The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI

It also very much ties in with the shared SCP universe, which itself has a number of Backrooms-like anomalies, such as SCP-3008 (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3008), which is like a typical IKEA, except its maze of twisty passages run to infinity.

▲ Wojtkie an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I am also going to call out House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a really interesting book that explores a house that is slightly larger on the inside than the outside. It explores a lot of liminal spaces and has a really interesting format in print.

	▲	nlawalker 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>House of Leaves And then from there back to another game: MyHouse.wad, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyHouse.wad

▲ hoherd an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Speaking of relevant games, there's also a Roblox game that my son has been into called Backrooms With Guns, and now I understand it a lot more.

https://en.namu.wiki/w/The%20Backrooms%20With%20Guns

I see others have mentioned Superliminal too, which was great.

▲ tsumnia 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I mean if we're trying to source where "liminal space" started, I'd like to add Portal and Portal 2 into the mix. It didn't have the surreal, creepy components because jump scare horror games like Five Nights hadn't been popularized yet but the entire second area of Portal 2 where you're introduced to Cave Johnson and the older Aperture Science HQ is very much "liminal".

If we want to go deeper, then I really think its Earthbound's absurdist take on childhood adventures with cultists, ghosts, dreamscapes, etc. but I think at that point I might as well say dice games influenced things.

	▲	frmersdog 12 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think it's too far to include Earthbound. After all, `You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' attack!`

▲ thunderfork 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The Stanley Parable definitely plays with non-euclidean and liminal spaces - the room in the screenshot being one such example.

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amiga386 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It does, but its main focus is ludonarrative dissonance, which is why Control would be a better example (along with games that specifically invoke Backrooms lore, like POOLS)

	▲	cestith 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I was actually a little surprised there was no mention of Escape the Backrooms, although I suppose The Stanley Parable is a better-known game.

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taeric 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Reminds me how much fun Superliminal was. Might have to get that another play through. :D

▲ busfahrer 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> which is like a typical IKEA, except its maze of twisty passages run to infinity.

For the 4 people on HN who don't know, "maze of twisty passages" is a reference to the this (the?) text adventure game:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure