How to Make a Simple Pause Menu in Unreal Engine 5 - Beginner Tutorial

Hello guys, in this quick and simple tutorial we are going to learn how to make a simple pause menu in Unreal Engine 5
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[@BenTheDev]

Your actually amazing, i needed this for a hello neighbor type game I'm making. thank you very much sir! you taught me a lot, I'm surprised I'm making some stuff without tutorials, but i am because off your and some other peoples help! thank you :)

[@GorkaGames]

I`m glad to hear that! It will be always my pleasure and great that you are making your own things!! Good luck with the project man!

[@BenTheDev]

@@GorkaGames Thanks!!!

[@Zone-Gaming789]

Esc not working 😢😢😢

[@ricky____]

Thank you so much dude 👍🏻🫂

[@Sirbozo]

me too

[@user-nw5le2vu4r]

Tip: if Esc just quits the game without showing up pause menu, go to Editor Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Find "Play World" and change key of "Stop Simulation" from Esc to something else

[@ilyesbay6433]

That saved me some hours of research, thank you bro !!

[@MonsterTamerBloba]

Good tip!

[@messapatingy]

Or use "P" instead of "Esc" as the PauseGame mapping in the Input Mapping Context. And use P to pause.

[@mtimothy292]

Saver!

[@keshav_p]

Thankyou so much!

[@Mygoditsfullofstars]

For those of you who do not have "Inputs" in your context menu when you right click, be sure to enable the "Enhanced Actions" in your plugins menu.

[@louwrensbol2893]

thank you so much for that

[@Goobsnoot]

I dont see enhanced actions in the plugins menu, but i do see enhanced input because if they are the same, i dont see the input folder

[@zandro1915]

Thank you so much for that i was scratching my head like "Umm there's no input lol" really helped a lot

[@isurus2478]

This was great, thank you. More detailed and better interactions than a previous one I used. Escape to go in and out of Pause with some proper mouse/player controller handling was great, and setting the pause variable on the character was good to know too, to keep things up to date correctly

[@arthuraugusto9582]

Your tutorials are incredible! Thanks for sharing your knowlodge.

[@LeadGamesYT]

Thank you so much Gorka Games, you have really helped me in my game dev journey, hope you keep posting stuff like this because it really helps!! :)

[@keshav_p]

Thankyou so much for doing the entire series

[@Danael]

If you guys have an "option menu" that you are linking with this tutorial, you might encounter a bug where, when you access your options menus and use "escape" to go back, you'll end up having your option menu still visible, but also ba able control your game ! And if you do escape again, you'll have your pause menu on top of your option menu, and it goes on and on and on. To fix this bug, at 8:29, change the "Set Input Mode Game And Ui" by "Set Input Mode UI Only" and plug-in the "Get Player Controller" and the "Pause Menu Widget" at the same place ! Now, this bug won't happen ever again ! :) Thanks for the tutorial Gorka, they are amazing, keep going bro !

[@xDuvii]

but now i cant get out from the menu pressing esc back what should i do?

[@bhuhuhuhuhbuhuh]

I reccomend setting the pause menu button to escape as well as tab or another key! When testing pause menu animations and functionality it's really useful being able to open/close the menu without closing the debug session

[@SkyrozzB]

thanks for the great tutorial! I wish you slowed down a bit though as it was hard to follow at some points. I missed some steps at first which then made the game not resume properly. got it right on my second watch tho :)

[@juanjosemendoza6846]

You are amazing, thank you for all your videos bro!!

[@jonklemenc]

that is awesome, dude!

[@roboamus]

Your tutorial is the best on YT thank you !

[@Seancstudiogames]

This works perfectly in 4.27! Thanks!

[@siete-g4971]

thank you, nice tutorial :)

[@fujin_lib]

Muchas gracias por los tutoriales. Son super útiles, me los estoy mirando todos porque quiero empezar a desarrollar un proyecto para aprender cosillas de Unreal. MIL GRACIAS. Thank you very much for the tutorials. They are super useful, I'm looking at them all because I want to start developing a project to learn things about Unreal. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[@GorkaGames]

Muchas gracias a ti! Me alegro que te estén sirviendo y mucha suerte en tu proyecto!! 😄

[@CrySevastopol]

Thx you a lot man

[@Isak1986]

Thank you!

[@michaelkukula5926]

Hello. Thanks for the tutorial. I’m having this issue where I created my all of my UI elements in Illustrator because the size of everything is important to me. However when I import the assets into my widget, and test play, the assets appear bigger than they should. How do I fix this problem? Maybe it helps to know I have a 2560x1440 monitor and I created all of the assets in a 2560x1440px artboard in illustrator.

