How can I disable level load or input until game starts?

I am running into an issue where even though I am adding the Main Menu to the screen, the level the game is loading aka Level 1 is playing in the background even with the Main Menu Widget showing. I have been poking around to find a way to correct it but nothing seems to be working to fix it. I know this is happening because even though the Main Menu is covering my screen I have print strings showing what’s happening on the screen.

What’s supposed to happen is the game boots up, shows menu, and nothing happens until Level 1 loads and starts moving automatically for gameplay.

I’ve been struggling with this on every game project I’ve had even after watching multiple youtube videos.

The only thing I can think of is maybe I need a switch to set a true/false if the game has started or not to load and move the level but I seem to be doing it wrong.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Okay, thank you, I’ll go look at that right now.

@mightyenigma

Yep, that solved the issue.

I saw that before and tried it but you made me realize I was using it in the wrong spot, thanks a ton!

Check out the Set Game Paused blueprint node.
You can exempt certain actors from pausing by setting their Ticked while Paused checkbox (or whatever it is called).

I think UNG widgets are set to tick while paused by default but I am not sure.
You also need the Playercontroller the widgets belong to, to tick while paused, so it can take input events.