Bonneville Spillway Operator puts you in charge of dam operations on the Columbia River. Balance hydropower generation, downstream flood risk, fish-passage requirements, and reservoir storage across changing inflow scenarios. Engineering-accurate within a stylized interface.
Each turn (one day or one week, depending on time-step): observe inflow forecast and reservoir level, choose spillway gate openings and turbine flow. Generate revenue from power, lose points for flood-stage exceedance downstream and missed fish-ladder windows. Ten-year campaign rewards consistent balance.
Stylized after the real Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River (Cascade Locks, OR). Reservoir geometry, turbine count, and spillway capacity follow public USACE data; tradeoffs between objectives are real-world.
Spring snowmelt with high salmon-run flow requirements: high inflow forces spill, but the regulatory floor for fish passage limits spillway openings. Dam managers face this every May–June.
Ten-year campaign awards a "career bronze/silver/gold" based on aggregate performance. Going golden requires anticipating inflow uncertainty rather than reacting.
Soft-fail only — overtopping or spillway overload triggers a critical penalty and ends the campaign. The model does not simulate physical breach.