Is my countdown too tight, or are players just dying?

A level with a timer can fail in two different ways, and fixing the wrong one wastes your time. This entry shows how to separate real time pressure from deaths and from players who simply walked away.

Why this works

A timer only creates pressure for players who are actually playing. Separating real time-outs from walked-away ones, and watching how narrowly winners finish, tells you whether the clock or the danger is the problem.

When not to use it

Do not use it for levels with no clock, or for speedrun-style games where tight finishes are the goal. There, widen the clock only if beginners cannot finish at all.

In the full entry

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

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "Is my countdown too tight, or are players just dying?" (read_entry timed-level-timeouts-versus-deaths) 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