Keyboard

The Keyboard object allows projects to respond to keyboard input.

Scripting

When using JavaScript or TypeScript coding, the features of this object can be accessed via the IKeyboardObjectType script interface.

About keyboards

When designing your project, you cannot assume everyone has a keyboard. Many users browse the web with touch-screen devices that have no keyboard. (The Keyboard object also does not respond to input from on-screen keyboards on any modern touch devices.) Therefore if your project uses exclusively mouse or keyboard control, it is impossible to use on touch devices. See the Touch controls tutorial for an alternative control system.

Also note that there are a variety of keyboard layouts used internationally. For example if you only provide "WASD" as direction controls, your project may be difficult to control on AZERTY keyboards. "ZQSD" controls covers the AZERTY layout, but there are many other possible keyboard layouts. In this case, also supporting arrow keys for direction controls will cover most international keyboards, but remember the same problem applies for any other controls depending on a specific key layout.

Key codes

It's possible to detect key presses by numerical key codes with the Keyboard object. A key code is simply a number assigned to every possible key on the keyboard. This can be useful for implementing custom controls, since key codes can be stored in variables.

Key ghosting

You may notice you cannot reliably detect three or more simultaneous key presses on the keyboard. This is a limitation of common keyboard hardware, not Construct. The circuitry in common keyboards exhibits an effect called key ghosting where only certain combinations of a certain number of keys can be reliably detected. You can get special gamer keyboards that support anti-ghosting, but since these are rare it's probably a better idea to design your project around the limitations of common keyboards, such as by avoiding having to hold down lots of keys.

Keyboard conditions

Key code is down

True if a given key by its key code is currently being held down.

On key code pressed

Triggered when a specific key code is pressed.

On key code released

Triggered when a specific key code is released.

Key is down

True if a given keyboard key is currently being held down.

On any key pressed

Triggered when any keyboard key is pressed. Useful for title screens or cutscenes. The corresponding key code is set in the LastKeyCode expression.

On any key released

Triggered when any keyboard key is released. The corresponding key code is set in the LastKeyCode expression.

On key pressed

Triggered when a specific keyboard key is pressed.

On key released

Triggered when a specific keyboard key is released.

Left/right key is down

On left/right key pressed

On left/right key released

As per Is key down, On key pressed and On key released, but is able to identify the left or right Shift, Control, Alt or Meta keys separately.

Keyboard actions

The Keyboard object does not have any actions.

Keyboard expressions

LastKeyCode

Retrieve the key code of the last key press. This is useful in On any key pressed or On any key released to determine the key code of the key the user pressed, which is useful when setting up custom controls.

StringFromKeyCode

Convert a numerical key code back in to a string representation. For example this turns the key code 65 in to the string "A".

TypedKey

Return the last key press as the character that would have been entered in to a text field. For example when pressing A, this could be "a", "A", "á" or something else, depending on which other keys are held down. If the last key press is not a typed character, like Shift, then the expression is set to the name of the key.