How to exit a Game Immediately

Demonstrates how to exit a game in response to user input.

Overview

Demonstrates how to exit a game in response to user input.

Exiting a Game Without Finishing the Current Update

Note

Some platforms react differently to Game.Exit, so be sure to test on a device!

1. Derive a class from Game.

2. Create a method that checks KeyboardState.IsKeyDown for the state of the ESC key.

3. If the ESC key has been pressed, call Game.Exit and return true.

   bool checkExitKey(KeyboardState keyboardState, GamePadState gamePadState)
   {
       // Check to see whether ESC was pressed on the keyboard 
       // or BACK was pressed on the controller.
       if (keyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape) ||
           gamePadState.Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed)
       {
           Exit();
           return true;
       }
       return false;
   }
   

4. Call the method in Game.Update, and return from Update if the method returned true.

   GamePadState gamePadState = GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One);
   KeyboardState keyboardState = Keyboard.GetState();
   
   // Check to see if the user has exited
   if (checkExitKey(keyboardState, gamePadState))
   {
       base.Update(gameTime);
       return;
   }
   

5. Create a method to handle the Game.Exiting event.

   The Exiting event is issued at the end of the tick in which Game.Exit is called.

   void Game1_Exiting(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
       // Add any code that must execute before the game ends.
   }
   

Note

The default MonoGame project template already includes code to exit your game (as shown below), however depending on your game, you may wish to change this default logic.

if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed || Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape))
   Exit();

See Also

• Input Overview

Reference

• Game.Exit

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.