POOLS News

This Friday, 26th April 2024, POOLS will be released on Steam. We are excited to invite you to a live event on the same day, starting around 19:30 which will be held in Moi restaurant in Beijing, China. Giveaway and limited edition gifts will be hand out at the same time.

Restaurant will be closed for the duration for the event, 19:30 - 22:00 Beijing time. Game will be released after the event, around 22:00-23:00 Beijing time.

Event is free to attend, food and drinks can be bought the restaurant during the event.

Big thank you to Jiayi Li for generously organizing the event, and Vesa Niskanen from Moi restaurant for generously providing the restaurant for the event.

I have a rule: no more than one post about a horror game per day. The mind can only withstand so much, after all. But POOLS isn't really a horror game. It's just a walking simulator in which you explore a bunch of underground swimming pools. True, their size and layout defy explanation - what is this, a swimming pool for Slender Men? - but look, there are cute covered slides you can ride down in first-person. You know, like the ones you used to enjoy as a kid. Always that element of anxiety though about getting stuck halfway down, am I right?

Read more

Here are the changes from yesterdays update (and from 2 previous ones we forgot to mention here)

March 29th Changelog:

• Added teaser video to Demo (spoilers from chapters 2-6)
  
• Player leaves puddles of water behind after exiting pool
  
• Dropping water makes sounds after exiting pool
  
• Slower movement speed on stairs
  
• Added subtle camera shaking
  
• Made head bobbing into a slider instead of toggle
  
• Added DLSS upscaling support
  
• Added collision audio to floating rubber ducks
  
• Added far depth of field distance dynamic adjustment
  
• Added some translations to settings / credits menus
  
• Updated settings menu dropdown styling
  

March 19th Changelog:

• Added "route number signs" around the level (we'd appreciate feedback on this)
  
• Fixed a bug where you could clip through map behind the red slide
  
• Added automatic rewind as a backup if player ever falls through map
  
• Fixed clipping through walls
  
• Limited framerate to 30 during MainMenu and LoadingScene
  
• No footstep sounds / bobbing when moving against wall
  
• Added "None" to lighting settings for very low end computers
  
• Disabled spawning exit signs
  

March 11st Changelog:

• interactable water (can be set off for performance)
  
• brightness setting
  
• chromatic aberration setting
  
• lens distortion setting
  
• vhs film grain setting
  
• anti-aliasing setting
  
• ambient occlusion setting
  
• lighting adjustments
  

Wohoo let's have a POOL-party !

All 6 chapters are now ready and we are now busy doing a lot of polishing and finishing touches.

POOLS will be released after 30 days - on 26th April.

Exact time:
17:00 / 5pm EET / Eastern European Time / Helsinki, Finland
11:00 / 11am EDT / Eastern Daylight Time / New York, USA
23:00 / 11pm Beijing, China
00:37 / 12:37am Tokyo, Japan / Seoul, South Korea

PS. We made a countdown on the games website:
poolsthegame.com

Yesterday we made a quick update, main reason was that it was possible to get stuck on some areas. It's frustrating to get stuck ːsteamfacepalmː This should hopefully fix it!

Changelog:

• Fixed a bug where player can get stuck in the bottom of the large hole
  
• Add air vents around the level
  
• Spawn exit signs after a while to help navigate if lost
  
• Unusable ladders get visually broken now
  
• Ducks in labyrinth floating, previously stationary
  
• Added "back" button to in-game settings menu
  
• Added colliders to prevent player from going out of bounds