August 29th, 2023 – The Black Pool launches into early access on Steam.
The Black Pool is a 3d action roguelike to be played solo or preferably with up to 3 of your friends. Each attempt to make it back home will take you through a gauntlet of different worlds. You will discover different elements, abilities, and upgrades. Striking visuals, an electrifying soundtrack, and high pace / skilled action will plunge you into each attempt to battle your way out.
The game state when releasing into Early Access
Nearly all the planned base features of the game have been developed. Currently, the game features:
• The fully developed playthrough sequence, allowing the game to be played start to finish in both single player and multiplayer up to 4 players.
• 8 unique worlds, 6 of which are utilized in the random portion of the playthrough sequence.
• 29 unique levels which dynamically adjust based on procedural selection.
• 7 different elemental schools (Fire, Light, Ice, Decay, Terra, Wind, Lightning) consisting of 42 unique abilities.
• 77 unique upgrades for the various abilities.
• 12 upgradeable device powers which enhance player progression across playthrough attempts.
• 31 unique enemies, including 8 unique multi-stage boss encounters.
• Original musical score consisting of 6 dynamically arranged tracks which progress with the playthrough sequence, and 7 shuffled music tracks for the Temple hub world.
• 2 multi-tier endgame challenge modes (3 options for each).
• Recovery for disconnected/uncompleted playthrough sessions in both single and multiplayer.
More about the Game
The Black Pool has taken you to a remote and unknown galactic system. Make your way across a number of diverse and randomized worlds to try and make it back home.
Throughout your journey, you will learn to master supernatural elemental abilities. Carefully select powers from a pool of dozens, complimenting existing abilities and those of your friends. Strategically upgrade these abilities to maximize your potential. There are thousands of possibilities, can you become powerful enough to face what lies ahead?
THE JOURNEY HOME
In each attempt to return home, you will traverse across a random sequence of highly diverse worlds. Throughout the journey, you will unlock supernatural abilities from randomly selected sets of elements, and upgrade these selected abilities from a set of randomly offered options. This procedural sequence of worlds and offerings of abilities and upgrades yields a highly replayable roguelike sequence. Each playthrough presents a randomized set of choices that ensures that every session is completely unique. Committing to decisions and improvising an effective build is core to the game.
IMPROVE WITH EACH ATTEMPT
With each attempt you will learn how enemies behave and what their weaknesses are. You will learn how each of these supernatural abilities work and synergistic ways to use abilities together. In addition, you unlock enhancements that are permanent and persist across playthrough attempts.
BRING A FRIEND
While you can try and make it on your own, it may be more fun to bring a friend or three. The Black Pool has been designed to maximize the cooperative multiplayer experience. Many of the abilities contain game mechanics that deliver fun and rewarding interactions between players. Redirect friendly attacks, amplify team spells, coordinate stuns and team buffs, create barriers, and much more. In The Black Pool, co-op play can be much more than simply playing the same game together— you are rewarded for actually working together to be successful.
About Smug Marmot Studios
Smug Marmot is an indie studio of two. The developers have been friends for over 25 years, initially uniting over our passion for video games. Even when living on opposite sides of the earth, they were always looking for that next great co-op game to play together. They left their corporate jobs to self-fund their dream game. It was paramount that the game was to be made free of the toxic elements they hate about the gaming industry (Profit-first design, DRM, running as a service that can be shutdown, micro transactions, loot boxes, etc.)
The Black Pool is the second game being released by the studio. Exodus Borealis was the first game. It has been well received, with a 93% positive rating on Steam.
Steam Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2189670/The_Black_Pool/
Media Contact: mike@SmugMartmot.com