Be-Music Script

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Be-Music Script (BMS) is a file format for rhythm action games, devised by Urao Yane in 1998. A BMS file describes how notes are arranged and how the game responds when the player takes a specific action. It is a plain text file with 'directive' lines starting with the # character. Since a BMS file itself does not include either images or sound, BMS files are normally distributed with appropriate image and sound files.

The BMS file format was originally used for Beatmania simulators, but because of its simplicity, it has been adopted and supported by many free rhythm action games including StepMania. BMS files have also been produced to accompany original music, rather than songs from commercial games. There are several extensions to BMS, notably BME format (for 7-button Beatmania IIDX-like games), PMS format (for Pop'n Music-like games), and a 'long note' extension.