The Rise of Liminal Spaces in Gaming: Exploring In-Between Worlds

Video games have always challenged our imagination and blurred the lines between reality and fantasy. One of the coolest trends emerging in gaming right now is the exploration of liminal spaces. These are those eerie, in-between environments that feel both familiar and disorienting—like you're stepping into a dream or a memory that’s just out of reach. This genre taps into deep emotional vibes, mixing a sense of curiosity and nostalgia with a dash of unease that keeps players on edge.

But what exactly makes liminal spaces so intriguing, and how do games bring these mind-bending atmospheres to life? Let’s dive into the fascinating world of liminal spaces, connect them to concepts like the uncanny valley and the simulation hypothesis, and check out two standout games that perfectly capture this captivating genre.

Understanding Liminal Spaces: The Allure of the In-Between

“Liminal” originates from the Latin word limen, meaning threshold. In essence, liminal spaces are transitional spaces that don’t belong entirely to any one realm, like staircases, hallways, empty malls, or vacant hotel corridors. These areas represent the “in-between,” neither here nor there, and while they are ordinary in real life, they can feel profoundly strange and surreal when left empty or unexplained (Chien, 2022).

In gaming, these spaces become far more than just background scenery. They are symbolic zones of tension and transformation, as players move between distinct worlds or states of being. The psychological impact of liminal spaces is heightened because they evoke familiarity without a specific memory attached, creating an eerie, disorienting effect that some psychologists compare to the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is a theory where things that appear almost human, but not quite, evoke a sense of unease in us (Smith & Huang, 2021). Similarly, liminal spaces are environments that look familiar yet feel disconcertingly “off.” But why do these spaces unsettle us so much? Is it because they might suggest a glitch in reality?

This leads us to the simulation hypothesis, a philosophical and scientific proposal that our reality might be an artificial simulation. Liminal spaces in video games feel eerily artificial, like sets that are both convincing and flawed, as if we’re wandering through places the designers left unfinished or deliberately mysterious. If reality itself were a simulation, what if the empty hotel hallway or abandoned school we encounter is just a “loading zone” in the larger, unseen architecture of existence?

Liminal Spaces in Video Games: Bringing the Genre to Life

To understand how video games have innovatively used liminal spaces, let’s look at two titles that turn the uncanny into an immersive experience: Control and The Backrooms Game.

1. Control: Discovering the Oldest House

Developed by Remedy Entertainment, Control is a mind-bending action-adventure game that dives deep into the mysteries of liminal spaces. The game’s protagonist, Jesse Faden, arrives at the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) to search for her missing brother and ends up as the bureau’s new director. The FBC building, known as the “Oldest House,” is a constantly shifting skyscraper that defies the laws of physics and logic. It is an architectural marvel of liminal space.

The Oldest House is a place that exists in the "in-between," mirroring real-life buildings but with unsettling alterations. Corridors that lead nowhere, rooms that appear and disappear, and shifting architecture evoke a dream-like state, where even the most ordinary spaces feel extraordinary. This creates a heightened sense of psychological tension, forcing players to question the very fabric of reality within the game. In one section, you may find yourself in an office filled with outdated 1960s-style furniture, only to walk through a door and emerge into a completely different setting. With every step, you feel as though you’re peeling back layers of reality, walking through a psychological limbo.

As players navigate this shifting world, they may ask themselves, “If reality itself has layers, are we ever truly certain of what’s real?” Control brings this question to the forefront as players are constantly reminded that the rules of the game (and reality) can change at any moment. The Oldest House is the ultimate embodiment of a liminal space—a place that cannot be fully known or understood, only experienced.

2. The Backrooms Game: Trapped in an Endless Void

Inspired by a popular internet creepypasta, The Backrooms Game is a horror experience that encapsulates the unease of being trapped in a liminal space. The concept of the Backrooms is simple but terrifying: it’s a never-ending series of yellow, monotonous office corridors, buzzing with flickering fluorescent lights and an eerie, oppressive silence. There are no windows, no exits, and nothing to mark time or progress. You, the player, are lost in this repetitive maze, unsure if you’re alone or being watched by some unseen entity.

The Backrooms taps into the dread of empty spaces and infinite repetition, amplifying the extreme psychological impact of liminal spaces. The monotony creates a surreal, almost dream-like quality, as if you’re stuck in a nightmarish version of reality. In The Backrooms Game, players are left to wonder: What if there is no escape? What if these spaces exist beyond time and logic, waiting to trap anyone who stumbles upon them? This psychological aspect is what makes the Backrooms so terrifying—its emptiness feels infinite, an endless limbo.

