What are some best practices for integrating cronjobs into a PHP-based browser game?

One best practice for integrating cronjobs into a PHP-based browser game is to create a separate PHP script that handles the cronjob tasks and schedule it to run at regular intervals using the server's cron scheduler. This helps keep the game logic separate from the cronjob logic and ensures that the cronjobs run consistently without affecting the game's performance.

// cronjob.php

// Your cronjob tasks here

// Example task: Update player scores every hour
// Connect to the database
$db = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=game_db', 'username', 'password');

// Update player scores
$stmt = $db->prepare("UPDATE players SET score = score + 10");
$stmt->execute();