Environmental hazards
Fixed or triggered dangers built into the level itself — fire, poison gas, spike traps, collapsing floors — that threaten the player independent of enemy actions. Dark Souls litters its levels with hazards that punish careless exploration as harshly as any boss, while Half-Life 2 uses environmental danger (radiation, toxic slime) to shape pacing and route choice. Designers use environmental hazards to make the world itself an antagonist, to create tension in traversal and exploration (not just combat), to enable environmental kills against enemies (luring foes into hazards), and to diversify challenge without adding new enemy types. Key decisions: telegraphing (hazards must be visually distinct enough to read and avoid, or they feel like cheap deaths), whether hazards can be exploited tactically against enemies, damage-over-time versus instant-death hazards, and how they interact with player resistances or immunities. Pitfall: hazards that kill instantly with no warning or counterplay read as unfair rather than challenging — the best hazards are visible, learnable, and occasionally turnable into a weapon.
- Dev effort: Small
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: action, soulslike, shooter