Poolscape (Demo)
A downloadable game for Windows
Poolscape focuses on immersing players in the nostalgia of classic PSX gameplay through authentic ’90s-styled visuals and quirks such as color dithering, vertex snapping, and distance culling rather than aiming for ultra-realism like most liminal space games on the market. Explore many unique Poolrooms levels, each offering its own atmospheric sound design and map layout, blending isolated, euphoric exploration with subtle horror elements that are heightened by the visual and technical limitations of original PS1-era hardware.
DEMO LEVELS
- Level 1: Classic Poolrooms - Endlessly repeating tiles and fake skylights form the comforting yet uncanny liminal space you’d expect from a classic Poolrooms environment. This is a straightforward level that is designed to introduce players to this retro-styled Poolrooms experience!
- Level 2: The Aquatic Megastructure - In this level, you’ll find yourself in a huge, brutalist facility that is impossibly vast. The large industrial walls are meant to evoke a feeling of megalophobia, as this is the largest and most expansive environment in all of Poolscape.
- The full game will release with 6 levels, and will feature two more sometime post launch as a free update!
GAMEPLAY
- Poolscape is an exploration-based walking simulator that is meant to let players relax, listen to some aquatic music, and wander this retro rendition of the Poolrooms. However, each level will have a unique ambience and set pieces to keep the gameplay fresh and bring replay value for multiple playthroughs!
- Poolscape also features a Weirdcore-inspired entity. This entity will not harm the player, but it will keep a close eye on the player throughout each level.
- There are secret items and secret areas that can be discovered in each level. Careful exploration will be rewarded!
- Players will find notes within each level that will give Poolscape its own lore.
- Some levels will include light platforming sections. These sections have a very forgiving respawn mechanic, so no worries if you happen to fall into an endless abyss!
FEATURES
- A central "hub" area that replaces a traditional main menu. This area includes waterslides that will take the player to each level!
- An original soundtrack which will include many different ambient tracks to enhance the liminal atmosphere further.
- Accurate PSX-era graphics. This includes low-res textures, low-poly models, color dithering, pixelation, vertex snapping, distance culling, and distance fog.
- There is an optional VHS filter that can be applied to the player by interacting with the VHS Tape in the Sky Pools, giving the game a Puppet Combo-inspired look!
Download
Install instructions
After downloading, simply extract the folder. Once in the file, run the "poolscape_exe.exe" file and you are good to go!
Development log
- Official Trailer for Poolscape!1 day ago
- Poolscape Demo v1.02!20 days ago
- Poolscape - The Poolrooms as a PSX-styled game!43 days ago
Comments
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thanks for playing :)
Absolutely great game. The demo is superb!
Really appreciate that, thank you so much! More to come :)
thank you so much, I will watch that tonight!
Amazing, truly. Can't wait for a full realease.
Very much appreicated, thank you so much :)
What a solid poolrooms/backrooms demo this was! Loved each of the levels featured in this one especially the one with the big open spaces. Felt really eerie and felt like whatever that monster is was about to jump out at me! Cannot wait to see what the other levels have in store in the full game! Made a video on it.
I watched the video! thank you so much for playing, I am happy you enjoyed. I can't wait for you to check out the full release
This is easily one of the best poolroom games I've ever played, and the fact that there are so many more levels to come already has me very excited for the full release.
The scale of the setting was incredible, I did audibly gasp at how vast some of these spaces were and the sheer number of options for which direction to take made it even more impressive. The PSX style graphics really work well, everything looks fantastic and the classic poolrooms set works well with that design. Plus that slight distortion the further away something is adds a little uncertainty to exploration; there were times where I wasn't sure what I was looking at, which made me feel a bit uneasy going into the dark spaces. Definitely eager to see how the other levels turn out. And that sound design is immaculate! I really appreciate how much time you leave things quiet with only our footsteps/water splashes echoing, but when those ambient tracks did hit they were incredibly powerful. You hit the perfect balance of wonder and discomfort with that soundtrack.
Also that entity design is amazing, mostly because I have no idea what it looks like. The first time I saw it I wasn't even sure if I'd actually seen something, then the second time I knew something was there but it was such a brief glimpse that all I could really make out was the colour red. My brain cannot assign a recognisable shape to it which somehow makes me want to see more and less of it, very intrigued to see how it's implemented into future levels.
I did encounter one potential bug where the jump button wouldn't work which did leave me stuck once or twice until I restarted but other than that the controls were smooth and intuitive so I could just focus on soaking up the atmosphere.
Overall I absolutely love this game so much, it is now one of my favourites and I cannot wait to see the full release.
You have no idea how much that means to me, thank you so much. May I ask, what were the circumstances when you encountered the jump bug? None of my play testers or I have noticed that :')
Both times it happened were in the algae water room. When I first entered it after starting the level I walked into the regular water and then couldn't jump to get out. Second time was when I had got to the other side of that room and I was trying to enter that giant tunnel at the end of it but again the jump button stopped working so I couldn't get over that little step. It worked normally again each time after restarting the level, and I loved walking through this so much that I did not mind going through it again at all 😁
I am going to give this a watch soon. Thanks so much for playing and I am glad you enjoyed :)
This game proves that even a simple idea can result in a great final product, as long as that idea is original! I enjoyed wandering around these increasingly hostile places, and in addition to the well-made and well-designed game, the interface and everything else is great too. I can't wait for the full version to come out, and now I'm giving you five well-deserved stars!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I am really happy you enjoyed it. I will most definitely check your game out :)
Thank you too! If you want, leave a review :)