Pools

Pools is a first-person exploration game set in a surreal network of empty indoor water facilities. The player walks through abandoned, echoing spaces filled with shallow water, tiled walls, and artificial lighting. There are no objectives, enemies, or dialogue—only movement and observation. The atmosphere is shaped by the scale of the environment and the repetition of patterns, making each corridor and chamber feel both familiar and strange. The lack of context invites the player to keep moving forward, even without knowing why.

Sound, Light, and Spatial Dissonance

The game relies heavily on its audio and visual design to build mood. The only sounds come from footsteps, water splashes, and distant mechanical hums. Light sources cast long reflections across the flooded floors, sometimes revealing structural changes or new paths. As players explore deeper, the architecture subtly shifts—ceilings lower, pools get darker, and rooms stretch in unnatural ways. These changes are not meant to guide, but to unsettle, slowly distorting the player’s sense of direction and time.

No Interface, No Instructions, Just Movement

Pools removes all user interface elements. There are no markers, health bars, or text prompts. Navigation is based entirely on memory, environmental cues, and curiosity. The game is divided into six large chapters, each with its own theme and layout. Some sections are tight and claustrophobic; others are wide, with echoing sound and empty space. The world doesn’t loop or reset—it progresses as the player does, leading to areas that become stranger and more abstract the longer one continues.

Core Elements of Pools:

• First-person exploration with no combat or dialogue
• Six distinct chapters with environmental progression
• Emphasis on sound design, lighting, and architecture
• Absence of UI, tasks, or guidance
• Designed to evoke tension through subtle changes

The longer the player spends inside the concrete corridors and tiled halls, the more unnatural the familiar begins to feel. What begins as a clean, quiet facility becomes a maze where space bends slightly and scale begins to lie. The experience encourages players to walk, listen, and pay attention to how the world shifts around them without offering any answers or explanations.