Keyboard

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

Warning

Keyboard conditions work only with physical keyboards. They do not work with on-screen (virtual) keyboards on touchscreen and mobile devices. If your game targets mobile or touchscreen platforms, use mouse/touch conditions instead.

Key pressed vs. key just pressed

There are two distinct conditions for detecting a key being pressed:

• Key pressed — Returns true continuously for as long as the key is held down. Use this for movement or actions that should repeat while the key is held (e.g., moving a character while an arrow key is held).
• Key just pressed — Returns true only during the single frame when the key is first pressed. Use this for one-shot actions such as jumping, shooting, or opening a menu.

Choosing the wrong one is a common mistake: using "Key pressed" for a jump action causes the action to fire on every frame the key is held, whereas "Key just pressed" fires exactly once per key press.

Any key pressed

Returns true if any key on the keyboard is currently pressed. Useful for "press any key to continue" screens.

Key released

Returns true during the single frame when a key is released.

Key pressed (text expression)

Lets you specify the key name as a text expression, which is useful when the key is stored in a variable or configured by the player at runtime. Enter the key name surrounded by double quotes, for example "Left" for the left arrow key.

Common key names:

• Arrow keys: "Left", "Right", "Up", "Down"
• Letters: "a" through "z" (lowercase)
• Digit row: "Num0" through "Num9"
• Numpad digits: "Numpad0" through "Numpad9"
• Function keys: "F1" through "F12"
• Common keys: "Space", "Return", "Escape", "Back" (Backspace), "Tab", "Delete", "Insert"
• Modifiers: "LShift", "RShift", "LControl", "RControl", "LAlt", "RAlt"

Danger

Make sure that the key name is surrounded by quotes — for example "Space", not Space.

Key released (text expression)

Works the same as "Key pressed (text expression)" but triggers when the specified key is released.

Last key pressed

The LastPressedKey() expression returns the name of the most recently pressed key as a string. For example, if the player last pressed the left arrow key, the expression returns "Left".

This is useful for displaying the last key pressed on screen or for implementing custom key-rebinding.

Reference

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