Game Title: Between Places Demo 0.5

Playable Link: https://liminary-dev.itch.io/between-places-demo

Platform: Windows 11

You find yourself searching for something but never quite figure it out... until one day you wake up in the depths of The Backrooms, a seemingly never-ending hallways and rooms with yellow wallpaper, madness of mono-yellow and the feeling that you're not quite alone.

You embark on an exploratory journey across the endless liminality of the backrooms, level lobby, Level 0.3, level pipe dreams, level parking garage, and level pool rooms, in hopes you can find your way out.

Whether you survive is up to you.

Welcome to my first ever game. Between Places, a backrooms exploration-based liminal game that takes you through the different backrooms levels. Exploring isn't the only thing you'll be doing. From keeping an eye out on your sanity levels, collecting Almondwater, to completing light, simple puzzles and, discovering lost notes from other survivors or businesses.

I handcrafted all models and textures besides sfx and music, been working on this project for the past 8 months and I'm so glad to finally release it to the public.

Free to play/download

Solo Developer.

My biggest project I've ever taken on before.

The backrooms.

If you are not careful and walk in the wrong areas, you may no-clip into the backrooms: infinite, generated segmented rooms with yellow wallpaper, moist, damp brown carpet and the never-ending buzz of mono-yellow. God save you if you hear something wandering around, cause it sure heard you.

The Project.

Have you ever heard the term 'Liminal'? It's the feeling that one gets being in a place that's meant to have people, but it's devoid of any life. These places are oddly comforting but, at the same time, give an eerie feeling if you ever find yourself in a liminal space.

An empty school after everyone's gone home. Driving home in the dead of night and you're the only one on the road. An empty train station because you're out during the pandemic. The creaking of a silent forest during one of your hikes.

Liminal spaces can take any form and don't have to be a single location, but any location that you might find yourself in, questioning yourself if you really should be there.

The backrooms is one of those growing media currently, and they fit so very well with Liminal spaces. I myself have sunk many hours of my life into watching anything backrooms related besides of obvious slop. I don't know exactly what about it, but I just love and enjoy liminal spaces eerie and unsettling vibes they give, so the backrooms was up my alley.

Turning The Backrooms Into A Game.

Since I was in school, I've always wanted to make a game... but never understood how to, let alone what is involved to making one, plus at the time, it wasn't as easy as it is now with all the tutorials there are.

At what point did I want to actually start making a game?

Well it was around 9 months ago; it was mid-November, and I discovered the backrooms once again, this time, there was a ton of content on the subject, and fell into the rabbit hole of the backrooms. And then discovered people were making games on the backrooms. I was like, I can do that too can't I?

Not long after I discovered people were making games from the most popular rising creepy pasta to date, but I also began watching YouTuber who played these games, from 8BitRyan, Insym, Unpeopled and, SMii7Y just to name a few creators, I really started wanting to actually make a game but the desire still wasn't 100% enough to push me to start.

So what did tip me over the edge?

Two games... yes two backrooms games was the final straw that pushed me to actually start making a game.

Escape The Backrooms

The Complex: Expadition

These two games are what really sold me into the idea I can do it too and these very games are the main inspirations I used to build upon my own creation.

Escape The Backrooms

A liminal horror game based on the popular backrooms concept, a game about escaping the backrooms, through different levels, your task is to find the exist while either being chased by entities, figuring out a puzzle or both. One of the most popular and well liked backrooms game there is currently.

The Complex: Expadition

An exploration based backrooms game based off the popular youtuber creator "Kane Pixels" who is also behind being the director of the A24 studio's "The Backrooms" Movie. The game follows a big chunk of Kane Pixels backrooms youtube series, apart of a group of researches who gets lost in the backrooms and has to find their way out by exploring the liminal city the backrooms provides.

My Backrooms Game

My game takes several features from both games and make it into my own, as well as building upon it with my own unique feature. I didn't want my game to become just another slop game that many people create to hop onto the wagon of backrooms profitability, I wanted to ensure I put as much effort, time and details as I can for my first game title.

Game Type

Exploration Based with light simple puzzles.

I've never made a game before, thus wanted to manage my own expectations for what can, could and possible to create.

I enjoy a game with monsters and entities in them, but....

as stated in the beginning, I love liminal and eerie places, so I made exploration of liminal spaces the base type for my game.

While there will not be anything directly "chasing" you, there will be the odd feeling of being watched or the feeling of not being alone.

Game Features

With my base type being exploration, I had to come up with features that make my game a bit more enjoyable and slightly different from the many other backrooms games there are out there.

Here is a run down of all the features so far in my game.

