---
title: "On-screen touch controls"
package: "@phaser-ae/controls-touch"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-4
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-20
description: "On-screen buttons and a thumb stick for phones that press key codes, so touch drives the very same bindings as the keyboard."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/controls-touch
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# On-screen touch controls

Round buttons and a thumb stick for phones and tablets. They press key codes rather than reporting a separate stick
vector, so the game binds them beside its keyboard keys and has exactly one way to move, tested on every device.

## What it does

The usual way to add touch gives a game two ways to move, a stick read in one place and keys bound in another, and
only one of them gets tested. Here each control presses a key code no keyboard has, such as `'Touch:jump'` or
`'Touch:left'`, and the game binds it alongside the real keys. From then on there is one rule for movement, and the
touch layout is a skin over it. Codes pressed here reach the game in the same step, with no hidden frame of lag.

The controls are built for thumbs. A button captures its pointer, so a thumb that slides off it keeps it held,
because on a phone a thumb always slides and a jump that cancels itself mid-press is unplayable. The stick keeps
pushing when a finger goes past its ring rather than letting go, since a finger that overshoots is still asking to go
that way, and its dead zone stops a resting thumb flickering between left and right.

They draw themselves: a disc and a ring baked into the atlas at start and spawned on the HUD layer, faint enough to
see the game through. By default they appear only on a device that reports touch, so a desktop player never sees a
stick over their game. Hiding them releases every code they were holding, so nothing is left stuck down.

## Features

- **Key codes, not a second input path** — every control presses a code the game binds beside its keys.
- **A thumb stick** — up to four direction codes, a ring radius and a dead zone, clamped past the ring.
- **Buttons that hold on** — each captures its thumb and can carry a short label and a tint.
- **Corner anchoring** — controls are placed inward from a corner, so a layout holds on any screen shape.
- **Touch only, by default** — hidden on devices with no touch unless you force them on.
- **Safe hiding** — `visible = false` releases everything the controls hold.
- **Readable state** — `stick` gives the thumb offset past the dead zone, and `held` the codes pressed now.
- **Buttons added later** — `button` adds a control after start, for a level that brings a new action.

## Good for

- **Platformers on phones** — a stick or left and right codes, and a jump button bound beside Space.
- **Top-down adventures and RPGs** — a thumb stick for walking and an action button.
- **Arcade games** — a fire button and a stick on the same intents the keyboard uses.
- **Games released on desktop and mobile** — one set of bindings, with the touch layout appearing only on phones.
- **Cutscenes and menus** — hide the controls and every key they held is released.

## Make it yours

`buttons` lists each button's code, label, corner, offset, radius and tint, and `stick` gives the four direction
codes, corner, offset, ring radius, dead zone and tint. `touchOnly` decides whether the controls hide on non-touch
devices, `alpha` how faint they are, and `layer` which layer they draw on.

A side-scrolling platformer might put a stick in the bottom-left corner pressing left and right codes and two
labelled buttons, jump and attack, in the bottom-right. A one-button arcade game might have no stick at all, just a
single large button in the bottom-right corner. Turning `touchOnly` off shows the layout on a
desktop too, for a demo or a screenshot.

## A quick look

A stick and a jump button, bound beside the keyboard keys:

```ts
game.kernel.input.bind('jump', ['Space', 'Touch:jump']);
game.kernel.input.bind('left', ['ArrowLeft', 'KeyA', 'Touch:left']);
```

```json
{ "id": "controls-touch", "options": {
    "stick": { "codes": { "left": "Touch:left", "right": "Touch:right", "up": "Touch:up", "down": "Touch:down" } },
    "buttons": [{ "code": "Touch:jump", "label": "A" }]
} }
```

## Works with

- `world-screen` — required; the screen layer the controls draw on.
- `typography` — required; it draws the button labels.
- `controls-2d` — its intents bind touch codes such as `'Touch:fire'` alongside their keys and pad buttons.
- `rig-minecraft` — first-person block games, which carry their own joystick and look layout instead.
- `ui` — for a rectangular d-pad, a strip of shoulder buttons or a radial menu, built yourself.

## Good to know

- The controls are round: discs and rings, baked once and tinted, with no per-control art or opacity.
- A rectangular d-pad, a shoulder strip or a radial menu are your own layouts; they can press codes through the same
  input call this pack uses.
- It is not a first-person look control; `rig-minecraft` brings its own touch layout for that.

---

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