How long can a line of dialogue be before players stop reading it?

Players who tap through a line in a blink did not read it, and long lines are the usual suspects. This entry shows how to estimate from timing alone how often text is skimmed, and which lines should not be counted.

Why this works

Reading takes a fairly steady time per word, so a tap far quicker than that cannot have come after reading. Using the clock only for the impossible cases gives a safe lower bound instead of a guess about what counts as slow.

When not to use it

Wrong when the text is spoken aloud, moves on by itself, or repeats something the player knows already: the timing then says nothing about reading. Watch a few players or ask them instead.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 3 common mistakes and the fix
• 24 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "How long can a line of dialogue be before players stop reading it?" (read_entry rpg-text-skim-rate-by-length) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP