EGX 2018: This Is Pool Hands-On Preview

On Saturday at EGX, I was lucky enough to get my hands on the preview of This Is Pool, the new upcoming game from developers VooFoo Studios following on from the likes of Pure Pool and Mantis Burn Racing to name a few.

VooFoo Studios were showcasing This Is Pool at EGX on consoles for the first time and straight away it caught my attention, they were running a competition to win t-shirts so the stand had a lot of buzz around it; you had to either clear the table within a set time or pot a ball on each shot to win the “This Is Pool” t-shirt and the overall best score over the weekend would win their name in the game, I tried and I failed but had fun all the same.

Whilst I was at the stand and my son was trying his best to win the t-shirt, I had the pleasure of speaking with Shaun (Creative Director) and Kirsty (Junior Programmer) and I honestly could have spent all day talking to these guys, the passion for the game and gaming in general just oozes out of them and it’s contagious. As my son was playing I thought it would be a great time for me to pick the brains of Kirsty to delve a bit deeper into the game itself, first off the look of the game impressed me, now I am a keen pool player in real life and on computers and I can say I’ve not seen a game look this good; I was very impressed to see reflections coming off the balls and even the grain detail of the cue was top notch.

Kirsty told me of other key points of the graphics such as slight scuff marks to the white ball over time and key details to the playing environment all clicking in together to give the overall polished look to the game.

Well, after a lengthy discussion, I felt it was time for me to roll my sleeves up and have a go myself. Now, as I said earlier, I failed in epic style to hit the target for the t-shirt but moving on from that, the game itself played well, as this was only a preview demo they were just showing the mini-games. One was clear the table game and the other was a dead ball game (a ball must be potted on each shot).

When playing these I was impressed that despite it being a preview build I saw no bugs or glitches and felt very smooth, the controls were quite quick to pick up and for me, that enabled me to enjoy the game more. Speaking with Kirsty some more she informed me that with all being well they are looking at a quarter one 2019 release and so far to me it all looks very good, I just can’t wait to see the finished product. The passion and drive of the VooFoo team are infectious and it shines through on the game giving a fully polished end product.

I really enjoyed my time spent playing This Is Pool, it feels a great game, it feels something that would be relatively easy to pick up but would be very hard to put down. I am really looking forward to seeing the future for this game and getting my hands on the final and definitive version of the game!

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