[@armin5808]

bro you make the best ue videos keep it up💪

[@GorkaGames]

thank you man!! i really appreciate it 😄😄

[@leilabbas_]

Like From KZ) It's nice to have such a good tutor like you. I'm a UX Designer myself, and forced to learn UMG )

[@rocketpoweredchimpgamesphi7798]

Nice thanks!

[@k1llo]

I ran into a problem: when I press escape, the pause menu opens, but after that it ignores the escape key and any other keys. However, if you click on the continue button, then everything is fine. How can I make the widget not ignore keyboard input?

[@Bigmanba4]

This happens because of the image thing I just deleted it because I didn't know how to fix it

[@user-ue7hl7pj6t]

thank you... ^^

[@baconleef]

Would you know how I can pause the player controls like in a multiplayer game? I want the model to remain stationary with the idle animation playing, but the player cannot make inputs obviously while the menu widget is open. Thank you! Great vid!

[@SolearGnG]

What if there was no input mapping in the contents? I created the input mapping and the action, but don't know where to plug it in.. Also the resume additional actions at the end doesn't do anything in my case - no resume on any other button and when paused, esc will not unpause it..

[@gilbertlora9673]

I couldn’t put the escape without the editor closing the game so I had to put it on the P key, otherwise, really good tutorial!!

[@ilyesbay6433]

@user-nw5le2vu4r " if Esc just quits the game without showing up pause menu, go to Editor Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Find "Play World" and change key of "Stop Simulation" from Esc to something else"

[@PHIplaytesting]

If you're on 5.3 or presumably later, make sure you tick the check box at the top of the details panel for your buttons that says "Is Variable," otherwise you won't be able to add the OnClick events to them.

[@Goobsnoot]

Thank you, I remember the old tutorial when you could only open it once

[@GorkaGames]

My pleasure, if you mean the Options menu yeah, this version is much better

[@harshavardhan7143]

will this Blueprint work for UE 5.1 version?

[@globalo9639]

amaizing video! but what should i do when i dont have de input folder and the input to add in a folder??

[@mattblyther5426]

been having an issue with this, have completed a few 4-5 hour tutorials lately without issue. ive followed this to the T and have triple checked everything. my issue i believe is im trying to add this to my project mid way through and have been applying what u show into my widget ive already got. after completing this my game pauses but does not show anything and will not unpause either. im playing in standalone preivew because my binding is escape. is there another way i have to do this where im already using my premade widget? have already tried making a pause only widget but no success either.

[@user-cj5xi2ej8s]

how do i combine my options settings to the main menu?

[@PabloLopezGonzalez]

Grande Gorka

[@it_is_soks3771]

Боже, спасибо. Наконец-то нашел то что надо!

[@amatanata]

Two questions. I used escape as well and when I pressed it to open the pause menu and then clicked resume to resume, it worked fine. When I accidentally pressed escape again as a force of habit, it exited the pause menu but then I couldn't get back to the pause menu. Also the curser is still showing on screen but I don't know how much of that is due to the actual game or due to the nature of me playing it in the editor rather than in a build. The game is also still not paused, its just that the pause widget popped up.

[@AliBounds]

Awesome video

[@GorkaGames]

thank you man!! 🤩

[@doller6584]

thank you

[@GorkaGames]

my pleasure!

[@DailyPaily]

Con esto estaba anoche, hoy intentaré crear el sistema de navegación con teclas/pad, acepto pistas y consejos, que no he visto forma simple de hacerlo

[@SteffOverflow]

You can actually use the "Is game paused" function to check if the game is paused. You won't need to create your own variable for that, or what is the advantage of doing do?

[@voicubogdan4339]

you saved me!

[@GorkaGames]

im glad that I could help!

[@pixelwolf8759]

Hi, I have had problems finding a unreal engine 5 tutorial where i can make a main menu with a, new game, and a load game system. can you please make a tutorial on how to make this. thank you.

[@nebula5618]

And why you use Game and UI mode if it allows you to control characters camera even when paused?

[@MagicxReal-Studio]

no something's off here, i even changed the maping to T key and still wont bring out the pause menu ( i did everything as you did except, i had to create a new maping and IA cause on 5.1 version that i use i cant see that folder also i dont have third person thing as i use intermediate battle system that i bought template as the base for my game all other tutorials work perfect like basic pickup inventory and options menu but this pause menu just wont work i discarded the advance input and use just key press does this like in other tutorials and works perfectly maybe this advance input is not or 5.1 version or i just dont know how to adapt it yet but it doesnt matter ! important is that it works thank you !!!! ) now to figure out how to link options menu to the pause menu haha and is set

[@c-4191]

I have the same issue :(

[@ZimMabu_GameDev.]

haha best guy!!!!

