The hockey simulator you can play right at home OpenHockey Engine 2027 Edition

Training should be Fun and Affordable.

Hook up a projector and a webcam and your room becomes a rink. OpenHockey Engine finds exactly where your shot hit the screen and calls it - goal, save or miss - in Free Shoot, nine arcade games, or Golf for up to four players.

  • No spendy subscriptions
  • No in-game purchases
  • Just a one-time purchase of $25
  • 10 playable game modes
  • 5 goalie stances
  • $25 one-time purchase
  • 30 fps+ live puck tracking
How it works

3 steps from empty garage to your own simulator, right at home.

No sensors, no controllers, no launch monitor. A webcam watches the projected screen and the game works out exactly where your shot hit.

1

Set up your space

Hang a shooting tarp or screen, add netting, and give yourself room to shoot.

2

Set up your technology

Put the computer and projector outside the shooting area, point a webcam at the screen, and calibrate once.

3

Take the shot

Pick Free Shoot or an arcade game and start shooting. Every shot lands where you hit it.

Game modes

This Is Your Game. Train Your Way.

10 ways to play: Free Shoot for focused practice, plus 9 arcade games when you want a score and a clock. Golf seats up to four on one projector.

Free Shoot

Included

Choose Your Angle. Choose Your Goalie. Take Your Shot.

Practice shooting on a variety of goalies and angles.

  • Five shooting angles: Center, Left, Right, Goal Line Left, and Goal Line Right.
  • A variety of goalie poses as well as a shooter tutor.
  • Goals, misses, and saves counted live, with every shot marked where it landed.
Free Shoot mode showing a goalie in a high-glove save with impact markers over the net, and a HUD reading 10 goals, 3 misses, 5 saves.

Golf

Included

You've Never Golfed Like This

A golf hole played with pucks: where your shot hits the screen sets the aim and the distance. Play the lie you land in, sink the putt, and finish with the fewest strokes.

  • Six courses: Frozen Bend, Twin Lakes, Mirror Lake, River Carry, Sand Dunes and Island Hoppers.
  • One to four golfers on one projector, with the furthest from the hole playing next.
  • Play one course, or tick PLAY TOURNAMENT to string several together.
  • Rough halves your power, sand takes three quarters, and water costs a stroke.
  • Putting is a target: hit the bull to hole out, or the putt plays on from where it lands.
Four golfers on Frozen Bend's green: a red, blue, green and purple puck with a coloured ring each, and the roster showing all four names, their strokes and the distance each one still has to the hole.
The putting green: a translucent bullseye over the cup with the HUD reading TO PIN 4.5 m - PUTT, the +0 bull, the +1 ring and the +2 outer ring around the flag, and the puck waiting at the bottom of the frame.
Golf - the putting target
The tournament results: TOUR COMPLETE with final standings, each golfer's per-hole card and the winner named.
Tournament - final standings

Moving Target

Included

Hit the target before it disappears.

Targets pop up in the net and hold for a few seconds before they shrink away and appear somewhere new. Hit as many as you can before the clock runs out.

  • 30, 60 and 90-second rounds, plus an endless practice mode.
  • Easy, medium and hard change the mix of target sizes.
  • Consecutive hits build a multiplier up to x5; a miss resets it.
  • A local top-five board for every timed mode and difficulty.
Moving Target mode showing a bullseye target in the net with a scoring HUD reading 1,400 points, 45 seconds left, and a streak multiplier of 8.

Fastest Shot

Included

Five targets. One clock. Clear them all.

Five targets: one in each corner and one in the middle. Clear them all as fast as you can - the clock starts on your first shot, and that shot still counts.

  • 1-4 players, three rounds each and sixty seconds a round.
  • Turns run round-robin and the standings reorder after every round.
  • Your fastest single round is what goes on the board.
  • A round that does not clear in time is a DNF and carries no time.
Fastest Shot mid-match with five bullseye targets in the net and a scoreboard showing two players, three rounds, and their best times.

Cross 4

Included

Four in a row, played with pucks.

Four-in-a-row, played with pucks. Your shot picks the column, the disc drops into its lowest open slot, and you want four of your colour in a line.

  • Play the CPU or a friend hot-seat.
  • Easy takes wins, medium wins and blocks, hard adds positional play.
  • Four in a row wins in any direction; a full board is a draw.
Cross 4 four-in-a-row board standing on the ice, with red and blue discs filling the lower rows and a turn pill reading Drew.

Bowling

Included

Ten pins. One puck. No gutter talk.

Ten pins racked on the crease and a puck instead of a ball. Your shot plays from where it landed and the rack falls for real.

  • 1-4 bowlers on one score sheet.
  • Five frames for a quick game, or ten for the real thing.
  • Strikes, spares and tenth-frame bonus balls all count.
  • Local boards for both game lengths, under each bowler's name.
Bowling mode with a full rack of ten pins on the crease, a frame score sheet above the net, and turn pill reading Drew.

