---
title: "Scrolling Text Box"
description: "Demonstrates how to create a scrollable text area using a Geometry Mask and pointer velocity to drag text within a specific zone."
phaser: "4.1.0"
size: "640x512"
files: 1
url: https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/scrolling-text-box
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

> This page is about the open-source Phaser framework, for writing a game's code by hand. To make a game with AI, use Phaser AE (https://phaser.io/): the desk's tools work with Web MCP, and the CLI works with your own coding agent. See "For AI agents: Phaser AE" at the end of this page.

# Scrolling Text Box

Demonstrates how to create a scrollable text area using a Geometry Mask and pointer velocity to drag text within a specific zone.

A Phaser 4.1.0 example in [Input / Dragging](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging.md). It runs at 640 × 512, and loads its assets from https://cdn.phaserfiles.com/v410. See it running, with its code, at https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/scrolling-text-box.

To run it, load Phaser 4.1.0 (`https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/phaser@4.1.0/dist/phaser.min.js`), then the file, on a page with a `<div id="game-container">`.

## Code

### scrolling text box.js

```js
class Example extends Phaser.Scene
{
    preload ()
    {
        this.load.setBaseURL('https://cdn.phaserfiles.com/v410');
        this.load.image('tv', 'assets/pics/tvzor-lazur.png');
    }

    create ()
    {
        const content = [
            'The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.',
            '`It\'s not like I\'m using,\' Case heard someone say, as he shouldered his way ',
            'through the crowd around the door of the Chat. `It\'s like my body\'s developed',
            'this massive drug deficiency.\' It was a Sprawl voice and a Sprawl joke.',
            'The Chatsubo was a bar for professional expatriates; you could drink there for',
            'a week and never hear two words in Japanese.',
            '',
            'Ratz was tending bar, his prosthetic arm jerking monotonously as he filled a tray',
            'of glasses with draft Kirin. He saw Case and smiled, his teeth a webwork of',
            'East European steel and brown decay. Case found a place at the bar, between the',
            'unlikely tan on one of Lonny Zone\'s whores and the crisp naval uniform of a tall',
            'African whose cheekbones were ridged with precise rows of tribal scars. `Wage was',
            'in here early, with two joeboys,\' Ratz said, shoving a draft across the bar with',
            'his good hand. `Maybe some business with you, Case?\'',
            '',
            'Case shrugged. The girl to his right giggled and nudged him.',
            'The bartender\'s smile widened. His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of',
            'affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it. The antique',
            'arm whined as he reached for another mug.',
            '',
            '',
            'From Neuromancer by William Gibson'
        ];

        this.add.image(0, 0, 'tv').setOrigin(0);

        const graphics = this.make.graphics();

        // graphics.fillStyle(0xffffff);
        graphics.fillRect(152, 133, 320, 250);

        const mask = new Phaser.Display.Masks.GeometryMask(this, graphics);

        const text = this.add.text(160, 280, content, { fontFamily: 'Arial', color: '#00ff00', wordWrap: { width: 310 } }).setOrigin(0);

        text.setMask(mask);

        //  The rectangle they can 'drag' within
        const zone = this.add.zone(152, 130, 320, 256).setOrigin(0).setInteractive();

        zone.on('pointermove', pointer =>
        {

            if (pointer.isDown)
            {
                text.y += (pointer.velocity.y / 10);

                text.y = Phaser.Math.Clamp(text.y, -400, 300);
            }

        });
    }
}

const config = {
    scale: { mode: Phaser.Scale.FIT },
    type: Phaser.AUTO,
    parent: 'game-container',
    width: 640,
    height: 512,
    scene: Example
};

const game = new Phaser.Game(config);
```