[@khalidali2377]

Are you able to do a part 2 where u implement a save feature onto this UI?

[@GorkaGames]

well right now this pause menu doesnt require any saving as there are only 3 buttons that produce a simple task. But if you are refering to the options menu I could do so!

[@khalidali2377]

@@GorkaGames yh that would be great please

[@duncsi968]

i find checking Is Game Paused default variable check working better

[@pqwerty4720]

it worked perfectly for me, thank you very much. however i have the doubt why you added the code at the end (from Cast to BP_ThirdPersonCharacter), because without it the menu works perfect, please, could you explain it to me? thanks again.

[@GorkaGames]

yeah I added that in case the player closes the menu by the "Resume" button instead od hitting escape on their keyboard. By this I make the same process as in the ThirdPersonCharacter Blueprint by making sure the variables are synced

[@pqwerty4720]

@@GorkaGames oh, I understand, thank you very much again :)

[@kennmacintosh2627]

Dude, how many Red Bulls did you have before you recorded this? 🙂 Content is spot on, However, I'm having to pause and rewind a lot to absorb it. The logic and flow makes total sense. Unless you know every single node in the library, how do you know which node(s) to grab (for us non-programmers), besides experience? Thx for the tutorial! U know your shit!

[@GorkaGames]

Hahahha thank you! yeah I will try to slow down then in more beginner friendy tutorials. Normally we all tend to use the same nodes, as it is the exact logic that we ned most of the time. It is only in a more advanced level when I start using nodes that are more "mysterious"

[@kennmacintosh2627]

@@GorkaGames After pausing and rewinding a gillion times, 🙂I discovered if you go into Settings in KZbin, you can adjust the playback speed.

[@tnlvznfilms]

how can we add controller input for the dpad?

[@cronibet]

Tip: if ESC just quits the game without showing up pause menu, change key to something else like R or 1 (random)

[@GorkaGames]

yeah thanks for that!

[@lucamuscat3754]

thx(:

[@pawele772]

Thanks! But what if we need Escape for that? 🤔

[@suneilangel]

That's a great tutorial. Thanks for the help but quick question, what can I do if I using gamepad? Any advice on that?

[@oldweststories]

Just in case you haven't found the answer yet, you can go the IMC_Dafault (or the input controller you are using). Click the twistie next to the IA_Pause that you created and this opens up the input option you created when following the tutorial, with the keyboard Esc key or other key you set. Click the + button to the right (Next to the rubbish bin symbol) and this allows you to set another input including to the Gamepad. The drop down arrow that appears lets you do this. I used the left shoulder button on the controller.

[@suneilangel]

@@oldweststories I got that working, but I am asking if there was a way to use the menu with a gamepad. I can open and close it but you can browse the menu with the gamepad

[@HiddenShadow287]

Im using this for my 1st person map but whrn j exit the menu my mouse is still there and im controlling my mouse and camera st the same time does anyone know how to fix that

[@KAI_GD]

how do I get the options button to open my options menu?

[@kfj795]

in the editor when i press escape it just exits the game from play mode to edit mode.

[@K0UK0U]

When I hit escape, the game exits. How can I remove this functionality from UE and use Esc as pause ?

[@borisdesovski785]

The only problem I ran in to is when I press the resume button the curser is still there and I need to press escape again to get removed I have been trying to fix it on my own but i cant find out what is the problem. If someone can help it would be appreciated

[@calmdowncinema]

Zajebiście

[@GorkaGames]

😄thanks

[@ragbrogaming]

i did exacly what you showed in the video but my pause menu just shows for a second and i dont know how to fix it

[@michakozak574]

Hey after i made that, jumping stoped working any idead why?

[@ItsZeroWow]

I followed everything you did but when i pressed 1 (I binded 1 as the pause menu) it didnt do anything?

[@travismiller1209]

If i hold down escape, the pause screen flickers from opening and closing. How can i incorporate something that make it where the inputs have to have a delay before it opens and closes?

[@GorkaGames]

this is probably due to the enhanced input. So just make sure that you have it on "Started", and not on "Triggered"

[@travismiller1209]

@@GorkaGames Perfect fix, thank you!!!