Whack-a-Mole

Included

Twelve holes. Three mascots. One quick puck.

Mascots pop out of twelve holes across the ice. Hit them before they duck, and aim for the back rows where the points are bigger.

  • 30, 60 and 90-second rounds, plus an endless practice mode.
  • Red panda 100, cat 150, penguin 250 - the bigger prize stays up for less time.
  • The farther back the row, the more it scores: x1 near, x2 middle, x3 far.
  • Consecutive hits build a multiplier up to x5; an empty hole resets it.
Whack-a-Mole with twelve holes laid out across the ice, a red panda and a cat popped up, and a scoreboard reading 1,200 points and a x2 streak.

Tug of War

Included

Two targets. One rope. Pull the line your way.

Every turn puts up two targets: a big one that pulls the rope one notch and a small one that pulls two. First to the score wins.

  • Play the CPU or a friend hot-seat, red versus blue.
  • Matches of 3, 5 or 7 pulls.
  • Easy, medium and hard change the target sizes, never the pull values.
  • A miss only wastes the turn - nothing is ever taken away.
Tug of War with the rope panel above the net reading first to 5, and two red bullseye targets marked 1 and 2 waiting for the shot.

Horse

Included

Set the target. Everyone else has to match it.

H-O-R-S-E on hockey targets. Hit a target to set it, then everyone else has to match it or take a letter.

  • 1-4 players; solo plays against the CPU.
  • Three or four targets a round, always one big and one tiny.
  • A hit locks the target in gold and clears the rest.
  • Five letters and you are out; the last player standing wins.
Horse round with the gold-haloed target locked in the net and the H-O-R-S-E scoreboard above, each player's newest letter highlighted.

Darts

Included

Wherever your shot lands is where your dart lands.

A dartboard on the wall, and your shot is the dart. Play 501, 301, Cricket or Around the Clock, solo or with a friend.

  • Four games: 501, 301, Cricket and Around the Clock.
  • 501 and 301 are straight out - land exactly on zero or bust.
  • Three darts a turn, 1-2 players hot-seat.
  • Solo runs keep a fewest-darts board per variant.
Darts 501 with the light bristle board on the wall, one dart in the treble 20 and one in the double 10, and the score panel reading 282 left to go.
The goalie

Learn to find the opening on a variety of goalies.

Free Shoot lets you pick the angle and the goalie. Find the open net here, then take it to the rink.

A goalie in a standing stance, square to the shooter with a high glove raised.
Standing
A goalie reaching high with the glove, covering the top of the net.
High Glove
A goalie dropped into the butterfly, pads flared to seal the ice.
Butterfly
A goalie dropped low and reaching across the crease.
Desperation Saves
A goalie rotated to the side of the net, hugging the post.
Tight To the Post
The Shooter Tutor board fitted inside the net, with impact markers over its aim targets and the Free Shoot HUD above.
Coaching in mind

Make every session count

Time your sessions with the coaching timer, work the Lifting the Puck drill up the net, or turn the net into aim points with the Shooter Tutor. Goals, misses and saves are counted as you go.

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See where you rank

Local leaderboards to face off against friends and family.

Every scored game keeps a top-five board on your PC, with a name on each run. Finish a round and see your rank, accuracy and best streak.

Results screen reading Time's Up, score 1,400, 10 hits, 83% accuracy, best streak 8, and third place on the board.
What you get

Let's make training fun.

Buy the 2027 Edition of OpenHockey Engine once, then play at home as much as you like.

Buy Now $25
  • The full game - no subscription and no in-game purchases.
  • Free Shoot: five shooting angles and a net full of goalie poses.
  • Nine arcade games: Golf, Moving Target, Fastest Shot, Cross 4, Bowling, Whack-a-Mole, Tug of War, Horse and Darts.
  • Golf with six courses and one to four golfers on one projector.
  • Local leaderboards with names and records, plus a shareable result card.
  • Every update released for the 2027 Edition.
Setup

Set up your simulator right at home.

4 steps between in and your first shot.

1

Install it

Use the installer to install and keep your game up to date. On first install, provide your key, which should have arrived via email or can be found by signing in on this website with the E-mail address used to purchase.

2

Set up your projector

Project your game screen onto a white projector screen or tarp.

3

Plug in the camera

A USB webcam. Open Camera Configuration and the game shows you a live preview of exactly what the camera sees. Mount it behind or beside you, aimed at your impact screen.

4

Calibrate the camera

The game turns the wall white, measures the projected area, and asks you to fit a box around it on a snapshot. That fit is saved and reused, so setup is one-time. A black puck on a bright projection gives the most accurate shot placement.

