How much of a session do players spend with nothing useful to do?

In builders and strategy games the pace dies when the queue is empty and nothing can be afforded. This entry shows how to measure that waiting time from simple snapshots, without letting a player who walked away ruin the number.

Why this works

Boredom is lost time while the game is running, so only moments that truly belonged to the player should count. Letting each snapshot stand for a limited stretch keeps an abandoned session from posing as waiting, and the ratio compares like with like.

When not to use it

Skip it when waiting is the design, such as in slow idle games where watching things grow is the fun. Then the number only flags what you meant. Ask players whether the waiting felt empty instead.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 2 common mistakes and the fix
• 26 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 much of a session do players spend with nothing useful to do?" (read_entry strat-idle-time-nothing-to-do) 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