[@Heyesy]

I don't know why, but when I make a new button in the Widget creator, there isn't an Event tab. I followed the tutorial completely, but in the video, it just seems like you have the Event tab by default. I'm very new to Unreal Engine, so any help would be much appreciated.

[@G3neric_art]

You have to tick the "Is Variable" in the top of the Details Pannel.

[@deim3]

Problem - when we resume game with the "Resume" button instead of another Esc press, the "Is pause Menu Open" remains true, as well as the mouse cursor on the screen. To fix it I did the following: in the Pause Menu widget BP, from Remove From Parent I added "Cast to BP_ThirdPersonCharacter" with object as "Get Player Character", then from it I set IsPauseMenuOpen to false -> Set Input Mode Game Only -> Set Show Mouse Cursor to False (Target for the last two is Get Player Controller). And it seem to fix everything.

[@jonasvirsila4179]

I cant access BP_ThirdPersonCharacter. Why?

[@herofilmsandgaming5969]

nice

[@GorkaGames]

thanks!

[@Jandycon]

Doesnt flip flop work anymore with AI Enhanced?

[@kennmacintosh2627]

I got the code to work only when I "package" the the project. When I hit the "PLAY" (green arrow) within the UE editor, the menu does not display. It did in your tutorial. Not sure why.. I'm running UE 5.1 if that makes any difference.

[@tomasgabrieldasilvabento3747]

That's because that's the button to exit the run mode directly in the viewport, so the widget will not display if the game is no longer running. If you select the run mode as a standalone game for example, it will open in a new window and the escape no longer closes de game, so you'll be able to use it to load the menu, much like the packaged game. Gorka probably changed his key bindings so that escape doesn't stop the game running in the viewport. I hope that answered

[@Darkshade021]

I’m on 5.3 and for some reason, it will not accept the “remove from parent” node for if the game is paused false. It allowed me to make it, but when launched, nothing happened and when I exited the game, it told me that there was something wrong with that node. For context I’m on 5.3 and in first person, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

[@SOULKING868]

I did everything but pressing the esc key more than once, pressing the resume a, the pause menu does not go, can you help me?

[@phantomdude0936]

Im stuck on finding the input folder. I plugged in the enhanced input and I got input when I right clicked, but I didn't get the folder. Without the input folder I dont have the input mapping context and cant put in the pause action. Does anyone know how to fix this?

[@geotiempo-investigacionydo1224]

Me too. I did not find the Input Folder

[@smileyzuro]

Enhanced Input doesnt seem to work with me, I map the escape button and everything but nothing happens

[@user-io1ub6su4k]

GOD

[@StarlightGippy]

how can I resume the game and have my cursor still be there?

[@gabitohlanz3257]

Can you make a tutorial to be able to make a game that lasts a certain amount of time and when the time is up the game ends too?

[@GorkaGames]

do you mean like a game that has a timer and you play until it ends, or a challenge to make a game in a certain amount of time?

[@gabitohlanz3257]

@@GorkaGames yes a game that has timer :)

[@DeadEndGames]

i have followed everything but it just does not work at all for me

[@g144hz]

Why dont use flip flop funciton ?

[@Parak8nocare]

I don't have an inputs folder is it meant to be there or what

[@GorkaGames]

in which ue version are you on?

[@Parak8nocare]

@@GorkaGames Sorry for late reply but I have sorted now thank you anyway!

[@itsjustraevynn]

uh the game only pauses once. then if i resume and then hit escape again it doesnt pause

[@EVOVERS]

you can use is game paused?

[@GorkaGames]

yeah!!

[@rikythebombera7386]

I don't find imput action, I have Live Link instead of them. How can I find them? :(

[@tommyp436]

I have the same problem

[@samuelspeichert6920]

I dunno what am I doing wrong, but the pause menu will stay after I unpause the game :S and I followed EVERY step like in the video

[@anybitgaming8144]

Hm. I do not have the Input folder, nor the Input menu when I right click. Is this something I need to import?

[@anybitgaming8144]

Nevermind, I enabled the Enhanced Input :)

[@wtfmiki]

i follow all step but when i press scape just end the game what can i do help me pleaseeeee

[@snakeweber]

by default escape closes out of play mode. Try changing the event to a different key other than escape

[@wtfmiki]

@@snakeweber ty

[@jonasvirsila4179]

I cannot find the BP_PlayerCharacter in the Widget BP, what am I doing wrong?

