Feedback on 15-Minute AFK Disconnection in UEFN

[Clebito]

Hi Epic team,

We saw the recent update about players being automatically disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity on Creative/UEFN islands. While we understand this was likely implemented for platform consistency or system stability, we want to raise some serious concerns about the impact on entire game genres, especially tycoon, simulator, and passive progression maps.

In our case (Pet Heroes Adventure), and for many others in the same genre, passive gameplay is not an exploit—it’s the core loop. Players build teams, unlock systems, and make progress over time, even while multitasking or stepping away briefly. Removing the ability to do so undercuts the genre completely.

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Key Concerns:

Passive Gameplay is the Core Loop

Many of our players spend long sessions progressing slowly through mechanics like auto-battling pets, idle farming, and passive collection. They might chat, spectate, or take short breaks—this doesn’t mean they’re disengaged or exploiting the system. It’s just how the gameplay is built.

AFK Zones for Breaks (Pointed out by another creator)

Many games include AFK areas designed for quick real-life interruptions (bathroom, parenting, etc.). These zones respect players’ time and encourage longer sessions without frustration.

AI Elimination Farms (Pointed out by another creator)

Some games rely on AI eliminations as part of the core progression. Players build clever setups to earn eliminations over time, which are now effectively broken by this disconnection rule.

Idle Tycoon Rewards

Several tycoon maps offer boosted idle gains when players step away. This isn’t passive income abuse—it’s an incentive for players to stay invested over longer sessions.

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This Change Undermines Epic’s Own Vision

In your 2024 Year in Review, Epic celebrated the rise of non-combat genres in Creative:

“Meaningful growth in game genres that don’t feature combat… This type of variety content has made up more than 30% of time spent in creator-made experiences.”

Genres like ours were a big part of that growth. But applying a one-size-fits-all AFK rule threatens to undo it. Right now, combat-focused maps are largely unaffected, while passive/progressive experiences get kneecapped—making it harder to maintain player retention or grow genre diversity.

UEFN should be a platform where any kind of game can thrive—not just fast-paced or constantly interactive ones.

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Suggested Direction

We’d love to see more flexibility rather than a hard universal rule. Some possible paths:

• Let creators flag maps or zones as “passive-friendly”
• Add exceptions for certain gameloops like tycoons, simulations, or farming-based games
• Explore more nuanced activity tracking rather than simple interaction timers

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We’re passionate about building fun, genre-expanding content in Fortnite. But this change directly limits the possibilities for creators like us and punishes players who prefer slower, more thoughtful experiences.

We hope Epic will reconsider or provide a more adaptable solution that keeps the ecosystem as open, creative, and diverse as it’s meant to be.

— Team Shock Maps

[Mineblo]

The duration seems to have been doubled and updated in the patch notes 35.00 Fortnite Ecosystem Updates and Release Notes | Unreal Editor for Fortnite Documentation | Epic Developer Community

[Clebito]

The AFK timer being extended from 15 to 30 minutes is a step in the right direction, but this change is still very limiting for certain genres, including our game Pet Heroes Adventure.

Our gameplay loop was designed from the start to be a long-term experience, encouraging players to progress slowly over time. It’s not meant to be played in a single burst—it rewards consistent engagement across days or weeks. That kind of experience shouldn’t be penalized just because it doesn’t rely on constant button-pressing.

If the vision is for all kinds of games to flourish inside Fortnite, then features like AFK timers should be optional settings that creators can toggle based on their genre. One-size-fits-all rules will only push everyone toward faster, combat-heavy games.

This change has been especially frustrating for us because after nearly a year of work on our map, carefully balancing the gameplay and building a passionate community around it, it’s tough to see a platform-wide change suddenly undermine so much of that effort. It feels like a step back for the kind of long-form, variety-driven experiences that Epic itself has celebrated.

Some feedback from our community:

[DWDFN]

This will kill the Tycoon/Clicker genre.

[Senix]

I absolutely agree with you @Clebito

This really holds back motivation to build also a game like Pet Heroes which is focused on long term gameplay.

2 Hours AFK Timer would make much more sense or just disable payout after 2 hours for the afk player.

[SCOOP_DER_GERAET]

Hello everyone,
A suggestion for this could be to give the creators the option to decide on there maps, if they want the AFK kick on there maps or not. Regards SCOOP

[DrillCreative]

I concur with the original poster.

This is a poor decision that ultimately limits creativity and punishes developers looking to push the boundaries of what is possible on the platform.

If the intent is to prevent botting, it won’t work. Anyone sophisticated enough to build a bot farm is well aware of methods to circumvent idle inputs.

In general, this platform needs less regulation to flourish, not more.

[L10NHEART (Lionheart)]

Feels like the goal is to reduce server costs, but I agree with many of the points made by Shock Maps. End of the day, Epic built an ecosystem that is strongly incentivized to create games with long engagement toward revenue optimization. For good or bad, this has led to a fast rise in tycoon and idle gameplay. But these player routines also benefit Fortnite since the game becomes a regular part of people’s lives. If I am going to school or work, I can leave my game up farming for me and the first thing that I see when I come home is Fortnite. In other words, Fortnite is the last thing I do before leaving, and the first thing I do when I get home. Breaking that routine opens the door to competing entertainment. Since I don’t have my game earning progress for me, maybe I’ll spend time with Netflix tonight instead (as an example).

The point I’m trying to make is we have an ecosystem built around engagement, so it’s a bit strange to discourage the most effective forms of engagement and push us towards active play only–especially as Fortnite gears up to return to mobile, where passive and idle gameplay are extremely common.

