Pools is an eerie walking sim with no dialogue, characters, or story
Are you alone?
- Walk around a creepy space where listening to sounds is important
- No story, characters, or UI to guide you
- Inspired by liminal space and Backrooms Poolrooms imagery
Pools is finally stepping out of the water and onto Apple devices. Tensori has just announced that its eerie, minimalist exploration experience will arrive on the App Store and Mac App Store in November, supporting Universal Purchase across iPhone, iPad, Mac and even Apple Vision Pro.
It’s the kind of release that feels perfectly suited to mobile, something you can slip into anywhere. Whether you're in bed, on a train, or waiting for a flight, Pools turns your screen into a maze of concrete corridors and still water. You’ll always have this uneasy feeling of being somewhere you shouldn’t be.
The anxiousness is heightened thanks to a lack of UI, dialogue, and music. Just sound and space. Every step, echo, and splash changes with your surroundings, creating a deeply realistic sense of place. Moving through water slows you down, empty rooms feel wider, heavier. The concept sounds simple enough, but it’s probably quite unnerving because there’s tension in the air for no real reason.
And if that wasn’t enough, Pools features no story or characters to guide you. You can only depend on rooms that shift and reconfigure as you explore. Each chapter reveals a different mood and a different texture. More than discovering, it’s more about letting the environment in. And if you're looking for something similar, here’s a list of the best horror games for iPhone!
Drawing from liminal space, found footage, and Backrooms Poolrooms imagery, Pools distils horror into isolation. Your journey is spread across six chapters, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes each. They don’t feature monsters, jump scares, or any of the standard tropes. There’s nothing chasing you except the feeling of being lost somewhere that’s too silent for comfort.
So, when Pools surfaces on November 6th, you can join with your headphones and a quiet sense that maybe, just maybe, you're not alone.
