The wait that pays the ship
A local shooter whose only currency is tokens Claude Code already burned, with a 100% local badge next to a CDN the readme still loads.
- Category
- Developer tools
- Who it is for
- A developer who already waits on Claude Code and wants the wait to change something on screen.
- Possible model
- Open source
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Inspired by
- Context Siege · Context Siege
- Original launch
- Watch the launch · Oct 10, 2026
Difficulty is an editorial estimate of technical and operational complexity, not a score.
Startup idea analysis by Startup Ideas. Last reviewed Oct 10, 2026. How we read a launch.
The startup idea
roberottt posted Context Siege on October 10. A low-poly shooter you can upgrade only with the tokens Claude Code burns. The harder Claude works, the stronger you get. Open source. The readme says the same reason: he was bored waiting. You clone it, run npm start, and open localhost:4321. You start with 20K TK. Everything else comes from Claude Code transcripts on the same machine, counted since you started playing, not from old history. Input and output tokens count once. Cache writes count at 0.25. Cache reads count at 0.02. In every 10-minute window the first 100K TK count in full. Above that, growth is the square root, and the HUD says Saturated. If Claude produced tokens in the last 90 seconds, the ship overclocks. Node 18 or later. The server has no npm dependencies. A badge says it runs 100% local. The requirements also say Three.js and the font load from a CDN, so it needs a network. Conversations are not stored or sent. Windows token counting should work. Detecting an open session uses ps, so that indicator is untested on Windows. The GitHub API lists no license, and there is no LICENSE file on main. This page did not play it.
The opportunity is the wait, not another shooter. A smaller product is one machine, one session, and a number that only moves while the agent works. The post says open source. The repository does not ship a license.
Do not say it runs with the network off. The badge and the requirements disagree. Do not host one copy for friends. The readme says each player has to run their own, because the server reads local transcripts.
The problem
The agent is working. The developer is staring at a spinner.
Who would pay for this?
- Primary
- A developer who already waits on Claude Code and wants the wait to change something on screen.
- Secondary
- Someone who will not install a game that uploads the chat.
- Early adopter
- One ship, one session, the 20K you start with.
How could it make money?
Possible models. Nothing here is a claim about what Context Siege charges.
- No price in the post or the readme.
- The currency is tokens Claude already spent.
- The post says open source. The repository has no license file.
What would the MVP look like?
- One local game on port 4321.
- Tokens counted since the game started, with the cache weights on the screen.
- An overclock while Claude generated in the last 90 seconds.
- A license, which this repository does not have.
How to validate the idea
- Ask five Claude Code users to leave it open for one real task.
- If they close it when the task ends, the wait was not the product.
- Do not add a second agent until one Claude session changes the ship.
How to differentiate
- You cannot grind. The agent has to work.
- The chat stays on the machine.
- The local badge still loads a CDN.
- Do not become a token dashboard with a spaceship skin.
Why this could be interesting now
The post and the readme agree on the token currency. They do not agree that the game is both fully local and licensed. The opening is one session a developer is already waiting on.
Original product launch
This launch is inspiration and evidence that someone shipped, not a partnership. The idea above is our reading of the broader opportunity. Context Siege did not write it.
- Product
- Context Siege
- Source
- Context Siege
- Film
- Context Siege, a game paid in Claude's tokens
- Posted
- Oct 10, 2026 · 0:15
Product that inspired this idea
roberottt's post says he built Context Siege while waiting on Claude: a low-poly shooter you upgrade only with the tokens Claude Code burns. Open source. The readme says you start with 20K TK, and the rest comes from transcripts under ~/.claude since you started playing. Input and output count once, cache writes at 0.25, cache reads at 0.02. In each 10 minutes the first 100K TK count in full. Above that, growth is the square root. If Claude produced tokens in the last 90 seconds, the ship overclocks. Node 18+, no npm dependencies, localhost:4321. A badge says it runs 100% local. The requirements also say Three.js and the font load from a CDN, so it needs a network. The GitHub repository has no license file. Windows session detection is untested. This page did not play it.
Posted by @roberottt. Watch the original launch. No separate product site is listed unless the post itself is the source.
- claude
- game
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