Sanity

Over time, the backrooms messes with your mind, making you go crazy, you must manage your sanity levels through out your exploration of the backrooms, ensuring you keep an eye out and collect one or both of the two items that help keep your sanity at a reasonable level.

Almond Water & Howler Bar

Sanity Punishment System

As you play, you'll notice a visual cue that your sanity is running low, if you hit 0, you'll collapse and wake up in a place you've been before, but with only half total Sanity.

If you fall into a pit, you'll respawn with half your sanity.

If you fail a type of puzzle, you'll respawn at the start of the puzzle with a small amount of sanity lost.

Alt Routes

Single direction might not always be the main path you can take to reach the next level, often, levels will split, allowing you to explore a wider range of liminal and eerie places. Not all levels have alt routes but some will, so be sure to explore every inch!

Note System

Littered throughout the levels are lost letters/notes from previous survivors or from a exploration business, while still a wip, they'll add to the lore of my game, allowing you to see what others may have experienced inside the backrooms.

Light/Simple Puzzles

Sure exploring can be fun and exciting, but, how much can you take before you get sick of exploring? This is where simple puzzles come into the mix. These aren't going to be everywhere or hard, the goal is to have these puzzles break up from the exploration part, giving the player to do something other than walking. The current section of puzzles is quite small, from the pits puzzle, nearly blind path puzzle and find the switches puzzle, these will surely add to the game. I plan to add more but for now those are the ones active in my game.

Inventory System

A simple inventory to keep your items.

Built In Tutorial Zone

Notes pinned to the walls of the starting zone, created in a way that merges the tutorial into the world, making it feel like it's warning others who come here.

Null Zone Doors

One of my only (so far) unique features I've began to add, currently there is just one. What are Null Zone doors? A Null zone is basically a patch of area that you can 'No-clip' through. How this works is, you'll discover a room with a set amount of doors on a raised platform, none that are connected to any walls, each of these doors once entered will take you to an unexplored area of the level you're in and it's a one way trip, so you need to ensure you pick the right door, once you go through, you can't go back. However for the demo, you can return back.

I plan to add more beyond the demo once I make more levels.

Game Stage

I've been silently working on my game for the past 8 months, I haven't shared it much before because I wasn't sure how long I'd stick with this new project, however at this point I'm going all the way so here I am.

Not too long ago, I've sent out to a few people a test demo build for play testing. Over that week, I worked with these testers to listen to their input, issues and bugs they've experienced and for the most part was a great learning chance for me for my first game.

With test playing is over, I'm currently working on final fixes and changes to my game for the upcoming actual demo release of my game.

Besides SFX, Music and 1 texture, All assets, Models and Textures were made by hand by me.

Expected Demo Release Date: I hope to get things done and released within the next 2 weeks starting from today's date, Thursday, 6th of August 2026.

I've not long ago, I granted a few people a test build of my game, with lots of bugs and stuff pointed out and fixed, one of the claims by a test player is that the chocolate bar I made for my game was a bit plain.

So I decided to remodel and redesign my chocolate bar to better reflect the visuals of my game, so here it is, the All-New Howler Bar.

I decided, modeled and textured the thing myself.

And yeah the item is consumable.

P.S Yeah I'm aware of the word 'Bactira' isn't spelled as 'Bacteria'. Spelling has already been corrected, I suck at spelling sometimes lmao

I'm currently working on creating notes for a game I'm making and plan to add these notes in my level/s for players to find and read.

I don't know where to correctly post these to get feedback so here I am.

My writing and spelling can suck at times, having said that, I would like some feedback.

please be constructive, if you just gonna point out flaws then please keep your opinion to yourself.

For a bit of background, I'm working on an exploration based backrooms game, and creating a bit of lore and survivor notes, hope this context helps.

Hey all, I've come a long way throughout my journey, and making my very first game using Unreal Engine 5 so far has been a lot of fun.

For those of you who don't know, over the last 8 or so months, I've been working on developing my very first game, an exploration backrooms-styled game where you find yourself inside the backrooms and forced to wander different levels, discovering lore, mini puzzles and trying to find your way out.

I know a lot of people could make what I've done in a very short period of time, however, I only been working on it during my free time, plus, all models and textures we made by me, besides the sounds, one of my goals was to make everything myself as much as possible without using someone else's pre-made creations, it's a challenge I set for myself.

With my update, I've completed the layout of all my levels for the demo, and as we speak, I am working on smaller parts of my game such as small additions and fixes from a list I made I need to do before play testing can start.

I don't know how good my game will be to other people and I don't expect it to be the best game in the world because after all.. this is my first game so I can't set my expectations high.. just wanted to share this in hopes to inspire you that if you don't have experience making a game... you still can make a game and you should give it a try.

