1. Game's Generation

First things first - if you want to build a game thats based on survival, then a random map generation is a great idea. This is what keeps people coming back to your game because everytime your project creates a completely random map, and no one is absolutely sure whats coming next, where will they spawn, are there lots of big rooms, etc. Overall this technique is used to make Minecraft for example - people will never know what structure they will encounter next.

2. Different Levels

Adding a ton of different levels to your liminal space game is another good thing, as talked about Minecraft - Minecraft has lots of biomes and they quite differ from each other just like backrooms levels. Every level has its own fantasy, architecture and even a creature (also called entity).

3. Game Sounds

Just by giving your game an ambiance noise is already brilliant, because especially in horror genre our ears work as eyes, they can detect the good and evil. If you are building a liminal space game without any monsters, one of the tricks you can use is to keep the game pretty quiet for a while and then out of nowhere add a disturbing sound or ambiance to the game, as people are thinking that rest of the game is probably gonna be the same but it really isn't. As mentioned, sound is really important in horror games, it makes the experience feel more alive and threatening.

4. Style

Of course, for most people, the contributor to creepiness is graphics. A highly graphical game can make you feel like you are actually there (in the game) and experiencing horrible situations. A realistic entity can make you feel like it actually exists in our world + fight-or-flight response kicks in harder when we see something lifelike. So, overall people prefer more realistic graphics rather a cartoonish-looking rabbit hole. Also it would be awesome if you put a VHS style setting to the game, the VHS style is like your main character's camera where he records this terrible situation where he has ended up, but that's only my suggestion.

5. Game's Structure

Backrooms is highly known for its weird architecture: you can have just one random small hole in a huge room, stairs being on the walls, really tight spaces and more bizarre stuff. Rooms likes these are almost essential for it to be a real liminal space game.

6. Details

No level in the other reality is completely blank, it could have some of the most random objects just laying on the ground, somewhere really high up, or even attached to something, like walls. Putting random items to your backrooms levels is another spectacular idea, increasing your project's fantasy and making it feel more alive for players. Adding a random spawn to the objects makes it basically 100% complete (also talked in the first paragraph ("1. Game's Generation")), but you could include one more thing with these items - making them interactable, because in backrooms you can still touch things and interact with them, but its totally your choice.

7. Movement

The graphics of a game is like a mental side - its completely still, but now comes the actions which are physical. You could make an entity's brain full of logic, if you have lots coding knowledge, then you can make living things move like they take action in real life. Programming a monster's movement is the next level scariness, even though the creature doesn't exist in real life - it can still drag a human being to a point of concern, that maybe if the monster existed - it would have the exact movements like in the game.

8. Entities

Entities or monsters aren't required for a game like this but it would be fantastic concept for your game to have a creature or couple. Its the most important thing to have a monster in a horror game because they can bring the unpleasentness the most, and can do alot of things like - jumpscaring, chasing you, make horrible sounds, bring lore to the game and even more. In conclusion, having a monster in your horror experience is a step ahead. The good thing is that you can just look for a backrooms monster and import the model in your platform (whether in Blender or somewhere else). Dozens of creatures have been already created by people, so hard work is not required - its your game and choice.

9. Story

I mean, like any other backrooms video or game, at a random point of time you just noclip trough the floor, falling in the unknown or start the game and just straight spawn in the backrooms without an intro on have you even got there. Thats actually a good thing, because backrooms is just like that - out of nowhere you fall trough the floor and end up there. If you don't have a big imagination or ideas on have you wanna start your intro on the game, then just do that. I would make an intro where your character has done something bad to someone or something, and then comes the backrooms to take you to the deep void - its an example of a game called "The Backrooms 1998", you should check it out here. In general, a story is not mandatory to a liminal space game but it would give lots of lore to the experience and increase people's attention to your project.

10. What Game Engine?

First of all, what will your game look like, what style will it have - if it focuses on realism then Unreal Engine 5 is highly recommended - its one of the best realistic game builder platforms today and has also visual scripting which is beginner-friendly + the more advanced C++ language. If you are a beginner, looking for a game making career and don't want to use UE5, then Roblox Studio is recommended. Even though Roblox is game platform with blocky characters, you can completely remove its blockiness. You can also get and make a realistic field, house, car or monster just by looking after the right materials - In 2024 Roblox Studio lets you import lots of different real lifelike textures and materials, making your game look like its not even from that platform. Comparing Roblox Studio's code logic to Unity is quite easier to understand, and overall you pretty much have everything already built in - the server, server storage, player, etc. The best game maker platform is unknown, so do your search and look for something thats suits the best your needs. Also if you are learning to code and make games, then just start building your game instead of going to Youtube and watch other people teach you how to build games. The thing is that if you watch these tutorial videos, there are possibilities you'll get stuck and coming back to these videos will keep you away from actually learning.