the player when the screen closes.

T

Tag (control) · Game — A name given to controls so scripts can find them as a group (ctx.ui.findByTag("enemy"), hasTag); the Follower card and raycasts use them. Tags are currently set by an AI assistant (MCP); Properties has no field for them yet.

Tap-to-move · Game — Moving a character toward where you tap or click, common on phones. See Pointer.

Target (Made for) · App — Which platforms a project is for: see Made for.

Template (script) · Scripting — A ready-made script (give an item, run a command, teleport…) you adjust by changing the constants at its top.

Template (spawn) · Game — The design control (often hidden) that spawned copies are made from.

Test in Minecraft · App — Project → Test in Minecraft (Ctrl+F5): launches a real Minecraft with your project in a test world. See Testing in Minecraft.

Text Box · App — A control for typing one line of text.

Texture · Graphics — A picture used on something: a control's image, a skin, a tile sheet.

Texture Region · App — A control showing part of a larger picture.

Tick · Minecraft — Minecraft's step of game time: 20 per second (50 ms each). Also the screen's tick event, which runs every Tick interval.

Tick interval · Game — A screen setting: how often its tick event runs (for timers, animation and game logic), in milliseconds; 0 is off.

Tile / tileset / tile sheet · Graphics — Small square pictures (grass, wall, water) that repeat to build a level; the tile sheet is one image holding them all.

Tile painter · App — Advanced → Tile painter for the selection…: paint a tilemap's tiles and choose which are solid.

Tilemap · Game — A grid of tiles making a level or floor (web & desktop). See Advanced tools.

Timeline · Game — Time laid out left to right, as in the Animations and Music maker windows.

Token · Computing — A secret string that proves who's asking; see Bearer token.

Toolbox · App — The panel of controls and stamps you drag onto the canvas.

Tooltip · Computing — Text that appears when you hover over something.

Top-down · Game — A game seen from above, like classic Zelda. The Top-down mover component moves in eight directions without gravity.

Transparency · Graphics — Parts of a picture you can see through (see Alpha). PNG keeps it; JPEG doesn't.

Trigger · Game — A collider that doesn't block but reports when something enters, stays or leaves (trigger_enter, trigger_stay, trigger_exit): checkpoints, pickups, danger zones.

Typeface · Graphics — See Font.

U

UI · Computing — "User interface": everything the player sees and clicks. Arcadia Studio designs UIs.

Undo / Redo · App — Take back (Ctrl+Z) or put back (Ctrl+Y) the last change, up to 200 steps.

Unity · Game — A well-known game engine. Arcadia Studio's component cards and state graphs work the way Unity's do.

Update (app) · App — A newer version of Arcadia Studio from GitHub Releases, offered at startup (Help → Check for updates…) and checked by its checksum before it installs.

Upload · Computing — Sending files from your computer to a website.

URL · Computing — A web address, like https://itch.io.

UX · Computing — "User experience": how easy and pleasant something is to use.

V

Validate · App — Project → Validate (F7): checks the project for errors that would stop an export, listed in Output.

Value · App — A control's current value: a slider's number, a checkbox's true/false, a dropdown's chosen option.

Variable · Scripting — A named value that can change, like score. See Screen variable.

Vector · Graphics — A picture made of shapes and lines rather than pixels, which stays sharp at any size.

Velocity · Game — Speed in a direction. ui.setVelocity(id, vx, vy) sets a body's.

Velocity (music) · Audio — How hard a note is played, so how loud.

Version · Computing — A number for each release, like 2.0.1 (major.minor.patch). Raise it each time you publish.

Videos (Arcadia) · Publishing — Up to 3 YouTube links shown on a game's page on Arcadia.

Viewport · Graphics — The visible area a screen or game is shown in.

Visible · App — Whether a control shows (the eye in Layers).

Visible if / Enabled if · Scripting — Conditions that show or enable a control depending on screen variables.

W

WAV · File — An uncompressed sound format: exact but large. Web and desktop games can use it; Minecraft needs OGG.

Web export · Web & desktop — Your project as a web page anyone can open in a browser. See Web and desktop apps.

WebGL (WebGL2) · Graphics — How web pages use the graphics card. Web games use it for shaders and fast drawing.

WebP · File — A modern picture format, smaller than PNG or JPEG. Accepted for Arcadia covers and screenshots.

WebView2 · Library — The Microsoft Edge part of Windows that shows web pages inside apps. Preview and exported Windows apps use it.

Widget · Computing — A small piece of interface, like a leaderboard list or podium.

Windows app · Web & desktop — See App.

Workspace · App — Arcadia Studio's window: menus, toolbar, panels and canvas. See The workspace.

Wysicraft · App — Arcadia Studio's former name. Some internal names and file types keep it.

.wysicraft · File — A portable Minecraft pack exported from Arcadia Studio, loaded by the runtime without restarting Minecraft.

.wysicraftproj · File — A project file from before the rename to Arcadia Studio. It still opens, and saves as .arcadia.

wysicraft-web.js · File — The web runtime: the script in every web export that runs your game in the browser.

X

X and Y · Graphics — Position: X is across from the left, Y is down from the top, in GUI pixels.

Y

Your rank · Publishing — The leaderboard widget showing the person looking at the page, highlighted, with the players just above and below.

YouTube links · Publishing — See Videos (Arcadia).

Z

ZIP · File — A single compressed file holding many files and folders.

Zoom · App — Making the canvas view bigger or smaller (Ctrl+wheel, Ctrl+0 actual size, Ctrl+9 fit). It doesn't change the screen.