The Backrooms also relates to the simulation hypothesis because it feels like a glitch in the system, an error in the game's “design.” When faced with an endless, unchanging environment, players can’t help but wonder: Is this world just a construction? The Backrooms game suggests that liminal spaces may indeed be “forgotten” parts of reality, left behind in the background of existence.

Liminal Spaces, Uncanny Valley, and the Simulation Hypothesis: Why Do These Concepts Resonate with Each other?

eSo why do these unsettling spaces keep drawing us back in? In a way, liminal spaces, the uncanny valley, and the simulation hypothesis are all connected by a shared fascination with the boundaries of our perception (Wilson, 2020). When we encounter an empty hallway or an abandoned mall in a game, it may resemble places we know, but something about them feels “off,” as though they’re mirroring a memory but not quite replicating it. Psychologists suggest this discomfort could be our brain’s way of signaling that something isn’t right, that we’re looking at a piece of reality that doesn’t fully “compute.”

Liminal spaces in games force us to question the nature of reality itself. Are these spaces merely transitions, or do they hint at a more profound mystery? If reality were indeed a simulation, then perhaps these spaces are like “loading screens” or “in-between zones,” designed to disorient us and hide the limits of our world.

The Lost Gamers Club

Let’s face it: every gamer has had that moment where they accidentally wander into a “liminal” part of a game. You’re just trying to follow the main storyline, and suddenly, you’re lost in a maze of identical hallways or glitched textures, wondering if you’ve stumbled into some developer’s forgotten level or a realm beyond the map. Maybe you start thinking, “What if I’m not supposed to be here? Did I just uncover a secret part of the game?” This usually ends with a frantic Google search: How to get out of the infinite stairwell in Level 7.

Gamers have a sense of humor about these moments, sharing stories of accidentally finding themselves in strange, liminal areas of games as if they’ve been inducted into a “Lost Gamers Club.” It’s like a rite of passage, discovering these eerie spaces that defy game logic. After all, what’s more exciting (or nerve-wracking) than discovering you’re stuck in a forgotten part of the game map, trapped in a place that, according to game design, shouldn’t even exist?

The Future of Liminal Spaces in Gaming: A New Frontier for Storytelling

Liminal spaces offer developers a unique storytelling tool, bridging the gap between reality and imagination in a way that resonates deeply with players. As games continue to experiment with realistic graphics, open worlds, and complex AI, liminal spaces might become even more prevalent, capturing our fascination with the unknown. Developers can use these spaces to evoke feelings of nostalgia, unease, and curiosity, allowing players to question not just the in-game world but reality itself.

What’s intriguing about this trend is that it opens up a philosophical angle in gaming. By placing us in these in-between spaces, games encourage us to explore existential questions that go beyond mere gameplay. For instance:

• If reality had glitches, would we even recognize them?

• Do liminal spaces in games represent hidden realms in our own world?

• Could our love for virtual liminal spaces indicate a subconscious longing to explore unknown dimensions?

As gamers, we are part of a culture that thrives on exploration and curiosity, eager to push the boundaries of what is known and unknown. The appeal of liminal spaces lies in their ability to reflect this spirit, presenting us with worlds that defy explanation and inviting us to get lost—if only for a little while.

Liminal spaces are quickly becoming one of the most compelling genres in gaming, capturing our fascination with the strange, the familiar-yet-unfamiliar, and the questions that arise when we confront reality’s edges. Games like Control and The Backrooms Game don’t just use liminal spaces for atmosphere; they turn them into essential aspects of storytelling and player immersion. These spaces make us question the nature of reality, the possibilities of the simulation hypothesis, and what it means to experience something that feels “almost” real.

For gamers, liminal spaces offer a new kind of adventure—not one of epic battles or heroic quests but of navigating the unknown, the unsettling, and the strangely beautiful. Perhaps, in this exploration of the in-between, we may just find answers to questions about ourselves and our world that we didn’t even know we were asking!?

References

Chien, K. (2022). Liminal spaces in video games: The uncanny and the unknown. Journal of Virtual Reality Studies, 15(3), 243-258.

Smith, R., & Huang, M. (2021). The eerie allure of the uncanny valley in digital spaces. International Journal of Psychological Phenomena, 9(1), 56-72.

Wilson, T. (2020). Game design and the simulation hypothesis: Reality, liminal spaces, and digital worlds. Game Studies Review, 18(2), 90-104.