Pollen Update V81 - Landscape/Movement

Hey everyone,

We’ve been working on some exciting updates to make Pollen even better, and we’re thrilled to share them with you!

First up, the big one: the game has switched from portrait to landscape orientation.

Why the change? We’ve been rethinking how Pollen feels as you explore its worlds, and landscape mode just fits. It gives you a wider, more immersive view and feels like the natural way to experience the game.

But that’s not all—we’ve also made an important tweak to the movement controls.

Exploration is a core part of Pollen, but we know that diving into 3D movement can feel overwhelming at first. To make things more approachable, new players will now default to horizontal movement only. This makes navigating the beautiful worlds more forgiving and less stressful while you get used to the controls. We felt the most intuitive horizontal movement control would take advantage of prebuilt muscle memory, and have designed horizontal movement to mimic turning a steering wheel.

For those of you looking for a deeper challenge, advanced players can toggle on an additional axis of vertical movement. This unlocks more complex navigation and allows you to explore in all directions.

We’re so excited about these updates because they reflect what Pollen is all about: creating a relaxing, accessible, and rewarding journey for everyone. As always, we’d love to hear what you think—let us know how these changes feel when you jump back in!

See you out there,

The Pollen Team