Great Lakes Simulator PC game lets players drive freighters from Port Huron to Duluth

With the new PC game Great Lakes Simulator, players can sail the full length of Lake Huron and Lake Superior on a virtual freighter for an immersive experience.

The shorelines in the game aren’t randomized, they’re shorelines seen in real life. The ships players pass are real ships and the cities passed are ones real freighters pass by every day.

“Port Huron is of course in the game,” said game developer Jason Dial of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Great Lakes Simulator will be available on Steam, a video game digital distribution service, Dec. 15. Dial said he has spent 500 to 600 hours working on the game which he created in a 1-to-1 scale to make it feel as real as possible.

Players can drive freighters the full 750-mile distance from Duluth, Minnesota, to Port Huron. At scale speeds in real time, a round trip journey takes days to complete but in the game players can compress and pause time, taking the journey 10 minutes at a time.

Players can navigate the lakes at night using nothing but lights. They can journey through blinding snow and intense thunderstorms, meet ships along the way and take care to avoid collisions. They can watch for traffic and lighthouses or watch the sun rise and set over the Great Lakes.

“The ships of course are the star of everything,” Dial said.

He said this game isn’t a traditional, action-packed game one might find on Steam. Traveling on the lakes is a lot of waiting for time and distance to pass, so this is for people who want a “quick getaway,” people who have 10 minutes before they need to go pick up their kids and can load up the game.

“Boom, there you are in the middle of Lake Huron,” Dial said.

He said this concept is unique and “nichey.” It was inspired by the concept of ship chasers and the whole ecosystem of the ships, with Dial himself a fan of Great Lakes freighters.

In fact, it was on his bucket list to make it to Port Huron and see them with his own eyes, so last July he and his dog Lewis drove to the city to give him more authority for the game.

“We swam in Lake Huron with the freighters,” he said.

In Great Lakes Simulator, players can start south of Port Huron, go under the Blue Water Bridge and into Lake Huron. Dial worked hard on the positioning of the buoys and range lights and included Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, he said.

Read More:

• St. Clair County Health Department October restaurant inspections

• First marijuana lawsuit against Port Huron has June 2022 trial date

• Two people injured after shots fired in downtown Port Huron Sunday

He said there are a lot of people interested in the game already with hundreds already asking to be alerted when it releases on Steam. He is still fine-tuning pricing, but Dial said the game will be under $20.

As time progresses he plans to add new ships to the game, eventually allowing players to navigate real ships and communicate with other players in the game.

“It helps with the immersion of it all,” he said.

Contact Bryce Airgood at (810) 989-6202 or bairgood@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Great Lakes Simulator lets people drive freighters to Port Huron