Once I get some of the smaller important stuff done/fixed for a playtest, then I'll be releasing the name of my game as it's been a name I took the time to create without copying what other people use.. so it's something I am proud of and want to share it once the time is right.

For those who are wondering, steam requires about 100 bucks to post a game regardless if it's a demo or a full release, so I plan to release the demo on itch.io and then the full release on steam... well that's the goal anyways. Anyways, enjoy the images of parts of my pool rooms.

Some features of my game.

- Sanity
- Sanity loss if you decide to jump into a pit of darkness and other times if you fail a puzzle.
- Almond water and chocolate bars to restore your sanity.
- Alt routes to explore
- Find and discover notes, lore related or from previous wonders.
- Door Rooms, discover a room with a select number of doors, each door you pass will take you to a different area of that current level that's undiscovered.
- Small simple puzzles.

Again I'm a newbie to game creation so my features may not be grand but for a walking simulator.. it's better than having nothing.

My two biggest inspirations to make my own backrooms game are from two games, "The Complex Expedition" and "Escape The Backrooms"

Hello, I'm Liminary, a first time solo developer who's creating their first game! I've been working on my exploration-based backrooms game for the past 7 months in my spare time.

Currently trying to finish up making the demo for my game, but for now I wanted to share with you a small piece of my game. We are looking inside the pool rooms level.

Keep in mind it's a work in progress, needs polishing so it's still rough around the edges.

I hope you like what you see.

Heyo, I'm making a backrooms exploration-based walking simulator. Now, before you get all worked up about another backrooms game, you don't have to play it. That being said, I'm highly working on a detailed game that focuses on exploration, notes, and oddities, with a little bit of light puzzles in the mix.

For those who don't know, I'm a complete noob when it comes to making games and this is my first game, but that doesn't stop me from trying at making a game around a creepypasta I enjoy.

Moving on, here are some updates. I'm currently working on the pool rooms, the final level for my demo, I'm about 90% done. I'm sure I'm far from being perfect so please forgive me for a game that might be lacking in your eyes.

One of the core features for my game, are door oddities, you might discover a room with a few doors in line. Entering one of these doors will take you to a random unexplored location and this is a one way trip so you must pick wisely. A door might take you to a relaxing place, while another might take you to a dark version of the level you're in with a few more dangers, such as toxic water.

Why a walking simulator? Well it's one of the most basic forms of games that's beginner-friendly, and the backrooms pretty much is one of the most suitable styles for a walking simulator. You don't have to play my game but I'd be glad if you did. Demo/release info will be released once any issues are sorted with play testing.

There are still things that need to be done before I'm demo/playtesting ready but I hope you like my work so far. Also keep in mind that all textures and assets in my game are hand crafted by me. No A i was used to make these textures and or assets.

Hey all. I'm back again with some more snaps and I am happy to say that completing pipe dreams is pretty much done, I'd say 99% done at this point.

For those who don't know, I am a newbie game dev and I'm creating my first game, it's an exploration-based backrooms game.

While my game will be exploration-based, I do however want to include little bits of other tasks while exploring, mini puzzles just to break away from the exploration part.

Ok now onto the dev log.

In order to escape Pipe dreams, you must find the elevator, but blocking your path is a metal gate that seems to need power to unlock. As you explore pipe dreams and the parking garages, you might discover power boxes with a red pull lever. You must find and pull all 6 levers throughout in order to power the gate! Remember, it must be all 6 and in any order you wish.

As for everything else, I got to polish off parts of the level, cull assets and such and then I can move onto the next level. Pool rooms.

Edit: The power boxes will NOT be line like the first image, it's just an example. And I've already changed the texture of the metal gate.

Hello, I'm in the process of making my first game. Just to be brief, it's an exploration-based Backrooms game. I am going to start modeling the pool rooms, and I wondered what you think of the tiling texture I made myself.

Would broken tiles suit? How about grunge? Not 100% sure atm, thought I'd ask the community.

P.S: These shots are test shots, tiles placed on roughly placed cubes. I've already set my texture to be world-aligned.

I had to redo level 0 and my original main menu featured part of my old level 0, so I decided to give my main menu a face lift.

Just wanted to know what you think of it.

Info:

- I already have a name for my backrooms game, not ready to release it just yet so please excuse the "Game Name" place holder. All I can say is that my game name will not use the word 'backrooms' as that seems to be the go to word for backrooms games.

- The PC monitor has a flickering screen.

- Eerie music plays while on the main menu.

- Might add a light flicker that plays every so often.

Run down of each button for those who are a little confused. I wanted to set up some cool unique names for my buttons instead of the typical "new game" title.

- Re-Clip: Resume gameplay.

- No-Clip: New game.

- Clipboard: Settings.

- Reality: Quit Game.