events-system

Events System

Phaser uses the EventEmitter pattern (via eventemitter3) throughout the entire framework. Every major system -- Game, Scene, Input, Loader, Cameras, Sound, Tweens, Physics, Textures, Animations -- is an EventEmitter or contains one. Events use lowercase string keys. Phaser provides named constants for all built-in events to avoid typos and enable IDE autocomplete.

Key source paths: src/events/EventEmitter.js, src/scene/events/, src/core/events/, src/input/events/, src/loader/events/, src/animations/events/, src/cameras/2d/events/, src/sound/events/, src/tweens/events/, src/physics/arcade/events/, src/textures/events/, src/gameobjects/events/, src/time/events/ Related skills: ../scenes/SKILL.md, ../input-keyboard-mouse-touch/SKILL.md

Quick Start

// on — listen for an event (persists until removed)
this.input.on('pointerdown', (pointer) => {
    console.log('clicked at', pointer.x, pointer.y);
});

// once — listen for an event, auto-removes after first fire
this.events.once('shutdown', () => {
    console.log('scene shutting down');
});

// off — remove a specific listener (must pass same function reference)
const handler = (pointer) => { /* ... */ };
this.input.on('pointerdown', handler);
this.input.off('pointerdown', handler);

// emit — fire a custom event with arguments
this.events.emit('player-died', this.player, this.score);

// removeAllListeners — remove all listeners for an event (or all events)
this.events.removeAllListeners('player-died');
this.events.removeAllListeners(); // all events

Using Named Constants (Preferred)

// Always prefer constants over raw strings to prevent typos
this.events.on(Phaser.Scenes.Events.UPDATE, (time, delta) => {
    // runs every frame
});

this.input.on(Phaser.Input.Events.POINTER_DOWN, (pointer) => {
    // pointer pressed
});

this.game.events.on(Phaser.Core.Events.BLUR, () => {
    // browser tab lost focus
});

Core Concepts

EventEmitter Base Class