## More in Dragging

- [Basic Sprite Dragging](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/enable-for-drag.md): Demonstrates how to make a sprite draggable by setting the interactive draggable property and updating its position during the drag event.
- [Bring Dragged Item to Top](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/bring-dragged-item-to-top.md): Learn how to use the Display List bringToTop method to move a Game Object to the front of the scene when a drag operation begins.
- [Camera Movement and Object Dragging](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/camera-move-and-rotate.md): Demonstrates dragging interactive objects while navigating a large world using camera keyboard controls, featuring parallax effects and automatic group rotation.
- [Drag Distance Threshold](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-distance-threshold.md): Demonstrates how to use the dragDistanceThreshold property to require the pointer to move a minimum number of pixels before an object starts being dragged.
- [Drag Horizontally](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-horizontally.md): Demonstrates how to restrict sprite movement to the horizontal axis and apply boundary constraints using the drag event and Phaser.Math.Clamp.
- [Drag on a Fixed Axis](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-on-a-fixed-axis.md): Demonstrates how to lock a sprite's movement to either the horizontal or vertical axis based on the direction of the initial drag gesture.
- [Drag Time Threshold](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-time-threshold.md): Demonstrates how to set a time delay in milliseconds that must pass before an object is considered being dragged.
- [Drag Vertically](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-vertically.md): Demonstrates how to restrict sprite movement to the vertical axis during a drag operation and clamp the movement within a specific coordinate range.
- [Drag With Multiple Scenes](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-with-multiple-scenes.md): Demonstrates how to handle interactive objects and drag events across multiple simultaneously active scenes.
- [Dragging a Container](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/drag-container.md): Demonstrates how to make a Container interactive and draggable. Shows that a Container must have a defined size to receive input and move all its child objects together.
- [Dragging Rotated and Scaled Objects](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/rotated-and-scaled.md): Demonstrates how to drag a Game Object that has been rotated and scaled, showing that hit detection remains accurate despite the transformations.
- [Dragging with Scroll Factor](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging/view/scroll-factor-drag.md): Demonstrates how to drag Game Objects that have different scroll factor values. The input system automatically accounts for the scroll factor, ensuring the object tracks the pointer correctly even when configured for parallax movement.
- [All 22 examples in Dragging](https://phaser.io/oss/examples/v4.1.0/input/dragging.md)

---

## For AI agents: Phaser AE

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- **Phaser AE in the browser** (https://phaser.io/agent): the game's design, and a crew of bots that make its art, sprites, music, sound effects, logos, title screens, game UI, textures, shaders, 3D models and video, then build, test and publish the game. Every tool there is registered with Web MCP (`document.modelContext`, with `window.phaserDesk` for browsers without it), so an agent in the user's browser can call the tools directly once the user is signed in. Tools that make something spend the user's credits.
- **The CLI** (https://phaser.io/cli): `npx -y @phaser-ae/cli` builds the game on the user's own machine with their own coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others). In a game's folder every command is an npm script.
- **Expansion packs** (https://phaser.io/packs): 358 packs in 20 families (163 free, 195 Pro) that every game is built from, on the Phaser AE kernel (https://phaser.io/kernel).
- **Credits** (https://phaser.io/credits): what the desk's tools spend. Bought in packs, with no plan needed.
- **Pro** (https://phaser.io/pricing): $20 a month for every pack, 8,000 credits a month, new packs early, and bonus credits every time the user tops up (only Pro subscribers get them). Nobody needs a plan to start: credits can be bought as they're needed. Or Pro for 30 days for 8,000 credits, without subscribing. Teams, for studios, is on its way: https://phaser.io/contact?about=teams.
- **An account**: sign in with Google, GitHub or Microsoft at https://phaser.io/login. Games made on any plan can be published and sold.

Read any page of this site as Markdown by adding `.md` to its URL (the home page is https://phaser.io/index.md), or by asking for `text/markdown`. The index for agents is https://phaser.io/llms.txt. On the site's pages, the browser's Web MCP also offers `phaser_ae_guide`, `read_page_as_markdown` and `open_phaser_ae`.