Buttons API

Buttons API (aka Input bindings) allows you to use the same event for mouse, keyboard, and gamepad. Also you can set a generic name like jump and bind it to the keys or buttons you want.

Creating input bindings

You can define the bindings in the buttons object in kaplay()

// bind your buttons
kaplay({
    buttons: {
        jump: {
            keyboard: ["space", "up"],
            gamepad: ["south"],
        },
    },
});

Now you can use the different input handlers to listen to the jump event

onButtonPress("jump", () => {
    player.jump();
});

onButtonDown("jump", () => {
    player.jump();
});

onButtonRelease("jump", () => {
    player.jump();
});

Getting and setting buttons

Maybe you can dynamically change the bindings in your game. Depending for example of a configuration or a level.

You can use the getButton(btn) and setButton(btn) functions to get and set

// for example, get the keyboard bindings of the jump button then draw ui
getButton("jump").keyboard;

// change the jump button in keyboard to "w"
setButton("jump", {
    keyboard: ["w"],
    // gamepad binding is not changed
});

Trigger buttons virtually

Sometimes there’s a need to trigger a button virtually, for example when you want to simulate a button press in mobile or in a cutscene.

You can use pressButton(btn) and releaseButton(btn) to trigger the button:

pressButton("jump"); // triggers onButtonPress and starts onButtonDown
releaseButton("jump"); // triggers onButtonRelease and stops onButtonDown