Playing to Wait: A Taxonomy of Idle Games
summary
Paper analyzes 66 idle games and 10 non-idle comparators using grounded theory to produce a taxonomy plus an interactivity spectrum. It identifies categories (micro‑management, single‑resource, derivative, multiplayer, 0‑player), documents community tools (spreadsheets, calculators, auto‑clickers, bots), shows idle games shift play toward long‑term planning and temporal flexibility, notes frequent design/balance failures in the wild, and offers concrete UI affordances (planning cues, notation fields, tooltips) and design implications for building and evaluating idle-style systems.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction to idle games
- 2:52Taxonomy of the genre
- 6:09Interactivity spectrum
- 9:20Design implications
- 14:25Emerging genre observations
- 16:50Q&A session
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