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.
Poolscape will launch with SIXÂ levels, some unique to this game, and others will be familiar to anyone who knows Poolrooms lore. One additional level is planned to be added post-launch as a free update!
Level 1: Classic Poolrooms - A linear, by-the-books Poolrooms experience. White tiles, soft marble, 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 the retro-styled atmosphere of this crazy world.
Level 2: The 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.
Level 3: Dreampools - The most euphoric environment in Poolscape. Bright open areas, matte-colored tiles, and tall palm trees give players the feeling of wandering through a dream. Surely nothing is watching you… right?
Level 4: Dark Poolrooms - Drenched in almost total darkness, the Dark Poolrooms plunge players into the most tense and unnerving level seen in Poolscape. Massive endless chasms, thick black fog, and blood-tinted pools keep the atmosphere heavy and the anxiety constant.
Level 5: Nostalgia Springs -Â Inspired by the Neon Springs from the "Lost in the Hyperverse" YouTube series, this level features 80s-themed, mall-like aesthetics. Purple, neon blue, and hot-pink lighting fill unnaturally arranged foliage courts and massive rooms lined with multicolored tiles and marble pillars.
Level 6: Oceanscape - Heavily inspired by the ocean environment in "The Backrooms: Lost Tape," this level drops players into a calm, breezy ocean that includes strange sculptures, structures, and floating platforms. Everything seems too perfect to be real here.
Level 7: TBA (Future Update)
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.
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 unique ambience and set pieces to spice up the gameplay and keep you invested.
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 interactable notes within each level that will give Poolscape its own lore.
