What causes GameMaker gameplay keys firing while typing in a text box?

Your gameplay objects keep calling keyboard_check every step even while a text input is active, so letters typed into the field also move the character and trigger actions.

How do I catch this when it only happens for some players?

Capture it automatically from the player's device with the full stack trace, the device and OS, the build, and a breadcrumb trail of what they did. That turns a vague complaint into a specific, reproducible issue you can fix without owning the hardware it happens on.

How to Fix GameMaker Gameplay Keys Firing While Typing in a Text Box

Quick answer: Track a typing/UI state flag and skip all gameplay keyboard reads while it is set, relying on keyboard_string only for the text field.

If typing a name into a box also walks your character around, gameplay input is not being suppressed during text entry. Gating it behind a state flag fixes it. Here is how.

How to fix it

1. Add a typing state flag

Set a global like global.typing = true when the text box gains focus and false when it closes. Every gameplay step event should early-return while it is true.

2. Use keyboard_string for the field

Capture typed text from keyboard_string rather than checking individual keys, so the text box and gameplay never read the same source.

3. Clear stuck inputs on focus change

Call keyboard_clear for relevant keys when entering or leaving typing mode so a key held during the transition does not stick on the other side.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every GameMaker error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.

Reproduce it once with full context and the fix writes itself. The hunt is the expensive part.