Melonjs Events

Events and lifecycle

The bus

import { event } from "melonjs";

const => { /* … */ };
const unsubscribe = event.on(event.GAME_UPDATE, onUpdate);  // on() returns its own off()
event.once(event.LEVEL_LOADED, () => { /* … */ });

// two ways to undo it — the same reference, or the returned function
event.off(event.GAME_UPDATE, onUpdate);
unsubscribe();

event.on/once/off/has all take an optional third context argument, invoked as the handler's this. off matches on the pair — handler identity AND context identity. on(EVT, fn, this) followed by off(EVT, fn) removes nothing, silently.

Store the handler reference, or use the context argument. An inline arrow or a fresh .bind(this) in the on call can never be removed — that is the standard way to leak listeners in melonJS.

// ✗ unremovable
event.on(event.GAME_UPDATE, this.tick.bind(this));

// ✓ keep the bound reference
this._tick = this.tick.bind(this);
event.on(event.GAME_UPDATE, this._tick);
// later: event.off(event.GAME_UPDATE, this._tick);

// ✓ or skip the bind entirely — the context is part of the identity
event.on(event.GAME_UPDATE, this.tick, this);
// later: event.off(event.GAME_UPDATE, this.tick, this);

Custom event names work at runtime (event.emit("my.custom.event", payload)), but on/emit are typed against a closed map of the engine's own events, so in TypeScript a name outside that map is a compile error. Use your own emitter for game events in a .ts project.

The events worth knowing

Per frame

Lifecycle

Use LOADER_PROGRESS / LOADER_COMPLETE. The loader.onProgress / loader.onload / loader.onError properties were deprecated in 18.2.0 and removed in 20.3: they were module-level let bindings on an ES module namespace, so loader.onProgress = fn threw and the documented migration path never worked. For completion, loader.preload(assets, onloadcb) also takes the callback directly.

Renderable lifecycle callbacks

Prefer these over bus subscriptions where they fit — the engine calls them at the right times and there is nothing to unsubscribe:

Note the activate gate: adding a child to a detached container fires nothing. The callback arrives later, when that container itself is added to the world. And an isPersistent renderable survives the world clear between stages, so it gets no fresh onActivateEvent on the next state.

Pair subscriptions with activate/deactivate, not the constructor. This is the rule that keeps pooled objects working:

onActivateEvent() {
    this._tick = this.update.bind(this);
    event.on(event.GAME_UPDATE, this._tick);
    input.registerPointerEvent("pointerdown", this, this._onDown);
}
onDeactivateEvent() {
    event.off(event.GAME_UPDATE, this._tick);
    input.releasePointerEvent("pointerdown", this);
}

Pool-recycled objects never fire onDestroyEvent on removal — removeChildNow tries pool.push(child) first and only calls destroy() if that fails, so a class registered with pool.register(name, Class, true) goes back to the pool instead. Anything you clean up there will not run. destroy() is also what calls releaseAllPointerEvents(this), which is why a pooled object must release its own pointer registrations in onDeactivateEvent.

Guard callbacks that can fire during teardown

Events can arrive while a stage is being dismantled, when the current state is already something else:

if (!state.isCurrent(state.PLAY)) return;

Without this, a "children emptied" handler can reset the wrong stage.

Removing objects from a collision callback

Contact callbacks fire inline inside the physics step, mid-iteration over the detector's pair list. container.removeChild() is safe there — it defers the actual removal to the next tick, which is exactly why it defers. The immediate forms are the dangerous ones: removeChildNow() and destroy() tear the object down under the iteration (destroy() nulls pos and body). The builtin detector guards the pair it is currently resolving, but nothing guarantees that for the rest of the step or for another adapter.

Use removeChild(), or flag the work and drain it from Stage.update.

Symptom → cause

Related skills

• melonjs-scenes-and-state — the state machine and stage lifecycle
• melonjs-performance — pooling, and why activate/deactivate pairing matters