The creepy atmosphere of POOLS will see official VR support later this year on Steam.
The project from Tensori carries "overwhelmingly positive" recent reviews and the game's publisher reached out to UploadVR with news of the release window for the VR version on PC. The team revealed today with UploadVR that POOLS VR is coming later this year. We premiered a trailer on the UploadVR YouTube channel and asked the developers for a statement about their overall intent.
On Steam, POOLS is described as "an art gallery where you look around and listen to the sounds. There are very few things to solve, practically a few mazes. Sometimes the game can challenge your navigation skills. But mostly you're just... there."
While visiting POOLS might create a feeling of unease in players, the developers are careful to note there are no monsters or jump scares in the project, though "the game can feel oppressive."
"POOLS plays on fears of getting lost, the dark, and tight spaces."
POOLS released widely on Steam in April this year and was followed by a Steam Deck update in June, along with a collaboration with indie game label UNIKAT.
I asked POOLS' developers what it was like to actually go 'there' for the first time in a VR headset. Here's the statement from three of the creators sent to us over email:
Antti: I personally consider POOLS largely an exercise in atmosphere. Since there are almost no traditional gameplay elements, we could focus almost exclusively on the atmosphere itself = producing a very immersive experience, filled with detail and contrast. And the sound design; the amount of effort we spent on footstep sounds alone is a lot, I mean different feet, different surfaces, stairs, different depths of water, room size and so on produce slightly different sounds, and in addition there's subtle randomness to it too. When keep thinking in the same direction - what could we possibly do to push this immersion / atmosphere even further? VR seems like a logical conclusion.
Sami: During the initial VR tests for this game, I was most impressed by how VR enhances the scale of the environments. VR felt like an obvious and a natural extension of the game and for the feeling of being present. As to why bring the game to VR? For me personally, one of my goals in game development is to build and release a VR game. I’m a fan of VR gaming. Bringing POOLS to VR was a great opportunity to accumulate new skills and experiences. Our game also felt like a perfect fit for VR - both as a game and as our first test case of VR development. Also, our players have been asking for VR ever since we release our demo before the game has come out.
Joni: When I first time hopped in the VR mode, Sami had already been working with it for a little while so I got to try the almost fully functional version. I remember just thinking that the VR mode really is its own complete experience and I genuinely want to play it even after all the hours spent playing and testing POOLS. It gives the game an all new feel.
You can check out POOLS now on Steam for more information and the project is listed as on the way for PlayStation VR2 headsets as well.
