I released an indoor pool-themed Roblox game

actually, i released it a week ago, and you can find it here: FM's Indoor Pool

anyways, let's talk about what this game is, why i made it, and my general thoughts going into this.

The Sensory Room

i describe FM's Indoor Pool as a pool-themed "sensory room". a sensory room is a thing that exists in real life; basically, it's a dedicated room with a certain Atmosphere and various sensory equipment (or toys) intended for autistic people to use to de-stress, get inspired, get comfortable.

most sensory rooms you'll find are aimed at kids, but just as autistic people of all ages can enjoy stim toys and the like, so too is there a market for all age demographics for sensory rooms.

they also cost a pretty penny, i've seen them easily go for about $20k to install with individual electronic components being a few thousand each, so like, not very accessible to the average home owner, much less roblox player, and they tend to be installed at more public locations than a home, like schools and hospitals. also, as you may have guessed, most people don't have an indoor swimming pool in their house.

anyways, sensory rooms are also a whole community on roblox. they're effectively hangout games but, like real sensory rooms, tailored to a specific atmosphere and filled with all sorts of objects. they tend to be very tailored to the personal interests of the developer, and they wind up being pretty cozy experiences.

the sensory room game that has been recommended to me repeatedly over the course of years is called Angel's Sensory Room. the people in this game are very nice and chill, actually - i find that the actual sensory room features aren't all that interesting to me, but people like to have chill conversations and they get a kick out of my username.

something i notice about a lot of these sensory room roblox games is that they're very "kidcore"; a lot of their aesthetic leans on nostalgic images of childhood, daycares, kindergartens, the less upsetting parts of school, and things like this.

i'm sure they're sweet gestures for the teenagers and young adults who play this game and want to revel in being a kid again - that's fine and all, but it's not something that particularly interests me. however, i do like the cozy atmospheres these games cultivate, and some elements of this game - the physics toys for instance - are kind of captivating.

this process of seeing what parts of a game works/doesn't work for you is a great way to draw creative inspiration. not to mention this game emphasizes that what fits one person's sensory needs may not fit another, so... there's only one thing to do!

FM's Unnamed Sensory Room Game

i wanted to create a hangout game on roblox that had themed environments and physics toys, so i got to work seeing what i could cook up in studio. i had a bunch of ideas for rooms - one alien themed, one aquarium themed, one cafe themed - but the one that i had the most ideas for was a pool.

this makes sense, because a pool is pretty high of a concept and easy to work with thematically:

• what type of room is this? easy, it's a pool!
• how is the room structured? there is a large swimming pool in the middle, and narrower "dry" areas around it where people can hang out.
• what kind of themes could one associate with the room? beachy summer fun, sterility, cleanliness (well, not really, but you get the idea)
• what sensory objects could the room contain? pool floats, pool toys, things that will float in water. by adding per-player pool floats, one could become a physics object, and that's fun to bob around on. pool tiles would make for a nice visually appealing feature as well.

this is a lot to work with compared to my other room ideas, so i got straight to work on it.

something that i noticed when designing this room is that the air of pool toys and summer fun still had a sort of "childlike" atmosphere to it, but i found it a little less smothering than the kidcore; the difference between "all-ages/fun for the whole family" and "for ages 3 and up" in my eyes. i was alright with this arrangement.

i made this entire game by myself; anything i didn't model and texture myself was taken from official roblox models (like the ducks), and i did all of the building, all of the audio design, and almost all of the scripting.

(later i would add the ability to pick up objects from a free asset on the Roblox DevForum.)

besides this, i used a lot of PBR texture materials from various free libraries on the internet, such as 3D Textures and TextureCan, and all the audio files themselves come from the Roblox toolbox. there's no shame in using toolbox assets, but i am very proud of the work i did!

here is a video of me showcasing the pool rings mid-way through development:

and here is a video of an update i pushed out after the game released, allowing you to pick up various objects like the beach ball:

Conclusion

i had a lot of fun with this project, but i burnt out so hard after finishing the pool that i'm unsure if i'll return to this project. you might also be wondering about the Office Job Roleplay i mentioned in another article; this, too, has been shelved due to tedium. hopefully one day i can return to these projects.

besides that, i continue to draw on a semi-frequent basis. i maintain a Sheezy Art profile for most of my drawings, and various alternate images and unposted art can be found on my forum thread on the Eggware Forums.

here are some recommended links:

• my game, again, FM's Indoor Pool
• the game that inspired it, Angel's Sensory Room
• the website of the person who made that game, ControlCoreAngel

thanks for reading!