In WMD: Hot Zone, players assume the roles of firefighters at the scene of a weapons of mass destruction attack. This prototype will specifically focus on a chemical Sarin attack in a busy shopping mall during the Christmas season. WMD: Hot Zone will specifically focus on the actions first responder firefighters should (and should not) take when faced with this type of scenario. Players will face the challenges of minimizing the spread of contamination while assisting with decontamination and crowd control procedures through the use of simple commands. The overall development objective for the WMD: Hot Zone Prototype is to help determine if interactive “game-like” training is a useful tool to teach first responders how to handle large scale weapons of mass destruction attacks.

• First person perspective
  
  
• Prototype is single player, though the full game is multiplayer
  
  
• Navigation: move with the keyboard, look with the mouse
  
  
• Left-click to select people. Hold ctrl to select multiple people. Click again to deselect people. When people are selected, a green diamond will appear over their heads.
  
  
• Right-click to select an action from a simple drop down list. The actions will consist of: Go There/Here, Stop, Come Together (into a group), Follow Me, Strip/Dress, Calm Down, Detain/Arrest
  
  
• Simple HUD text will give player feedback on the number of people contaminated, decontaminated, etc.
  
  
• Back story will be kept to a minimum for the prototype. Since firefighters are already our target audience, they know who they are and why they would be responding to this type of event.
  
  
• Voiceovers, plot, narrative, etc will be added as necessary (and as time permits) to round out the experience.
  
  

The base engine used will be UT2003. All custom code will be scripted in UnrealScript and/or C++ as necessary. The idea is to get a basic working prototype up as soon as possible so we can tweak the gameplay before the actual content (art, models, etc) is completed. Art assets will be created in 3ds Max, Maya, UnrealEd, Photoshop, and/or any other art tools as necessary.

Action:	Go there/here
Menu Text:	Go
Works on:	All in game NPC characters: victims, support personnel, first responders, citizens, media, etc.
Description:	After a NPC or group of NPCs are selected by left clicking on them with the mouse, right clicking and selecting the “Go” command will bring up the “Where?” visual text prompt. Once the “Where?” prompt is visible, left clicking on the ground will cause the selected NPCs to move to that location. Right clicking will dispel the action.

Action:	Stop
Menu Text:	Stop
Works on:	All in game NPC characters: victims, support personnel, first responders, citizens, media, etc.
Description:	After a NPC or group of NPCs are selected by left clicking on them with the mouse, right clicking and selecting the “Stop” command will immediately cause the selected NPCs to halt where they are. Right clicking will dispel the action.

Action:	Come Together (into a Group)
Menu Text:	Group
Works on:	All in game NPC characters: victims, support personnel, first responders, citizens, media, etc.
Description:	After a NPC or group of NPCs are selected by left clicking on them with the mouse, right clicking and selecting the “Group” command will bring up the “Where?” visual text prompt. Once the “Where?” prompt is visible, left clicking on the ground will cause the selected NPCs to move together and form a group in that location. Right clicking will dispel the action.