I have a splash screen, that is displayed when the game is started. In the background the game loads the first level (or the last savepoint, if one exists) and opens the main menu. The menu is already active, albeit hidden behind the splash screen, but I want the player to not be able to interact with it or exit the menu.
Is it possible to intercept all player input, as long as the splash screen object exists? (it is destroyed automatically after a couple of seconds)
You can’t put a blanket disable on all inputs, however you can send signals to all the objects that should be listening for input, telling them to ignore them until the level is fully loaded. Try putting a boolean flag on your menu (and player) objects, that gets checked at the beginning of ‘Update’ (or OnGUI, if that’s how your menu works), and if true either returns immediately or only executes essential (non-input based) functions.
Then, either use SendMessage to activate them once the splash disappears, or however you want to do that.