Rules
Time Auction is a bidding game for 3 to 7 players where the currency is time. Instead of naming a price, you hold down a button, and every tenth of a second you keep holding is taken from your bank.
Setup
Each player has a hidden button and a private time bank of 10 minutes, measured to a tenth of a second. A game lasts 19 rounds, and a scoreboard shows the result of each one.
A round
- Everyone starts the round holding their button down.
- For the first 5 seconds nothing is spent. Letting go in this window means you sit the round out at no cost.
- After 5 seconds, every player still holding starts spending time from their bank.
- Let go whenever you like. The time you held after the free window is your bid, and it is gone whether you win or not.
- When the last player lets go, the round ends and that player takes a victory token.
If the longest holders release at exactly the same moment, nobody gets the token.
What stays hidden
You cannot see who sat a round out and who stayed in, or how much time anyone else has left. Only the winner of each round is shown.
End of the game
After 19 rounds, the player with the most victory tokens wins. A tie is broken by more time left, and if that is tied too, nobody wins. The player with the fewest tokens, and then the least time, finishes last. On the show that player was eliminated. A player whose bank reaches zero cannot bid any more.
Our version
- Each round opens with a 3-second “get ready” countdown. Press and hold the pad (or hold Space) during it. Whoever is holding at “go” is in the round; anyone not holding sits out.
- The 5-second free window starts at “go”. Letting go inside it is a free sit-out.
- Bids are counted in whole tenths of a second, measured by the game’s clock, not your device’s. Two top bids in the same tenth count as a tie: nobody gets the token, and both still pay.
- When your bank hits zero while you hold, your bid stops automatically at everything you had. An empty bank cannot hold in later rounds.
- If nobody holds at “go”, or everyone lets go in the free window, nobody gets the token.
- After each round you see only who won, and your own bid. Who held, who sat out and everyone’s bank stay hidden until the end, when a table shows every bid in every round.
- Your own bank: shown with “Show my bank” on easy and medium (on by default), always hidden on hard, as on the show.
- Full game: 19 rounds with 10 minutes each. Quick: 9 rounds with 3 minutes each.
- Against the computer you play with 4, 5 or 6 players in total (default 5). The AI players take turns at three styles: aggressive (bids most rounds), patient (skips more, bids bigger) and random. Easy AI spends without a plan, medium paces its bank, hard picks its rounds to reach a winning number of tokens. They only know what you would know: their own bank, the round and the winners.
- Online rooms take 3 to 7 players, and the host can fill seats with AI players.
- You win if you finish first on tokens, then time left. A tie on both means nobody wins. The last place is shown too; on the show that player was eliminated.
Strategy
Skip rounds on purpose. The free 5-second window lets you watch others drain their banks while you spend nothing. Saving time early can buy you several wins late in the game.
The winner barely outbids second place. A round is a war of attrition. The winner only needs to hold a little longer than the next player, but everyone who stayed in pays.
Know your budget. At about 31 seconds a round on average, a single 90-second win eats the time of three rounds. Decide in advance how many tokens you are aiming for.
Keep count of your own bank. If you cannot see your remaining time, track it after every round. Running dry with rounds still to play leaves you unable to compete.
Watch the winners. You only learn who won each round. A player who keeps winning is probably spending heavily, and may run short later.
Avoid last place. Fewest tokens decides last place first, so one or two cheap wins can matter more than a perfect time bank.