Editor Overview

The Caustic Studio editor is a single-page application with a flexible panel layout. Every tool you need — from pixel art to audio to level design — lives within the same workspace.

Layout zones

The editor uses a four-zone layout designed around common creative workflows:

Left zone — Navigate

The left zone is for browsing and organizing your project:

• File Tree: All project assets organized by type (sprites, audio, levels, scripts)
• Asset Browser: Visual grid of thumbnails with search and filtering
• Search: Full-text search across file names, tags, and metadata

Center zone — Create

The center zone is your primary canvas. It adapts based on what you're editing:

• Sprite Editor: Pixel art canvas with tools, layers, and color palettes
• Level Editor: Tile placement, entity spawning, and zone configuration
• Animation Timeline: Frame-by-frame animation with onion skinning
• Audio Workspace: Waveform editing, arrangement, and effects chain

Right zone — Configure

The right zone shows context-sensitive properties for the selected item:

• Sprite Properties: Dimensions, origin point, collision shapes, blend mode
• Tile Properties: Physics material, collision layer, z-index
• Audio Properties: Volume, pitch, spatial settings, bus routing
• Entity Properties: Components, scripts, physics body configuration

Bottom zone — Monitor

The bottom zone provides feedback and communication:

• Game Preview: Embedded game runner with play/pause/step controls
• Console: Script output, errors, and warnings
• Collaboration Chat: Real-time messaging with your team
• Performance Monitor: FPS, memory usage, draw call count

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Play/Stop game	F5
Save project	Ctrl+S
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Shift+Z
Toggle left panel	Ctrl+1
Toggle right panel	Ctrl+3
Toggle bottom panel	`Ctrl+``
Quick search	Ctrl+K

Theming

The editor uses a dark theme by default. Custom themes can be configured in Settings > Appearance.