Pelle Boy: Snow Plow Saga

The Most Montreal Game You Will Play This Winter

If you have lived through a Montreal winter, you already know the rhythm: the orange parking ban signs go up the morning after a storm, the sidewalks disappear under three feet of slush, and somewhere in your neighbourhood a yellow Ville de Montréal snow plow is methodically pushing the entire season into a wall in front of your driveway. Pelle Boy: Snow Plow Saga is a love letter to that exact feeling — except this time, you are the one behind the wheel.

Built as a free browser game (no download, no signup, plays on phone or laptop), Pelle Boy puts you in the driver seat of a city snow plow during 12 escalating storms across recognisable Montreal neighbourhoods — from a quiet Plateau side street, through Outremont mansion rows, all the way to a chaotic blizzard run on Pie-IX Boulevard. Your goal is simple: clear enough of the road within the time limit. The catch? Every shovel of snow you push has to go somewhere — and if that somewhere is a resident’s driveway, expect a 311 call before the next intersection.

What Makes Pelle Boy Different

How to Play Pelle Boy

Pelle Boy uses the same control scheme as classic top-down driving games — but with one extra mechanic that is unique to snow plowing.

• Arrow keys or WASD — drive the plow forward, backward, and steer.
• Space — emergency brake. Useful on icy intersections and when you spot a buried driveway forming.
• Q — tilt the blade left. All snow will be pushed to the left side of the plow.
• E — tilt the blade right. Snow pushes right.
• Default (no Q or E held) — blade is straight. Snow is split evenly to both sides, which is fine on wide boulevards but devastating in suburban driveway-lined streets.
• R — restart the current level. Esc — return to the level select.

The real skill is learning when to switch blade direction. On a one-sided street like Verdun Riverside, where all the driveways are on the south side, you want to push snow north (Q held). On a symmetric block like Outremont Mansion Row, you have to keep flipping the blade depending on which way you are facing — or you will bury a driveway every other intersection.

A Quick (and Loving) History of Montreal Snow Removal

Montreal runs one of the largest urban snow-clearing operations in North America. According to the City of Montreal, a typical winter sees crews remove the equivalent of 12 million cubic metres of snow — enough to fill the Olympic Stadium roughly six times. The process is called Opération de déneigement, and it kicks in automatically when snowfall exceeds 2.5 cm. The first pass plows everything to the curb. Then, within five days, a much larger operation lifts that piled snow into dump trucks and hauls it to one of 28 designated snow dumps around the island.

The orange parking ban signs you see appear around eight hours before a snow-removal crew arrives on your street. Move your car, or it gets towed to a holding lot in the middle of nowhere — usually with a $109+ ticket and a $148 towing fee waiting for you. Pelle Boy does not simulate the tow truck (yet), but it absolutely captures the desperation of a plow operator trying to clear a packed street at 3am while balancing the needs of grumpy neighbours.

Levels Inspired by Real Neighbourhoods

• Level 1 — Plateau Side Street: a gentle introduction with infinite angry-resident tolerance. Practice your blade angles here.
• Level 4 — Outremont Mansion Row: only 3 angry residents allowed. Long driveways, strict standards.
• Level 5 — Verdun Riverside: long stretch of road, lots of one-sided driveways. Great for chaining blade-left runs.
• Level 9 — Old Montreal Cobblestones: tighter map, narrow corridors, expensive cobblestones that make every collision feel costly.
• Level 11 — Snow Storm Surprise: visibility-reducing blizzard layer. Headlights only, basically.
• Level 12 — ULTIMATE: Le Plateau Entier: the full Plateau grid, with buildings, side streets, and 90% clearing target. Score 3 stars here and you have officially graduated from Pelle Boy school.

Tips From a Lapsed Plow Driver

If you keep failing on the early levels, the issue is almost always the blade. Most new players leave it straight by default, which means every snow cell you clear gets pushed half-left and half-right — straight into the driveways on both sides of the road. Instead:

• Look at the map before you start. Where are the driveways? Push the opposite way.
• If you absolutely must push toward a driveway, slow down. The blade clears snow proportional to your speed; slower passes pile less.
• On wide multi-lane streets like NDG Suburbia or Pie-IX Boulevard, do the centre lane with blade straight, then the outer lanes pushing inward. Snow gets piled on the centre — no driveways to bury.
• Backing up into a snow pile does nothing. Always plow forward.

Pelle Boy FAQ

Related Montreal Winter Reads

Pelle Boy is a free fan-made game made with love for Montreal. We have no affiliation with the Ville de Montréal — though we are happy to take pointers on blade angles.