[@jonasvirsila4179]

Never fucking mind, I hate Unreal 5! Forgot that my character BP name is without BP_* XD

[@DBros-ni2zo]

My Cast To BP_FirstPersonCharacter doesn't work, it says this: "'BP First Person Character' does not inherit from 'Player Controller' (Cast To BP_FirstPersonCharacter would always fail)." How do I fix this?

[@daiben9835]

You need to connect a "Get Player Character" instead of "Get Player Controller" to that cast as the referenced object. Those are two different things, and your Blueprint containing the variable you are looking to access and change is in your Player Character, not in a Player Controller

[@IllGib]

@@daiben9835 Still it call the same error and i can't uotput the bool from the cast. I'm on 5.03

[@Brady.1230]

Im dont have the input folder in my thirdperson folder & its not showing the input tab when trying to create an imput file

[@GorkaGames]

in which ue version are you?

[@Brady.1230]

@@GorkaGames 5.0 I just realized I was on 5.1 and updated now, thank you though for making such great videos they are very helpful & just one suggestion is that you go a little fast too when going through the steps

[@gr4j0m3r]

There is no input folder in my Third Person Folder. So???

[@alexandrebouffard798]

Its strange. I press escape and i see the menu. If i play start: The game run, but, i see the cursor again

[@jonasvirsila4179]

I'm confused. I change the "ESC" button to "P" as pause game but neither the "P" button or others work.

[@HarelVolotzky]

WoW

[@GorkaGames]

😄😄

[@HarelVolotzky]

@@GorkaGames You have a tutorial of triggering an animation by touching an object

[@sky_valo]

sense?

[@nebula5618]

If I press ESC multiple times, it creates a lot of widgets, any thoughts how to fix it?

[@manuelpinto.6307]

if u haven't fixed yet, u sure you put the execution pin in the "Started" and not in the "Triggered". That may solve your bug

[@Zarwo.]

Everything works great except nothing happens when i click the buttons. Why is this happening?

[@beilog7489]

Hi, I have a problem where when i press my button to open the pause menu and after i press Resume and press the menu button again nothing happens. Anyone has any idea why?

[@aneskatzaev9152]

check all the set game paused you created perhaps one of the 3 is not ticked correctly

[@sheldon1000]

When I hit my escape key it just exits out of gameplay mode. I must be missing something simple...

[@sheldon1000]

The pause menu works great in standalone mode, but not in transport mode. How to fix for use in transport mode?

[@sepsis_prime6534]

It doesnt work... it only works if i put it on another key

[@BigBadLandBoii]

So, I tried this and everything was perfect. Except for the fact that when I press resume you can still see the cursor. And I've been breaking my hands trying to fix it. Other than that, great tutorial!

[@borisdesovski785]

Did you manage to fix it? if so how did you do it

[@BigBadLandBoii]

@@borisdesovski785 i did fix it. How I did it is I rewatched the video and made sure i did everything right. If not, I fixed it so it was identical to the video.

[@RMC_]

I have the opposite problem, the cursor does not show up when opening the pause menu :/ Edit: oh the "SET" show mouse cursor was not connected lol, weird I didn't get any warnings

[@haftners]

@@borisdesovski785 I'm a few months late but if anyone is having this problem, it is because show mouse cursor under the player controller in the false settings (specifically, in the character blueprint pause functions, nothing to do with the pause widget UI) was not set up properly. In my case, it was set to True instead of unchecked (False) which meant when then menu was turned off the mouse would be enabled again.

[@frenchthebeast]

When I press ESC it's stopping the game preview in UE5.1

[@frenchthebeast]

Also, everything work fine, I tried with a random keybinds but ESC doesnt work on the engine since it's stopping the emulation

[@Jacoby_lel]

@@frenchthebeast I have the same but probably easy to change it somewhere in the settings, i just dont know where :P

[@grandmasteryoda3187]

this doesn't seem to be working, i have followed it step by step twice and the game just exits as soon as i hit esc key without bringing up any menu

[@GorkaGames]

Hmm.. i guess that either you are creating and adding the Widget incorrectly, or not properly assigning the keybing correctly 5:44 . I recommend to print some text right after you hit the key to identify where the issue is coming from

[@grandmasteryoda3187]

@@GorkaGames as i said followed your guide literally step by step copied everything but yet didn't work, so abandoned this guide and found another which sets up the blueprints slightly differently and used a different key for activation which worked straight away so i think there must be something wrong with the workflow shown in this video

[@atomicplays8478]

@@grandmasteryoda3187 It works, however, you will have to select and start as standalone game.

[@DeadEndGames]

same :(

[@rhiku117]

couldnt get it to work not sure why