Keyboard

GDevelop gives access to all inputs made on the keyboard. This includes conditions to check if a key was pressed or released.

Warning

These conditions do not react to the on-screen keyboard of touch devices. For games targeting mobile or touchscreens, use the mouse and touch conditions instead.

Any key pressed

For this condition, the corresponding action/s will be performed if any key on the keyboard is pressed.

Any key released

The corresponding actions are performed when any key was just released during the frame.

Key pressed

Whenever the key selected while setting this condition is pressed, the corresponding actions are performed. This condition stays true for as long as the key is held down.

Key just pressed

This condition is only true for the single frame in which the key started being pressed. Use it (instead of "Key pressed") when you want an action to trigger exactly once per press — for example to fire a bullet, toggle a menu or move one step in a turn-based game — without having to combine "Key pressed" with a Trigger once condition.

Key released

Whenever the key selected while setting this condition is released, the corresponding actions are performed.

Key pressed / Key released (text expression)

These variants of the conditions accept the key name as a text expression instead of a fixed value from a list. This is useful when the key to check is read from a variable — for example to support customizable controls.

For example, to check the left arrow key, enter "Left" in the field.

Danger

Make sure that the key name is surrounded by quotes.

Valid key names

Letters use their lowercase name ("a" to "z"). Top-row digits use "Num0" to "Num9", while numeric keypad digits use "Numpad0" to "Numpad9". Other commonly used names include:

• Arrow keys: "Left", "Right", "Up", "Down" (and their numpad equivalents "NumpadLeft", "NumpadRight", "NumpadUp", "NumpadDown")
• Modifiers: "LShift", "RShift", "LControl", "RControl", "LAlt", "RAlt", "LSystem", "RSystem"
• Whitespace and edition: "Space", "Return", "Tab", "Back" (Backspace), "Delete", "Insert", "Escape"
• Navigation: "PageUp", "PageDown", "Home", "End"
• Punctuation: "SemiColon", "Comma", "Period", "Quote", "Slash", "BackSlash", "Equal", "Dash", "LBracket", "RBracket", "Tilde", "Menu"
• Function keys: "F1" through "F12", "Pause"
• Numpad operators: "Add", "Subtract", "Multiply", "Divide"

Note

Key names are case sensitive. Names distinguish the left and right modifier keys (e.g. "LShift" and "RShift") as well as the main keyboard and numeric keypad versions of digits, arrow keys and operators.

Last key pressed

The LastPressedKey() expression returns the name of the last key that was pressed in the form of a string (using the same names as listed above). For example, if the last key pressed was the left arrow key, the expression will return "Left". This is convenient when implementing a key-remapping screen: store the value of this expression into a variable when the player presses the key they want to assign.

Reference

All actions, conditions and expressions are listed in the keyboard reference page.