While the Suez Canal crisis is officially over, gamers will get a chance to try navigating it for themselves this month in Suez Canal Simulator. The game was announced just days after the Suez Canal was blocked by the Evergreen Marine Corporation-owned Ever Given container ship. It made news around the world for halting the crucial international trade route and was featured in countless memes afterward.

The game is being developed by Jason Dial and his company Digital Light Foundation, who have not released any major games on the Steam platform yet. The game is described as a journey that will give players "an understanding of what to expect on the real journey." Suez Canal Simulator will also feature 1:1 replica timings and environments – if the player doesn't speed anything up, it will take the same 14 hours to cross the Suez Canal, just as long as real life.

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The game will launch with 600 km of explorable area, including the Suez Canal and portions of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and the developer wants to expand this concept even more in the months to come. However, Suez Canal Simulator will also have extensive modding support, and the developer is actively looking for modders and content developers to join the team and create more assets for the game.

Plans for the future of the game include implementing a multiplayer mode, adding a wider selection of sea vessels and customizability, and adding more data-driven user interface elements (such as Time At Sea and Distance Traveled trackers). The developer already has their sights on future releases, though, as they plan to release Panama Canal Simulator in August 2021.

Suez Canal Simulator is meant to be an educational game, one that teaches players about the arduous trip through the canal and educates them on exactly what went wrong with the Ever Given situation. While the game's description says players might be able to teach real-life sailors a thing or two after playing the game, it's not recommended to sail the ocean blue without proper training.

Suez Canal Simulator looks like it will run on just about any PC and on most modern laptops as it has low graphics requirements. Even though the Ever Given eventually was dislodged from the Suez Canal, Suez Canal Simulator will let players experience the thrill of crashing a container ship for themselves.

Suez Canal Simulator releases on April 20th, 2021 on Steam.

MORE: The Best Video Game Suez Canal Stuck Ship Memes

Source: Digital Light Foundation