Melt Down

Idea:
A nuclear power plant was struck by an earthquake. The earthquake has crippled the station and
a security guard must save the power plant from melting down.
Purpose and Features:
The Callaway Nuclear Generating Station in Callaway County, Missouri was built in 1984. The
plant is located near the New Madrid fault line, where an earthquake causes the nuclear cores to
meltdown the plant. I got the idea from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster that
caused the plant to meltdown in 2011. I wanted to create a level where the player must prevent
the power plant from melting down.
Product Features: Ideas for the player to accomplish during the level

save a man trapped under rubble

put on a radioactive suit
turn off steam valves
avoid falling debris/navigate around rubble
avoid radioactive people
avoid radioactive areas
radioactive people glow green
restore power to the building/turn on generators
turn on water pumps to cool nuclear reactor
get the Geiger counter to detect radiation
the fiber is killed by steam from turning on water valves
jump over cave-in floor
the player in the basement must swim to the other side to leave the plant
live electrical wires
life-saving injection
falling rubble blocks radioactive people from following the player
broken radioactive barrels where the player cannot step in
Clarence card or print scanner for door access
the player is a janitor
the player is a security guard
the player is a power plant worker
move radioactive core to the cooling area
open up reactor door
remove debris from reactor door
use lift to enter the lower level of the cooling building
escape from the equipment hatch in the lower level of the cooling building

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Reference Photos:
Environment and Location Reference:

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Set Design and Props:

Lighting in Style:
Lighting: when the power is off and the security lights are on.

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Lighting: Inside the plant

Story:
I: The story of the environment:
The plant went through some security upgrades. Old machines still keep the plant running
through the daily routines. The major security doors can only be opened by Clarence cards. Is
covered with computer towers where one of them has crushed one of the plant workers during
the earthquake. In his hand is a Clarence card to allow him access to the turbine building. The
fluorescent lights on the ceiling are just hanging by the electrical wiring. The machines at the
plant have worn-out edges; seals are covered in oil residue. The pipes leading to the machine are
covered in rust. The plant is made from concrete and is reinforced with I-beams around the
edges. The turbine room ceiling fell and part of the walls by the top left corner has collapsed
inside the plant. The floor above the control panel during one of the tremors collapses upon the
control panel causing the player to manually operate the plant. Inside the reactor building, the
reactor is overheating and is releasing radiation inside the building where the player must avoid.

II: The story of the character:

The player is a security guard at the nuclear power plant. His job is to monitor the plant
in the security guard station. This is the same location where the player starts off when the
earthquake occurs. The player is told, on the radio, to head to the generator room to restore
power to the station. After the player turns on the generators, the number one generator starts to
make funny sounds and blows one of the heads off and destroys the nearby wall that the player
can go through. Then he is informed that they cannot get a hold of the control room worker to
restart the reactor, so the player must head upstairs to the control room. When the player gets
into the control room, he finds the worker dead by one of the computer towers. After finding the
worker, he automatically radios in that the worker is dead and that the player must head over to
the control panel and restart the reactors.

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

A few seconds after restarting the reactor, a tremor shakes the plant and the third floor
collapses upon the control panel disabling it. The player radios in that the control panel was
destroyed during the tremor. He is told to head to the turbine room but the only way to get there
is to grab the Clarence card that the dead worker has on him. When the player enters the
stairwell, the stairs leading down to the first floor were destroyed during the tremor. The player
reaches the third floor where he must avoid the collapsed floor that landed on the control panel
before going to the door. The player must use the Clarence card to access the turbine room.
Immediately, as the player enters the turbine room, he hears someone calling out to him. A
worker is trapped underneath rubble just to the left of the door. The player goes over and lifts up
a piece of the rubble on top of the worker's leg to save him. The worker tells the player that they
must manually turn on the water to the turbine before it explodes. The player must turn around
and go directly up the stairs to the platform and immediately on his right turns on water valves
one and four to restore water to the system.
The NPC (turbine room worker) heads halfway down the turbine machine and above his
head is one of the steam pipes that burst after the player turns on valves. The man on the radio
asks the player what is going on in the turbine room. The player informs the man what just
happened to the worker. He tells the player that he must get out of the building and take the stairs
to the first floor. As he makes his way around the turbine one of the steam containers explodes
knocking the player back and collapsing some of the floor. The only way for him to get to that
stairwell is to jump over the cave-in floor. After making it over the collapse floor and down the
stairwell, the player sees that most of the building is falling down around him. He radios in that
there is no way for him to make it to the front entrance. He is informed that he can escape from a
hatch on the other side of the plant. The player must go through the reactor building before
entering the cooling building.
To enter the reactor building, the player must go through a radioactive decontamination
room just left of stairwell. The player must put on a radiation suit, because of the high radiation
in the reactor building. The player must avoid the high radiation areas and make his way to the
observation room on the third floor. When he makes it up to the observation room, the man on
the radio alerts him that the reactor has reached critical levels. He must move it from the main
reactor to the cooling room just behind the reactor door. In the observation room, the player must
open the door to the cooling building and make his way down to the manipulator crane in the
center of the reactor on the second floor. When the player gets on the crane, he must move it to
the reactor and lift up the main core. When the player lifts the core out of the water, the radiation
spikes up and he only has a few seconds to move the core to the cooling pool before it kills him.
After the core is in the water, the generator that blew a header in the beginning breaks down. The
player must head to a control panel to convert the power from the lights to the lift and lower the
player to the lower level of the cooling building. The player must make his way to the other end
of the building and open the hatch to exit the building.

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Objectives, Obstacles, and Set Pieces:

Objectives:
1. Turn on generators to restore power to the plant.
2. Restart computer in the control room.
3. Grab Clarence card from the dead control room worker.
4. Go to turbine room.
5. Save trapped worker in turbine room.
6. Assist the worker to restore water to the reactors.
7. Go to the first floor of the turbine building.
8. Head to radioactive decontamination room.
9. Put on radiation suit.
10. Open reactor door.
11. Get on manipulator crane and removed reactor core from reactor.
12. Place reactor core into cooling pool.
13. Covert power to the lift.
14. Get on lift and go down to lower cooling room.
15. Open hatch to exit the cooling building.
Obstacles:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Avoid radioactive areas in the radiation room.

Turn off steam valves.
Avoid falling debris/navigate around rubble.
Jump over caved-in floor.
Remove obstruction from the reactor door.

Set pieces:
1. Diesel generator blowing the head off the engine to blow a hole in the wall.
2. A tremor causes debris to fall on the control panel disabling controls.
3. The turbine tank explodes falling through the floor creating a hole that player must jump
over to reach the stairwell.
4. A tremor causes debris to fall on the tracks of the reactor door.

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Top-Down Layout:

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2013 Richard Brice Schlosser. All rights reserved.