System requirements

Runs on hardware you already own.

OpenHockey Engine is built for consumer hardware. You do not need a commercial sim rig, a launch monitor, or a gaming PC. If your computer plays modern games at 1080p, it runs OpenHockey Engine.

Computer

Built to run on consumer hardware right at home. No need for a full launch-monitor simulator.

Component Minimum Recommended
Operating system Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 11 (64-bit)
Processor Intel Core i3-10100F / AMD Ryzen 3 2600 Intel Core i5-11500K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Memory 8 GB RAM 16 GB RAM
Graphics NVIDIA GTX 1650 / AMD Radeon RX 580 NVIDIA RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 6700
Storage 8 GB 8 GB
  • An SSD is strongly recommended over a hard drive for load times.
  • Hardware from 2019 or newer is recommended for Unity 6.
  • DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 required.
  • Android and iOS builds use the same camera pipeline with the device camera; the Windows installer is the supported home setup.

Minimum and recommended PC specs based on Unity 6 requirements. It is recommended you play on hardware that is 7 years or newer.

Camera

A USB webcam, nothing special. The game watches the projected screen and sees where the puck hits.

Type A USB webcam - 720p or better
Frame rate 30+ fps (Windows processes at 1280x720; 60 fps tracks hard shots best)
Exposure Automatic - it exposes for the bright projection, so the puck reads dark
Budget A $25-60 1080p webcam is generally fine
  • Mount it beside the net with the whole net in view, aimed at the screen - not behind the shooter.
  • The in-game preview shows exactly what the game sees, so you can fine-tune placement yourself.
  • Set IMPACT SURFACE on the camera page to match what the puck hits: a soft sheet, a tarp, a shooting screen or a solid wall.
  • On Android and iOS the device camera replaces the USB webcam.

Projector

A projector puts the game on the wall. Aim for at least 3,000 lumens; a brighter picture is easier for the camera to read and makes everything sharper.

A hockey shot travels faster and flatter than a golf ball. Mount your projector behind or above your shooting lane — never in it.

Throw ratio Standard throw mounted behind or above, or short-throw close to the screen but out of the shooting area
Brightness 2,500–3,000 lumens for a dim room · 3,000–4,000 with windows or ambient light
Resolution 1080p is plenty — 4K optional
Latency Low input lag, so the impact registers when it happens
  • Budget: BenQ TH671ST — 1080p, 3,000 lumens, the long-time sim-community favourite.
  • Best value: Optoma GT2100HDR — laser, 4,200 lumens, 0.496:1 throw.
  • 4K: BenQ TK710STi — 4K, 3,000 lumens.

Example consumer projectors and approximate street prices, September 2026. No affiliate links.

Room and space

How much room you need to set up your shooting area.

Projection area 8 feet wide projection recommended
Shooting distance Shoot from at least 10 to 20 feet back
Surface Contact rated projection screen, tarp, or 10 mil polyethylene plastic.
  • Light can impact your projection quality. A dimmer room or simulation enclosure can improve game quality.
FAQ

Questions before you buy

What do I need to play?

A Windows 10 or 11 PC, a projector, a USB webcam and something to shoot at. That is the whole list. If your computer plays modern games at 1080p, it runs OpenHockey Engine.

Do I need to buy a projector or camera?

Only if you do not already have one. A $25 webcam and a budget projector are enough to start; better hardware gives you a bigger, brighter picture.

Does it need to be online?

Only to activate your key the first time and to check for updates.

How do the editions work?

OpenHockey Engine is a yearly release. Each edition adds modes, courses and improvements over the last one. There is no subscription and there are no in-game purchases: an edition you own is yours to keep and play offline.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. Contact support within 14 days of your purchase and we will refund it - you do not need to give a reason. The key is revoked when the refund completes, so the game stops working with it.

Can I try it before buying?

Yes. Choose Try it free in the installer and you get Free Shoot at two angles with two goalies, plus camera setup and calibration. Add a key later and the same install upgrades in place; your camera setup, names and boards are kept.

Which modes are included?

Free Shoot plus nine arcade games: Golf, Moving Target, Fastest Shot, Cross 4, Bowling, Whack-a-Mole, Tug of War, Horse and Darts. Golf has six courses and seats up to four golfers.

Can I play with someone else?

Yes. Golf, Fastest Shot, Bowling and Horse take 1-4 players, and Cross 4, Tug of War and Darts take 1-2. Play hot-seat on the same projector, or take on the CPU in Cross 4, Tug of War and Horse. Moving Target and Whack-a-Mole are solo score chases.

Are the leaderboards online?

No. They live on your PC, need no account and work offline. Each scored game keeps its own top-five board with a name on every run.

Turn your home into your own training facility.

Plug in a projector, point a webcam at the screen, and take your first shot tonight.

Buy Now $25