Keyboard

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

Warning

Keyboard conditions do not work with on-screen keyboards on touch devices. For mobile or touchscreen games, use mouse/touch conditions instead.

Key pressed vs Key just pressed

This is one of the most important distinctions when using keyboard input:

• Key pressed — true every frame the key is held down. Use this for continuous actions like moving a character while the key is held.
• Key just pressed — true only for the single frame when the key is first pressed. Use this for one-shot actions like jumping, shooting, or opening a menu.

For example, to move a character to the right, use Key pressed with Right, so movement happens as long as the key is held. To fire a bullet, use Key just pressed so only one bullet is fired per key press, even if the player holds the key.

Any key pressed / Any key released

Use Any key pressed to detect when the player presses any keyboard key at all — useful for "press any key to continue" screens.

Any key released is true for the single frame in which any key is released.

Key released

Key released is true for the single frame in which a specific key is released.

Last key pressed

The LastPressedKey expression returns the name of the most recently pressed key as a string (for example, "Left" or "Space"). This is useful for remapping controls or displaying key hints.

Key names

When using a key condition with a text expression, enter the key name surrounded by quotes. Common key names are:

Key	Name to use
Arrow keys	"Left", "Right", "Up", "Down"
Space	"Space"
Enter / Return	"Return"
Escape	"Escape"
Backspace	"Back"
Tab	"Tab"
Delete	"Delete"
Insert	"Insert"
Shift (either)	"LShift" or "RShift"
Control (either)	"LControl" or "RControl"
Alt (either)	"LAlt" or "RAlt"
Letter keys	"a" through "z" (lowercase)
Number row	"Num0" through "Num9"
Numpad digits	"Numpad0" through "Numpad9"
Function keys	"F1" through "F12"
Page Up / Down	"PageUp", "PageDown"
Home / End	"Home", "End"
Pause	"Pause"

Note

Left and right variants of modifier keys are supported separately: "LShift" detects only the left Shift key, while "RShift" detects only the right one. Use "LShift" in most cases when you don't need to distinguish.

Reference

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