---
title: "Per-object pointer handlers"
package: "@phaser-ae/pointer"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-3
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "Gives any object over, out, down, up, tap and drag handlers, with the capture rule that keeps a drag alive after the pointer leaves the object."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/pointer
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Per-object pointer handlers

Over, out, down, up, tap and drag handlers on the objects that want them, with the capture rule that makes a drag
survive the pointer leaving the object. It is the pointer bookkeeping every game otherwise writes for itself, and
usually gets subtly wrong, done once.

## What it does

The kernel gives a game the raw list of pointers, and the roster can say which object is at a point. Between the two
sits the bookkeeping: which object each pointer is over, which one it went down on, whether the release counts as a
tap, and what happens when the pointer slides off the object it pressed. The pack keeps that state for every object
that carries handlers and calls `onOver`, `onOut`, `onDown`, `onUp`, `onTap` and `onDrag` as things happen.

Two rules do the work. A press captures: the drag, the release and the tap test all go to the object the press landed
on, even once the pointer has left it, so a slider keeps following the hand when the pointer slips off the knob. And a
tap is a release on the captured object, having moved no further than `tapSlop`, so sliding away and letting go
cancels the press rather than tapping something else. Hover is the exception: `over` and `out` only ever concern what
the pointer is actually on, so a hover highlight stays right in the middle of a drag.

Handlers are a data bag on the object, set with the spawn spec's `pointer` key, so they compose like any other
component. Each event carries the pointer's world position, its movement since the last step, where the press began,
the pointer's id, the button, and whether it is a mouse, a touch or a pen. Screen pixels are converted to world units
for you, so a handler never needs to know which the game is in. With no pointers, as in a headless test, it does
nothing.

## Features

- **Six handlers** — `onOver`, `onOut`, `onDown`, `onUp`, `onTap` and `onDrag`, all optional and all live.
- **Capture on press** — everything after a press goes to the object it landed on, wherever the pointer goes.
- **Taps that mean it** — a release counts as a tap only on the captured object and within `tapSlop`, 6 world units
  by default.
- **Drag threshold** — `dragThreshold` holds `onDrag` back until the press has moved that far; once started, the drag
  runs to the release.
- **Live state for looks** — `over` and `held` on the object, for a hover or a pressed appearance.
- **Picking that ignores decoration** — only objects with handlers are picked, top-most by depth, so a label or an
  icon drawn over a button does not take its presses.
- **Multi-touch** — one capture per pointer, keyed by its id.
- **Interactive later** — `game.pointer.add` and `game.pointer.remove` switch handlers on and off for an object a pack
  spawned or a plain object made interactive part-way through; other packs reach the same pair through the registry.
- **Queries** — `game.pointer.over`, `captured`, `release` (drop a capture by hand, on a scene change) and `count`.

## Good for

- **Menus and buttons** drawn as sprites, with a hover tint and a tap to start.
- **Drag-and-drop**: cards onto piles, items into inventory slots, pieces onto a board.
- **Sliders and knobs** that must keep tracking when the pointer slips off them.
- **Clickable sprites and map pins** in a scrolling world, where positions must be in world units.
- **Touch games** where several fingers each press their own object.
- **Panels that block presses** to the world beneath them, with an empty `pointer: {}` bag.

## Make it yours

There is nothing to set when you compose it: every option lives on the object. `tapSlop` sets how far a press may
wander and still be a tap, `dragThreshold` how far it must move before a drag begins, and `enabled` switches an object
off without removing its handlers. Packs that spawn their own objects, such as a canvas text or a widget, can make them
interactive through the registry, and leaving this pack out makes those objects quietly static rather than broken.

Two different uses: a title menu of sprite buttons that tint on `onOver`, reset on `onOut` and start the game on
`onTap`; and a card table where `onDown` lifts a card, `onDrag` moves it by the event's `dx` and `dy`, a small
`dragThreshold` stops a tap being mistaken for a drag, and `onUp` sets the card down wherever it was released.

## A quick look

A sprite button with a hover tint and a tap:

```ts
game.spawn({
    x: 100, y: 100, width: 64, height: 24, frame: Art.BUTTON,
    pointer: {
        onOver: (e) => { e.target.tint = '#ffd166'; },
        onOut:  (e) => { e.target.tint = '#ffffff'; },
        onTap:  () => start(),
    },
});
```

## Works with

- `core-2d` and `core-vector` — both include it, so most 2D games have it already.
- `ui` — a full widget set of panels, sliders and text fields, when you want more than handlers.
- `sketch` — drawing and gesture recognition, for input beyond one capture per finger.

## Good to know

- Picking is top-most by depth over an object's rectangle; the pack adds no shape test of its own.
- A full-screen object with handlers takes every press that nothing above it claims. To stop presses reaching what is
  under a panel, give the panel handlers, even empty ones.
- Two fingers on one object are two separate captures, not a pinch; `sketch` and `ui` handle gestures.
- An object killed mid-drag drops its capture silently, with no `onUp` for an object that no longer exists.

---

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