Hunger
A depleting meter that demands regular food intake, with penalties — stat drain, health loss, eventually death — as it empties. Hunger is the survival genre's metronome: it converts time itself into pressure, forces engagement with the food economy (foraging, farming, cooking), and gives every expedition a fuel budget. Designers use it to prevent turtling (you cannot wait out a survival game; the meter drags you into the world) and to make food systems load-bearing rather than decorative. Tuning is the whole craft: drain rate defines the game's anxiety level. Too fast and the game becomes a snack treadmill that crowds out every other activity; too slow and the system is a periodic chore with no decisions in it. Key decisions: penalty curve shape (gradual debuffs versus cliff-edge death), food spoilage (adds logistics depth), cooking multipliers that reward preparation, and interaction with saves. Pitfall: hunger as pure friction — a meter that only interrupts, never creates decisions.
- Dev effort: Small
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: survival