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.
reply>House of Leaves
replyAnd then from there back to another game: MyHouse.wad, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyHouse.wad
Haven't played that yet though I heard it really helps if you are fan of the series and read the books as the game will make more sense that way.
replyInterestingly, this video analysis of Control (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VII76R36GWw) claims Remedy was inspired by House of Leaves, and notes the similarity between "Ash Tree Lane" where the House of Leaves is set, and the "Ash Tray Maze" in Control.
replyJust seeing a few images of the book's pages in this video, yeah it seems like a really interesting book that plays with the novel format directly.
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.
replyhttps://en.namu.wiki/w/The%20Backrooms%20With%20Guns
I see others have mentioned Superliminal too, which was great.
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".
replyIf 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.
I don't think it's too far to include Earthbound. After all,
reply You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' attack!> which is like a typical IKEA, except its maze of twisty passages run to infinity.
replyFor the 4 people on HN who don't know, "maze of twisty passages" is a reference to the this (the?) text adventure game:
The Stanley Parable definitely plays with non-euclidean and liminal spaces - the room in the screenshot being one such example.
replyIt 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)
replyI was actually a little surprised there was no mention of Escape the Backrooms, although I suppose The Stanley Parable is a better-known game.
replyReminds me how much fun Superliminal was. Might have to get that another play through. :D
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