Description
BACK*SPACE is a liminal space exploration game inspired by many of our favorite takes of liminal space; dead malls, strange corridors, and abandoned places, analog nostalgia. I love liminal spaces myself, and so decided to create the game I wanted to play. What I love about these spaces is the idea of being alone in the unknown, lost in these strange, surreal rooms, and just being free to explore. I hope to have created rooms that are confusing enough to feel vaguely lost, but not so mazelike so as to feel like a penance. This game has no monsters, no action, no time limit, no intensity, it is intended very much to be a smooth, (mostly) quiet exploration, so action adventurers will not find that kind of satisfaction in this game. at all. BACK*SPACE has a demo version, which introduces a few of the 16 levels available and their general style. In the demo you can explore one ‘rooms’ type level, and one ‘pools’ type level, along with the tutorial and hub. Try before you buy! I would appreciate if you left me some feedback. BACK*SPACE has 16 full levels to explore, all inspired by many different aspects of liminal space. Some familiar takes, some maybe less familiar. After a brief introductory level, a main Hub allows for access to all 16 levels. In each level, there is a lost item to be found. Finding all of these items will open the ‘final’ elevator. Could it lead out of this place? Or just, to more rooms? Lost items will not always appear in the same location on every investigation, so an explorer may even enjoy multiple walks/playthroughs of the BACK*SPACE. An explorer is not required to find all of the lost items to ‘unlock’ anything except the main ‘exit’, but I hope that adding something to search for it will encourage deeper exploration, and some satisfaction of completing a goal. These lost items might be tucked away anywhere, perhaps discarded on the floor, hiding behind the furniture, or just left on the table. Are you watching closely? Some levels are slightly more ‘linear’ than others. Many rooms are dark, but your flashlight will help. A stuck explorer can save/reload and would restart at the beginning of the current level. Game Options allow for adjusting sensitivity, mouse invert, VHS/analog effects, 3 save slots, and disabling sound. Saves will store items found, current level, options set, and time played. The first area is a tutorial of sorts, that will show controls. This can be played with keyboard/mouse or Xbox controller. There is minimal audio, but listening closely may help in your search. Otherwise I might suggest playing your favorite vibe playlist and chill in the rooms. Some areas utilize some flickering fluorescent lights. It is not particularly extreme by any means, but users with photosensitivity should proceed with caution. A common complaint seen in other similar game discussions is about motion sickness due to the various VHS effects. I leaned in to the VHS, so, If you are sensitive to motion sickness, try disabling all the VHS effects and headbob settings to smooth out your walk. The motion in this game I intended to make quite smooth to minimize those kinds of effects. BACK*SPACE uses UE5 Lumen. I know it goes both ways on Lumen opinions. I also understand that it is possible that Lumen doesn’t work on certain GPUs, although I don’t know that I can be the official word on Will It Work For You. I built this whole thing on a preowned GTX 1070 8GB, so, chances are that if you are more modern than that you should have no issues. There are a few places where fps can get a little chuggy, which I hope to learn more and improve. I made this as a solo developer, obviously utilizing many commonly found assets. I have credited what I have used in game (find all the things!). I did not use AI anywhere in this project. I hope you enjoy my take on liminal space. I certainly enjoyed learning UE5 and making this. I understand the genre is a little bogged with content, but, I love the rooms, and so I made the rooms. I average about 20-30 minutes a level, and I made the rooms, so I hope that this exploration will last a wanderer around 8-12 hours if you wanted to search every room, maybe more. New hiding spots may lead you to different spaces. Game Asset and other credits are featured in-game on completion. Wanderers, let me know your feedback on how the game plays for you. I would appreciate your input on gameplay improvements.
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