What is it?

direction is a built-in variable that sets an instance's direction, in degrees. You can learn about angle measurements here. When another built-in variable, speed is greater than zero, the instance will move in that direction.

How Do I Use It?

direction is a read/write variable, so you can read from it like this:

image_angle = direction;

or like this:

if direction > 180 {<do something>}

You can also set it to a new value.

direction = 45;

direction += new_direction;

Examples

Setting direction to any angle won't do anything by itself. It needs another built-in variable, speed, to move the instance in a given direction.

direction = 0;
speed = 1;

With the code above, the instance will move 1 pixel per frame to the right.

direction = 180;
speed = 2;

The instance will move 2 pixels per frame to the left.

direction = 270;
speed = 1;

The instance will move 1 pixel per frame downward.

Caution! Setting direction doesn't change the angle of your sprite. To do that, you'll want to use the built-in variable,image_angle, and set it to direction, like we did in the demo above!

direction = 45;
image_angle = direction;