Bit Golem Announces Pool of Madness

Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here: A game called Pool of Madness that isn’t about any body of water once I’ve entered it? Well, Bit Golem, you’ve got my attention! Bit Golem, developers of the VR horror game Dagon: by H.P. Lovecraft, have announced their next title, which they’re also self-publishing. It’s Pool of Madness, and Bit Golem described it in a press release as “a Lovecraftian Rogue-lite pool [game] with guns” where you’ll “shoot some balls. Unleash horrors from beyond. Go insane. Try again.”

Here’s what the press release says: “Imagine Balatro and Inscryption had a baby. That taught itself to play pool. With bullets. In Hell. Complete rituals to lure out void beasts. Lose your mind. Reforge your ever-evolving cue, return stronger, and slay them for loot. The pool tables are altars. The cue and the gun: instruments of the liturgy.”

Some of the gameplay aspects Pool of Madness will purportedly feature include the following: “seamless cue-gun interplay for addictive flow, procedurally generated rituals, chain reactions, multipliers, [with] blood fountains[,] and skull explosions included.” Bit Golem plans to launch Pool of Madness in Early Access sometime in 2026.

I’m still processing that bit about Balatro and Inscryption having a baby. I’m sure Jimbo the Joker probably gets around quite a lot, but I’d prefer not to think about his escapades when he’s not mocking me for losing a run of Balatro that I was just one more hand away from winning. Pool of Madness has an Early Access release date listed as “2026” as of the time of writing. Bit Golem has slightly narrowed that down to “Q3/Q4 2026,” though of course, that’s barring any potential delays. You can wishlist Pool of Madness on Steam now if you’re interested.