[bennyboiz]

(post deleted by author)

[bennyboiz]

@Clebito

We saw the recent update about players being automatically disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity on Creative/UEFN islands. While we understand this was likely implemented for platform consistency or system stability, we want to raise some serious concerns about the impact on entire game genres, especially tycoon, simulator, and passive progression maps.

Agree with the take here. This change has an enormous impact on entire game genres and is a very heavy handed way of dealing with the issue. Ultimately this feel like just another thing for bots to easily work around, at the expense of many builders who have been invested in building unique maps in this ecosystem for a long time.

[SandPidgeon (BlznDev)]

If the concern is battle pass EXP I would 100% agree that “disabling” that for AFK players is completely valid, but to kick people from an experience they are enjoying the grind of is what is upsetting people.

If the goal is to encourage creators to develop fleshed out in depth maps like RPGs, incremental games etc, then we shouldn’t be punished for what is considered a core aspect of those games

The reality is a major portion of the UEFN audience play these kinds of games, whether it be idle tycoons, incrementals, Bossfights, and hindering that experience by kicking players if they are standing still feels bad when they’re trying to be play in these immersive experiences and being punished for progressing. This change hurts the passion these people have for these maps.

Ultimately if people are inside Fortnite, regardless of whether they are AFK grinding in a Tycoon / RPG or playing BR, they’re still invested in the game as a whole, which means they’ll keep coming back to Fortnite and still keep buying skins etc.., adding this AFK check removes some investment and passion from these honest players trying to grind fleshed out maps

I’m hoping there can at least be a discussion, or maybe some transparency as to why this change has been implemented so we can maybe discuss a solution that works better for the people we’re all here to make maps for

[Rebel_FNC (Rebel)]

Giving option to mark if wanting AFK on or off in your island will not be effective, especially for the AFK scam maps, or creators that bot their islands. As well, most maps will decide to turn it off to keep players in for the ching ching haha. I think a possible help would be to have pickaxing something that resets the afk timer; obviously not jsut swinging it, but pickaxing an object that sends events. Obviously this also can be debated that it still can lead to scummy creators abusing the system and not effective for the server life, but idk, something has to be changed to keep these honest maps palyed and we don’t lose a fun genre of maps.

[Rebel_FNC (Rebel)]

please forgive my typing errors, it is 1 am haha

[twitchSephimm]

[Mineblo]

@Rebel_FNC

not be effective, especially for the AFK scam maps

All it takes would be for the tiktok scammer promoting the xp map to just say make sure to rubber band your controller and show a picture like this. If someone follows all of the steps and willing to be afk for 30-60 mins I doubt having to go to the kitchen to get a rubber band will deter them. And we’re back to square one but this time normal players & creators will pay the price by being kicked out of the session

[latunda]

I think it is already possible. I mean I allow players to kick other afk players so they could get new partner for 1v1

[latunda]

I think there should be no progression and no rewards for being away more than 15min. As for automatically kicking I am not sure, maybe it would be better to simply allow to resume progression after the player is playing normally again.

Maybe pausing timers is a technical issue, so it is easier to kick.

[Mineblo]

I do agree No XP Rewards after 15 minutes, even after 5 mins of inactivity is a fair thing to happen. And SHOULD be communicated it could be like this Error People get when Save Device breaks, just re-designed a little bit so it looks like its about xp. Enough for a player to notice and be aware but not covering the screen too much.

[ArcaneStudio]

As a creator of NOT Tycoon games, I think this is an extremely positive decision and would like to see a 15-20 minute timer.

[Clebito]

We get it — being AFK shouldn’t be the goal of a gameplay loop. The idea is to reduce abuse, encourage active engagement, and make room for more dynamic game types in Fortnite. But the current implementation affects a very specific kind of player — and in doing so, it risks stifling entire genres that are built on slow progression and long-term engagement.

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Our Case: Pet Heroes Adventure

In Pet Heroes, we’ve been building a game that players can return to for months — not just for a couple of intense sessions. We’ve been live since July 2024, and since then we’ve consistently released updates, new content, and seasonal events like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.

It’s almost impossible right now to create a long-term experience in UEFN without making some parts of the game slower and grindier, especially because:

• Memory limitations prevent us from adding endless content
• Systems like UI or long quest chains are still limited in Creative
• Players want something they can slowly build over time

We aren’t designing for players to go AFK — but for those who choose to hang out in the world longer, leave the game running while doing chores, or even just step away for a moment, this 30-minute disconnection breaks the immersion and discourages long-term play.

New players are completely fine — they have plenty to do. They’re unlocking areas, opening eggs, progressing quickly. That part of the loop is untouched. The players this rule affects most are the passionate, returning players — the ones who already completed the main content, and still choose to return every day to slowly grind, complete collections, or hang out with friends.

These are the people who built our community — and this rule actively works against them.

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Real Example of Retention

In May 1st, 2025, Pet Heroes had a retention rate of 43.49%.

That’s incredibly high for a UEFN game. Players aren’t just visiting — they’re sticking around. And they’re doing that even if part of the experience includes slower, passive grinding.

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Even Epic’s Own Content Suffered

To me, one of the clearest signs this change was rushed is what happened with Epic’s own Star Wars experience.

When this AFK system launched at 15 minutes, players were being kicked mid-cutscene while watching the new episode. That’s probably why it was quickly bumped to 30 minutes.

But if the rule wasn’t fully compatible with Epic’s own flagship content on launch day, that’s a red flag that it needs more careful consideration before becoming a permanent system-wide feature. We have no issue with limiting XP gain or playtime stats for those players who are AFK, we’re just showing that if this rule was created to punish bad actors, a side effect is that all the tycoon/simulator genre will be negatively affected.