Grid Sentinel

Overview

Grid Sentinel is a single-screen supervisory control game inspired by industrial HMI design. The player acts as an operations analyst overseeing three linked utility zones: Reactor Feed, Cooling Loop, and Power Bus. Each zone slowly drifts away from its target operating band. The player uses deliberate control actions to keep the system stable for a 90-second shift while minimizing alarms and preserving overall efficiency.

The game is built around ISA-101 style presentation: - A visually quiet neutral background during normal operation - A Level 1 overview with system health and alarm count - Level 2 operating panels for the three zones - Level 3 faceplate-style detail controls for fine adjustment - Alarm colors reserved only for actual abnormal states

Target Audience

• Primary: Human players who enjoy short systems-management games
• Secondary: AI agents and tool-using agents that can reason about visible state

Core Loop

1. Monitor the overview bar for total health, time remaining, and active alarms
2. Watch the three zone panels for drift away from target
3. Open a zone faceplate when tighter control is needed
4. Apply small or large corrective actions
5. Survive until the shift timer ends with the highest stability score possible

Game Mechanics

• Three continuously simulated process zones
• Each zone has:
  • Current value
  • Target value
  • Safe band
  • Drift rate
  • Coupling effect from neighboring zones
• Player actions:
  • Small decrease
  • Small increase
  • Large decrease
  • Large increase
  • Reset toward target with a temporary cooldown penalty
• Alarm behavior:
  • Advisory when deviation exceeds warning band
  • Critical when deviation exceeds trip band
  • Critical alarms blink until the zone returns to a safe state
• Scoring:
  • Earn points every second for system stability
  • Lose points for warning and critical alarms
  • Bonus for finishing with all zones in range

Controls

• Mouse / Touch: Select a zone card or faceplate button
• Keyboard:
  • 1, 2, 3 open zone faceplates
  • Arrow Up / Arrow Down apply small trim to active zone
  • Shift + Arrow Up / Shift + Arrow Down apply large trim
  • R perform reset-to-target on active zone
  • Escape close faceplate
  • Space start or restart shift

Difficulty

• Medium
• Drift, coupling, and scoring are readable but demanding enough to require prioritization

UI / HMI Principles

• Light neutral background with muted panel tones
• No decorative alarm colors
• Static layout with motion only for meaningful alarm indication
• Clear engineering units and deviation bands
• One-click access to the alarm summary
• Consistent button types:
  • Navigation buttons
  • Process action buttons
  • Disabled states visibly muted

Technical Notes

• Single self-contained HTML file
• No build step required
• Plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Responsive layout for desktop and mobile
• Uses local storage for best score

Release Notes for v1.0.0

• Initial public release
• Three-zone supervisory control gameplay
• Overview, alarm summary, and faceplate workflow
• Responsive single-file interface with keyboard support