GAS/SMOKE
Volumetric gases as gameplay objects — smoke that blocks sight, poison clouds that damage over time, flammable vapors waiting for a spark — that spread, drift, and dissipate.
- SOLO-DEV COST MEDIUM
- TIMING REAL-TIME
- COMMON IN SHOOTER · CRPG · IMMERSIVE-SIM · TACTICS
Counter-Strike's smoke grenade is a decades-old lineotomy tool whose exact volumetric behavior (CS2's responsive smokes that bullets and grenades carve holes in) is competitively load-bearing; Divinity: Original Sin 2 makes clouds a chemistry set (poison ignites, steam blocks vision, cursed variants persist); and Zelda-likes and immersive sims use gas for puzzles and area denial. Designers simulate gas because it occupies the space between instant effects and permanent walls: a cloud is temporary terrain, creating windows of opportunity and forcing repositioning, and its interactions with fire, wind, and breath mechanics multiply systemic depth. Key decisions: how honestly the volume simulates (real dispersal versus a fixed sphere with a timer — the fixed sphere is far cheaper and usually sufficient), whether gases interact with each other and with elements, and how clearly players read a cloud's type and remaining duration. Pitfall: unreadable clouds — when players can't tell poison from smoke from steam at a glance, or can't judge where a cloud's damage boundary actually is, every death inside one feels like the game's fault.