The theme of our room is Navigating Nuclear Waste. You have somehow gotten yourself trapped amongst radioactive material and need to escape!
This is a top down view of our 20 ft x 10 ft room. The goal is to get from the entrance door to the exit door. Players do this by stepping on the circles in the diagram, which represent barrels of dangerous radioactive waste. They can step from circle to circle, only when the radioactive waste has been neutralized by the crank. The barrels are 8” in diameter, which we can test in the future to make sure that size and the space between is appropriate to jump between. The floor represents a pool that the players may never step on. There are 3 zones, shown by the red, yellow, and blue zones in the floor plan.
When a player cranks a disc, the corresponding zone’s barrels are neutralized and people may pass through that zone as long as the crank is still moving. Spinning crank 1 neutralizes Zone 1, Crank 2 neutralizes Zone 2, and Crank 3 neutralizes Zone 3. The zones get more difficult as the players progress, and in Zones 2 and 3, the spacing between the barrels increase. The divider in the middle of the room allows us to create a U-shaped path that increases the amount of gameplay and allows us to create 3 distinct zones. With testing, if these prove to be too easy, barrel heights can be diversified and barrel sizes can also be made smaller to make it more challenging.
Contributors: Kelly Chen
From reviews on our sketch model, we designed our cranks to be solid discs, which are the 2 light blue circles on the walls . We chose this shape because we did not want people’s arms to get caught in the holes of the disc and did not want a spinning handle to hit anyone. The solid disc is also harder to turn, further mitigating the issues that arise when the crank spins at high speeds.
We chose the stepping platforms to be toxic waste barrels, with radioactive labels, because the symbol is easily recognizable and fits our theme well. At the start of the game, all the barrels are green, signifying that they are radioactive. When someone turns a crank, the green lights illuminating the barrels turn off for a section of the room, signifying the neutralization of the barrels and that it is safe to cross. The green lights remain on as long as the crank remains moving, and the light fades proportionally to the speed of the crank. When the green lights turn off, the barrels are yellow, based on what toxic waste barrels look like in real life. The blue floor represents a deep pool that the barrels are placed in to cool down, and is also colored based on real life examples.
Continuing with our theme, we added yellow and grey pipes to the walls, to better emulate the inside of a power plant, as well as the danger sign pasted to the room divider. The room divider is used to create a U-shape, which extends the path from the start and finish doors and increases the difficulty and length of game play.
Contributors: Kelly Chen, Gina Han, Megan Thai