I also need the actor that is touched by my "person" to disappear, allowing the "person" to pass by it. My game is a maze, so the actor that disappears is essentially a obstacle the user will have to get by. Thanks

When you say 'a question and a text box', do you not mean 'a question and an input box'? or is the question to be in a text box and a single correct keystroke will be detected or something before allowed to continue on in the maze?

Yes, I mean a question and an input box. The user will the have to input something. And depending on if the answer is right or wrong, the user gets to pass Thanks

What kind of input is required to pass? or, give an example of one of the questions that could be prompted and an example of what would be entered by the user to pass (like, put the user response in quotes exactly how they might respond).

I'm doing an educational algebra game. For example, a question would pop up on the top of the screen:"Solve for X: 3x+7=16" the user would have to input "3" in order to pass. If the user answers it wrong, the game ends. Thanks

Ok. I guess that JOptionPane is the easiest way to go, then. The following line of code will set the variable 'guess' to the input of the user (of course, you will probably have the equation in another variable and not hard-coded as in the line given):