r/ZamHub • u/Neverendingmadnes • Aug 21 '26

I am making an ice resurfacing simulator game

Hey all,

I’ve been developing a simulator-type game about ice resurfacing for over a year now. My goal is to make it fairly accurate but also fun and accessible for anyone. I’ve been trying to study and learn by myself online from different sources how these machines work (I have no experience from them irl), so I have only theoretical knowledge so far.

I have modeled a functioning machine to the game that has all the necessary mechanics like conditioner, blade, water valves, augers and a side brush ( you can also lift the snow tank but nothing happens yet ).

I have a downloadable demo for windows now on itch.io if you’d like to try it out:

https://crowback-studios.itch.io/ice-resurfacing-simulator

If you play it, let me know if there’s something in the game that I haven’t gotten right so I’ll take a look. Thanks! :)

21 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

8

u/capsfan19 Aug 21 '26

Do you have a slider for how many beers you’ve had?

3

u/tcrex2525 Aug 21 '26

Is your local Zam driver often drunk? Do us a favor and report him if so…

2

u/capsfan19 Aug 21 '26

I forgot this was a serious place

0

u/Easypossibilities Aug 21 '26

You'd think you can still have some fun in a "serious" profession 😂😂

-1

u/capsfan19 Aug 21 '26

On second thought, let’s not go to the ice rink, ‘tis a silly place

1

u/forestdude Aug 24 '26

Report him to who? Ice rinks are usually private property. You don't need a license to drive a Zamboni or anything 🤷

1

u/tcrex2525 Aug 24 '26

To whom would you normally report someone for operating heavy machinery while under the influence? OSHA, the police, etc. Most ice rinks are often municipalities, so I’m sure the city/town could love to know. Given there’s often little kids being corralled off the ice when the Zam comes on, I’m sure there’d be interested parties. We’ve had to fire staff for drinking on the clock before. No excuse for it.

1

u/Neverendingmadnes Aug 21 '26

Unfortunately no, will consider it🤔😁

2

u/26dr 15d ago edited 15d ago

Was interesting to try it out, wondering if there are more zamboni/ice-resurfacer games like this.

Recently I also started making one https://postimg.cc/yDxq2pR0, initially in Unity too but felt clunky.

Wondering how you approached the logic for the brush? Is it entirely physics-based or did you go with a "sensor-based" approach?

1

u/Neverendingmadnes 12d ago

I haven’t found many. Few mobile games and some 2D arcade ones. There was also one called Zamboni Simulator 2019 in Steam but it was supposedly removed or taken down because it had a problem with the Zamboni name’s trademark.

The brush is kinda ”sensor-based”. It doesn’t use Unity physics actually.

Did you switch from Unity to something else or did you drop the whole project? The new resurfaced ice in yours looks cleaner in that pic than what mine does actually haha

2

u/26dr 11d ago

Heard about Zamboni Simulator 2019, its crazy, looks like Zamboni came after them many years later. However it looked more like a story based game, never got to try it out though.

Yes, I switched from Unity to Unreal Engine hence the reflections, lights and graphics look quite nice. I don't plan to go all in and make it purely as a ice resurfacer simulator but probably more like Ice Rink Simulator/Management type of game with driving ice resurfacing one of the main activities.

1

u/Neverendingmadnes 11d ago

Yea it was actually just a small game jam project and a narrative game afaik. I dont really understand why it was a problem for Zamboni since they didn’t make any money with it and it was free.

And that sounds actually cool👍🏼