Pause Functionality

June 22, 2009 5:11 AM Published by
How To: Pause a Game

Demonstrates how to add pause functionality to a game.

The Complete Sample

The code in this topic shows you the technique. You can download a complete code sample for this topic, including full source code and any additional supporting files required by the sample.

Download AppModelDemo_Sample.zip.

Adding Pause Functionality to a Game

To add pause functionality to a game

  1. Derive a class from Game.

  2. Add a variable to track the pause state.

    C#
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    	private bool paused = false;

  3. Add a variable to track the state of the pause key.

    C#
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    	private bool pauseKeyDown = false;

  4. Add a function to poll the state of the pause key with Keyboard.GetState and KeyboardState.IsKeyDown.

    If the key has changed from down to up, toggle the pause state.

    C#
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    	private void checkPauseKey(KeyboardState keyboardState, GamePadState gamePadState){    if (keyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.P) || (gamePadState.Buttons.Y == ButtonState.Pressed))    {        pauseKeyDown = true;        paused = true;    }    else if (pauseKeyDown)    {        pauseKeyDown = false;        paused = false;    }}

  5. Add a conditional around any update code so it will be called only if the game is not paused.

    C#
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    	// Pause if the Guide is up, or if the user has pausedif ((paused == false) && (Guide.IsVisible == false)){    base.Update(gameTime);    Simulate(gameTime);}

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