Liminal space games: the places in between

A liminal space is a place made for passing through, shown empty: a hallway at night, a closed mall, an indoor pool with nobody in it. The feeling is calm and slightly wrong. Liminal space games let you walk those places and notice what is off.

How liminal spaces became a meme

"Liminal" means in between. Photos of empty transitional places spread as an aesthetic around 2019 and 2020, on Reddit, Twitter and TikTok. The Backrooms, from a 2019 post of an endless yellow office, became the best-known example. The Poolrooms, endless tiled pools, followed.

Games picked it up fast. The Exit 8 (2023) has you walk a looping subway corridor and turn back if anything changed. Pools (2024) is a quiet walk through endless pool rooms. Most liminal games have little or no combat. The tension comes from the space.

What makes a liminal game work

Real places, a bit off. Familiar rooms with one wrong detail are scarier than monsters.
Sound. Hum of lights, dripping water, far echoes. Silence does a lot.
Repetition. Loops and same-looking rooms make you doubt your memory.
A small goal. Find the exit, a lost toy or a door number, so walking has a point.

Liminal games on Roam

DREAMPOOL is a poolrooms walk: endless white tiles, warm water and a lost toy somewhere ahead. Welcome Home, Dear repeats the same house every day until something changes. It runs for 21 days, and each day you check the house for what is off. Pay Per Step is a liminal office mystery clicker. For your own, describe the place and the rule, and edit by talking: "dimmer lights", "add one anomaly per loop".

Play it on Roam

Make your own liminal space game with Roam

Describe an empty place and what changes. Roam builds the walk, and you can send it to friends. Roam is rated 13+ on the App Store.

Try: "liminal mall at 3am, empty escalators and a fountain, spot one change per loop, wrong answer resets the loop, find exit 8"

Create it with Roam Pre-register on Android See Roam

Roam ("Roam - Make Games" on the App Store) is an iPhone app where you play games and make your own by describing them or from a photo. It is free to download and play, and making games works without a subscription; optional Spark and Reality plans and credit packs add more creation. Android: pre-register on Google Play.

Questions people ask

What is a liminal space?

A transitional place, like a hallway, lobby or empty pool, shown empty so it feels strange.

Are liminal space games scary?

Many are calm and eerie rather than scary. Most have no monsters or gore.

What are good liminal space games?

The Exit 8 and Pools are well known. On Roam, try DREAMPOOL and Welcome Home, Dear.