Keyboard

GDevelop gives access to all inputs made on the keyboard. This includes conditions to check if a key was pressed, just pressed, or released, and an expression to get the last key pressed.

Note

Keyboard conditions do not work with the on-screen keyboard on touch devices. Use mouse/touch conditions instead when targeting mobile or touchscreen devices.

Key pressed

Checks if a key is currently held down. This condition stays true for every frame the key remains pressed — from the first frame it's pressed until the frame it's released. It is ideal for continuous actions like movement.

Key just pressed

Checks if a key was pressed during the current frame only. This condition is true for exactly one frame: the frame the key first goes down. Use this when you want an action to fire once per key press, such as jumping, firing a bullet, or toggling a menu.

Tip

Use Key pressed for smooth continuous movement (e.g. holding a direction key), and Key just pressed when you need to react to a single press (e.g. jumping, interacting with an object).

Key released

Checks if a key was just released during the current frame. Like "Key just pressed", this is only true for one frame.

Any key pressed

True if any key on the keyboard is currently held down.

Any key released

True if any key on the keyboard was just released this frame. This is useful for letting the player press any key to continue past a loading screen or title card.

Key pressed (text expression)

The same as Key pressed, but the key name is entered as a text expression rather than chosen from a list. This is useful when the key name is stored in a variable or computed at runtime.

For example, entering "Left" checks if the left arrow key is held. The key name must be surrounded by quotes.

Key released (text expression)

The same as Key released, but the key name is given as a text expression.

Last key pressed

The expression LastPressedKey() returns the name of the most recent key pressed, as a string (e.g. "Space", "Left", "a"). This is useful for remapping controls or displaying the last input.

Key names

Key names used in the text-expression conditions:

Key	Name
Arrow keys	Left, Up, Right, Down
Letters	a–z (lowercase)
Top-row numbers	Num0–Num9
Numpad numbers	Numpad0–Numpad9
Function keys	F1–F12
Space	Space
Enter / Return	Return
Backspace	Back
Escape	Escape
Tab	Tab
Delete	Delete
Insert	Insert
Left/Right Shift	LShift, RShift
Left/Right Control	LControl, RControl
Left/Right Alt	LAlt, RAlt

Reference

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